| What Did Your Garden Have for Lunch? |
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Being a bit of a "foodie" I am always curious what one's most recent meal was and even what food your garden had! Native Santa Fe area soil is notorious for generally being low in organic matter resulting in low nitrogen and phosphorous levels. Soil nutritional levels can be improved significantly by simply amending the soil. I primarily like to use locally sourced, live organic compost and cover crops to feed my soil and then enhance with specific trace nutrients as needed.
Not only is feeding your soil the most essential to plant (garden) nutrition, it also vastly improves your soil texture and therefore increases the soil's ability to absorb and retain water. Rodale and others have decades of studies showing that adequate plant (garden) nutrition results in hardier, more vigorous plants. For edibles this means higher nutritional value. Healthy plants also develop deeper, more extensive root systems, which are able to source more available water away from the vulnerable surface where up to 70% of water can evaporate.
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