What you put into your soil directly relates to what you get out of it. The better your soil, the better your fruits. Feed your soil and it will feed you. You get where I am going here, right? If you can’t remember when the last time you worked in any compost or soil conditioner into your garden, and you also can’t remember when the last time was that you had true success growing anything in your garden, it’s time to take a look at how those two things are related.

Soil Amending With Compost and Soil Conditioners.

FoxFarm soil products are a great way to start building healthy soil for your plants, whether in the ground or in containers.

You should be adding compost or soil conditioner or a mix of the two each time you plant, which for most of us would be two times a year, in spring and fall. Adding high quality compost and soil conditioners to your beds and working it into your existing soil begins to build you an incredible foundation and growing habitat for your plants.

Most of us here in San Antonio do not have ideal soil for gardening. We must amend and amend and amend…AMEN. But if you get in the habit of working in the good stuff each season, you will find that your workload lessens each time. 

All composts and soil conditioners are not created equally. (Note the previous advice to add “high quality” products.) How do you know if your compost/soil conditioner is high quality or not? Smell it. Yep, that’s right, smell it. (Or trust our advice when we steer you towards premium products from FoxFarm.) Composting is a scientific process and it true compost must be “cooked” to completion. If your compost smells like poop, it simply hasn’t been cooked thoroughly enough. Get ready for me to shamelessly plug FoxFarm products. I do so, because I know so.

5 Reasons Why Rainbow Gardens (and all their employees) Love FoxFarm Soil Products.

Soil tests just don’t lie. We’ve conducted multiple tests ove the years and FoxFarm soils won’t let anyone take the number one spot away from them.

1. FoxFarm Soil & Fertilizer Company cooks their products completely, triple washing products to achieve a low salt content, and even blend some products by hand, checking for quality each step of the way.
2. FoxFarm soil products are filled to the brim with the finest quality, natural ingredients.
3. FoxFarm Soil & Fertilizer Company is “dedicated to promoting an ecological balance and the environmental restoration of our planet.”
4. FoxFarm soil products just make growing everything, easier! They take everything you need, all the nutrients you would need to add to your soil to build the perfect growing blend for your vegetables, flowers, etc., and they put it into, get this, ONE BAG!
5. FoxFarm soil surpasses every other soil each time we do a soil test at the nursery. Every. Single. Time. Each plant in our soil test is offered the same growing conditions (water, light) and the only variable factor is the soil product they are planted in. FoxFarm soil always comes out on top. Think what these plants would look like had they been additionally fed with FoxFarm fertilizers!

6 Amazing Ingredients Found In Some of FoxFarm Soil Products

We have a seminar each year with a FoxFarm expert to teach us all about the amazing ingredients found in FoxFarm soils and fertilizers.

1. Mycorrhizal fungi – beneficial bacteria that are like bodyguards for your soil that help break down organic matter to feed plant roots.
2. Beneficial microbes – expand root development through the soil and break down organic material making nutrients more readily available for your plant to take in.
3. Earthworm castings – rich, natural fertilizer that is absorbed easily and immediately by plants and stimulates plant growth. Also enhances ability of soil to retain water and inhibits root diseases.
4. Bat guano – packed with nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, the building blocks that plants need to survive and thrive; also contains beneficial microbes.
5. Sea-going fish and crab meal – adds nitrogen and phosphorous for added micronutrients and growth stimulation.
6. Humic acid- like a dose of steroids for your plants, helps to increase the uptake of important micronutrients.

I don’t know if you can tell by that list, but that is a darn good start for your plants. In fact, just using the soil products and nothing else will give your plants an incredible leg up from the start (our soil tests have proven it); can you imagine adding some FoxFarm fertilizer into the mix? Yowza! You’ll have even higher yields of fruits and vegetables, more spectacular flowers, and the healthiest plants ever.

~The Happy Gardener, Lisa Mulroy