Add This to Your Soil This Fall

Today's video, we're going to go over the five things you should absolutely add to your soil here in the fall because it can make a big difference in the spring. If you don't know who I am, my name's Ashley. I have a bachelor's of science in soil science and I like to take that science, apply it to all things garden. And today's video, these five things are things that scientific journals and soil science tells us we should be doing in the fall to help make for a happier, healthier soil or a soil that is disease and pest free in the spring. Now, number one is hands down going to be compost. Now, compost is one thing that we often think it needs to be incorporated, is used for nutrients. But if you're adding in the fall, there's some different rules to follow. Number one, this is a great addition for anyone who is no-till. The reason being is that the addition of compost in the fall actually ensures that the compost itself makes it into that soil profile, which changes your soil aggregation. Now, this can be done mechanically through large, what we consider to be large macrofauna, worms, beetles, that sort of thing. We also have the freeze-thaw cycle. So the constant freeze-thaw is another way in which this makes its way into the soil profile and then changes that aggregation. If we incorporate it, we don't tend to see the same results and we also tend to, I mean, we don't get the same benefits that we're looking for. So how much? One to three centimeters is kind of the max of what I would apply to your soil surface in the fall to allow for that process to take place. And this, again, is great if you are no-till. It's not so much for nutrients as it is for soil building or soil structure building. Number two, absolutely, no word of a doubt, is going to be mulching the soil surface and a healthy amount of it. Now, soil mulching is obviously really important if you have things like perennials. The reason being is it obviously acts as an insulator against the extreme cold that we can sometimes get in our northern climate. Now, furthermore, it also helps to stop against something we call heaving. If you've ever freshly planted a perennial and notice that the entire root ball seems to get heaved out of the ground, this is a great sign that you didn't have enough mulch to actually protect against the freeze-thaw cycle that forces that root ball outwards because the root ball isn't quite yet integrated into that entire soil system. This is something we risk with perennials for that first one to two years, and mulch can help alleviate that. Now, you don't have to go out and buy straw mulch, but you can just grab leaves, grass, anything of that nature, and pile it on top. You really can't go overboard with this in any stretch of the imagination, particularly if it is a shredded, fine material. So if you are doing leaves, for example, shredding them is one of the best methods to go with. I have an entire video coming out later this week on leaves and how to use them in your garden here in the fall. So if you want to see that, Geek Crew, you guys already know when I post Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, but if you are new here, hit that subscribe button. It means the actual world to me. It helps the channel grow. It helps me keeping content here on YouTube. There's a massive change, shift in the algorithm. I'm sure you guys have seen a famous, one of, I would deem, relatively famous Canadian YouTubers out there, garden YouTubers out there quitting because it's just, it's not feasible to do alongside a full-time job, and the reason being is because we don't tend to get a lot of traction. So that subscribe button means the world to me. It helps me keeping doing this, despite the fact that I do have a whole life outside of just YouTube. This isn't my full-time gig. Now, outside of the freeze thaw, it also helps against erosion. I think something that people think when they think erosion is, you know, rapidly flowing water, heavy winds, that sort of thing, and while those obviously erode the soil, things like raindrops on the soil surface can and will act as some sort of effect on an aggregate. It helps with compaction, which is not a good thing, and so the addition of this can help prevent against that. If you have a windy fall coming up, you know, you have a rainy spring in your future, these are all things that can help you enormously kind of mitigate that or travel that accordingly. Now, next one is actually water. Shockingly enough, the addition of water can help your garden a huge bunch. So obviously, there are deciduous trees that lose their leaves, and there are annual plants that are no longer in existence after the fact, but if you've planted fresh bulbs, if you have evergreens, if you have perennials, these are great candidates for ensuring that the plants still get some water. I just saw the most massive tomato. I have to go pick it now. I've been waiting very patiently for this to start happening. It's been a year where the small tomatoes really kind of took off and did their thing early on, but anything like of size, like my Berkeleys in that or some of my favorite tomatoes out there, my German, my pink Germans, my brownie wines, that sort of thing, it's taken a minute, so this is a good thing. We're happy. Now, the goal, if we are going to water in the fall isn't, you know, fill every pore space 110%. No, that's not the case. We want to just hit the water requirements adequately. So we want to make sure there is some soil moisture present and things aren't bone dry, which bone dry can and often does happen here in the fall. So keep that in mind. Perennials, evergreens, and, you know, deciduous trees to an extent are all things that do require regular watering, despite the fact that it feels like we can just turn the taps off. And newly established or very new berry bushes, fruit trees, fresh bulbs, that sort of thing, absolutely do need some water, but don't oversaturate it because then you're going to cause a whole other host of issues. Next up is actually what we call oculation. So I sometimes reference something called solarization. Now, solarization, technically speaking, I'm pulling these off because otherwise mice will eat them, and see, it's blushing. That's one of the rules. Once you get this blushing, she's time to harvest. But oculation is something that is identical to solarization in some extent, but solarization, we know, uses things like clear plastic, clear poly, to harness the intensity of the sun and in turn kind of burn the weed seeds out, burn the disease out, that sort of thing. It's much better at kind of all-encompassing a whole host of issues. Oculation, however, something slightly different. I gotta go set these down. I'm just gonna keep fiddling with them. It's gonna be nosy, noisy. It's not gonna be good. I have so much to harvest, you guys. It is not okay. We are really procrastinating what needs to happen in the garden. Oh, there's another blushing potato tomato. Oh, that is bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, bright. We love a bright red tomato. Sorry, I got hugely sidetracked there. But oculation is something that I'm gonna do an entire video on. Another reason to just hit that subscribe button if you wanna check out what I talk about there. But oculation is the absence of light. So it's different than solarization and it's something that's best served here in the fall. I'm actually going to be doing this here out on the farm because I'm expanding slightly for my own personal use. Not like I'm not doing like a market farmer or anything crazy like that, or starting to do flower gardening. It's just for my own funsies. But I'm adding a greenhouse and then I'm also going to be starting kind of like a garden and that garden is going to have perennial plants, but it's also going to have annual plants as well. And in this space, I need to nuke it in some way. Now tillage is a great way to nuke, herbicides are a great way to nuke, but solarization is another form of it and oculation is another form of that, which is the form I'm going to use because that's the best form served in the fall. So black covers, black silage, black garbage bags, anything that cuts the light out is what we call oculation. Again, hit the subscribe button if you want to check out a video I do on that, but we're going to keep that under wraps until we do a video because it's quite intense what can go on there. So yeah, keep that in the back of your head. Don't know why. So my last addition is odd, very odd, and it is peas. Now you're probably thinking, Ashley, what are you talking about? So pea seeds in particular are best served literally planting all over your garden. Every single bed should get some, you should plant some in the middle, you should plant some along the sides, literally cover your beds enough. Worst case scenario, you don't want that many peas, you rip them out. The best case scenario, they begin to germinate in the spring and they're a great indicator for when your soil is warm enough and when the time has begun for you to actually transplant or plant outdoors. Now you can have a soil temp thermometer and you can sit there, kind of poke the soil temp thermometer all over, or you can wait for indicators and indicators being the germination of peas. So I've been doing this for years. I've talked about this one for years. I've done videos on just this concept. Please check them out because like I said, hugely popular method for ensuring when you get in your garden is the correct time to get into your garden. With that being said, this is what Google says you should watch next. And this video is absolutely taking off on YouTube. You have to let me know why. I don't know if they're just promoting it or if it's got some good information in it. Like I said, let me know in the comments. I will talk to you guys next time. Bye.