Different Techniques to Improve Topsoil

There are various methods to keep a healthy topsoil in your garden, however, which way you choose will depend entirely on the quality of the topsoil in the first place.

Soil balance is a useful way for garden keepers to learn about the workings of their topsoil and therefore to be able to improve it. The balance of topsoil is a great way to learn about the chemical and physical properties of topsoil. It includes understanding topsoil physics, chemistry and biology which help to make sure that the topsoil’s structure, nutrients and biology are all balanced perfectly.

Using a system called Mikhail topsoil balance can be maintained easily. Using this system of topsoil management gives the soil friability and helps living organisms and to survive giving better soil composition and structure. Topsoil needs a skeleton to enable the other elements of its make-up to exist and be sustained, rather like the human body. In soil, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium and Hydrogen are all elements essential to keeping the structure healthy.

The Mikhail system then helps to ensure that the nutrients and biology of the topsoil is in order. These then also need to be in balance with the structure Essential elements for plant nutrition are Phosphorous, Potassium, Nitrogen and Sulphur. To help boost these elements, fertilisers could be added to topsoil once the condition of the soil’s structure has been improved. Most general garden fertilisers are based on NPK, which provides these essential chemical elements. A topsoil’s trace element content is particularly important.

One way to find out where topsoil is failing in terms of make-up is by testing it. Soil testing kits can be used to get the necessary information required to improve the topsoil. Once tested, the soil can then be improved by making the necessary changes to by adding fertiliser, lime and any other improvers that are required.