Gifts for the Garden

Dr. Gary Bachman: Fall is the time to give your garden a gift today on Southern Gardening.

Announcer: Southern Gardening with Gary Bachman is produced by the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Dr. Gary Bachman: Our gardens and landscapes work really hard to give us so much in terms of beauty and bounty, so sometimes it's nice for gardeners to take a step and give something back to the landscape. The fall season's a really good time to build up the garden soil for next year. Amending your garden soil with organic matter is probably the best gift you could give. Micro organisms are added back and the life of the soil is improved. Organic matter breaks up a heavy clay soil and increases drainage. While in sandy soils, the drainage is slowed down. And while not actually a fertilizer, organic matter does contain needed essential plant nutrients. A really special and thoughtful gift would be vermicompost. Vermicompost is produced by earthworms in bins that efficiently break down organic waste producing what can really be called black gold.

Amending garden soil with small quantities of vermicompost produces very healthy soil growing environments. Coffee grounds had been getting a lot of attention, especially on internet gardening sites. What could be easier than taking the morning coffee grounds and spreading around the garden? Now, if you don't drink as many cups of coffee as I do each day, many coffee shops generally will give you spent grounds as a way to recycle these wastes. So don't worry about finding the perfect box and ribbon when giving the gift of organic matter to your garden. A bucket and shovel will be just fine. I'm horticulturist Gary Bachman for Southern Gardening.

Announcer: Southern Gardening with Gary Bachman is produced by the Mississippi State University Extension Service.