Natural Gardening

It is important to know the type of soil you have: sandy, organic matter, loam, clay or mineral soil. Sandy soil will drain quickly compared to a clay or mineral soil that retains more water. Learn how to test your soil – all you need is a mason jar.  

Maintain a neutral soil pH (6.5-7.5). A pH test from a garden centre can help you understand the acidity of your soil and improve growing conditions for your plants. If your soil is too acidic, amend your soil with organic matter or lime to obtain a neutral pH. Many vegetables prefer neutral, however some like it slightly more acidic. 

If you are an urban gardener, test your soil for heavy metals and contaminants. You may do this for free through the Healing City Soils program. Learn more through the Compost Education Center 

Compacted soil happens when soil particles are pressed tightly together, reducing the space for air and water. It can occur due to heavy foot traffic, machinery, or even rain on bare soil. Compacted soil does not have enough space for air and water to move easily to plant roots and can harm beneficial soil organisms. This makes it hard for roots to grow and for water to drain properly.  

Prevent soil compaction by:

• Walking on garden beds as little as possible and avoid heavy equipment on the soil.
• Create permanent paths in garden beds and mulch the exposed soil to prevent weeds between your rows.

Amend soil compaction:  

•  If your soil is hard as rock, it may be better to remove 15 to 30 centimetres (6 to 12 inches) and replace with new topsoil and top with mulch. Use your best judgement.
• Apply a 12-centimetre (5 inch) layer of mulch around trees and shrubs, and on to exposed soil in garden and vegetable beds.  
• Consider planting a cover crop. The roots of a cover crop will help loosen up the soil. Instead of pulling it at the end of the season, mow it instead so that the roots break down naturally.  

Compost helps keep your soil loose and fertile while retaining moisture and proper drainage.

When choosing compost, look for:

• Earthy smell
• Dark brown or black colour
• Fibrous texture
• No weed sprouts

How to use:

• Dig the compost into the top 15-20 cm of soil over the entire planting bed for spring or fall planting.
• Or use it as mulch!

There are many other uses for compost, find out more through the Compost Education Center.

You can also make your own!

Kitchen scraps and yard and garden waste are valuable resources. Composting at home is the most efficient and environmentally friendly way to manage these materials. You will conserve landfill space, feed your soil, entice beneficial insects, cut down on inorganic fertilizer use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Mulch is any material added onto the soil surface, which is often organic. Mulch reduces the number of weeds, conserves soil moisture, moderates soil temperatures, reduces soil erosion and adds beneficial nutrients back into the soil.

Including: leaves, compost, grass clippings, straw, wood chips and coarse bark.  

Vegetable gardens – light mulches (leaf mold or dried leaves, grass clippings, and straw)

Perennial gardens – course mulches (straw, wood chips, and course bark).

Mulch a 5-10cm protective layer around plants in early summer. Keep mulch at least an inch (2.5cm) away from plant stems to prevent rot and pest damage.

Fall mulch can also be added to reduce soil erosion and maintain warmer soil temperatures. To smother aggressive perennial weeds, add a brown cardboard or several newspaper layers, water and mulch on top. This will block light from reaching weeds and should help reduce numbers.

Learn more about mulching with Compost Education Center.  

Healthy gardening means your plants might not need extra fertilizer. But if you decide to use some, stick with natural, slow-release options and don’t overdo it. Adding too much can mess with your soil’s balance and even pollute nearby streams. A little goes a long way! Learn more about preventing stormwater pollution. 

Passive lawn removal methods are no-dig techniques. These include activities like lasagna gardening, smothering and solarizing.

Lasagna gardening  that acts as an in-situ compost pile to remove your lawn. Also called sheet mulching, this method of mulching your lawn to remove your grass and build your soil is simple. It's done by layering brown organic materials (cardboard, newspaper, straw etc) and green organic materials (grass clippings, vegetable scraps etc) on top of each other over the area you are trying to de-turf. 

Smothering uses black plastic (pond liner or tarp) to kill the grass with lack of light. The plastic can be laid down in the spring, and bed of soil will be revealed in the fall when you are ready to plant up a native plant meadow. If you want to be ready for the spring to plant vegetables or ornamental plants, you can start this in the fall. 

Similar to smothering, solarizing uses clear plastic sheets and the sun to kill turf and weeds through heat. This method is great for areas that have lots of weeds, and works better when the lawn has already been removed.

For step-by-step information on how to remove lawn with passive techniques, check out the links below:

• Satinflower Nurseries Preparing a New Meadow for Native Plants
• Compost Education Centre Factsheet 7 - Mulching
• West Coast Seeds Lasagna Gardening Method

Manual lawn removal can work a bit quicker than passive techniques. You can remove your lawn and plant a new garden all in the same weekend if you're quick and strong! But this manual lawn removal, as the name suggests, is a lot more labour intensive. 

There are two ways you can manually remove your lawn. You can hand dig out sections of turf, or rent a sod removal machine. Be careful though! Mixed into the roots of the removed sod is top soil. Top soil is a precious resource in a garden containing vital minerals and organic matter. Shake out as much of the topsoil as you can during this process.