{"id":2041,"date":"2014-04-26T17:26:29","date_gmt":"2014-04-26T17:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ranchodelicioso.com\/?p=2041"},"modified":"2014-04-27T01:33:18","modified_gmt":"2014-04-27T01:33:18","slug":"make-soil-growing-plants-part1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ranchodelicioso.com\/?p=2041","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Soil for Growing Plants – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ingredients<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 1: Soil Making Ingredients<\/h2>\n

Many of the “farms” in our part of Costa Rica have had cattle on them for decades, and as a result, the soil is highly degraded. Years of heavy trampling and loosening of the topsoil during rainy season has made most of it wash down into the rivers and out into the ocean.<\/p>\n

Our tests of the topsoil at Rancho Delicioso, have shown us that the 1-2 inch-deep layer that we have left is very high quality, not seeming to be missing any crucial minerals, but there’s just not enough of it to build the deep, easily-draining raised garden beds you need to grow vegetables here.<\/p>\n

We experimented with buying soil locally and were ripped off twice. The beautiful black earth that was delivered to us looked great at first, but turned out to be nearly pure clay, and hardened into a solid mass that plants roots couldn’t easily penetrate, after a couple months of use. We learned the hard way that good soil for growing should not clump together like clay when you harden it into a ball.<\/p>\n

We also purchased soil by truckload that was brought all the way from the Central Valley. That worked well, but not as well as our final solution: making our own soil from scratch<\/p>\n

How to Make the Ultimate Dirt<\/h2>\n

Here’s the list of ingredients we use, where we get them, why they’re important, etc. Some of these are optional. Nature likes to make dirt out of just about anything organic, but if you want the best possible, nutritious soil for growing veggies, then put in as many as possible. This list is long, so I don’t want to scare you away from trying this by making it seem too complicated. This is easy and you can throw a lot of stuff together to make soil and it will probably work.<\/p>\n