We now know that plants make their own food but they cannot make the food unless they have the right ingredients. Plants absorb these ingredients from the soil through their roots.

Babies that don’t get enough of the right food will not grow bigger and stronger. Like babies plants also need the right food to grow bigger and stronger.

A gardener must make sure that the plants get enough food but also the right food to ensure strong plants.

Plants cannot move from one place to another.  They are stuck where they are planted.  If they have been planted in the soil for a long time they use up all the food in the soil. It is the gardener’s job to give the soil the right food in order to keep the plants healthy.

There are 3 nutrients or food that plants need a lot of in order to stay healthy.  These are called Macro-Nutrients.

The same way that humans need meat (protein), pap (carbohydrates) and vegetables to have a balanced meal, plants need Nitrogen (N), Phosphates (P) and Potassium (K) in order to have a ‘balanced meal’.

Like humans, plants sometimes need sweets as well.  They only need sweets to keep them happy and not to feed them.  The gardener must make sure that the plants don’t get too many sweets because that is not healthy for the plants. However sometimes the gardener has to give the plants sweets in order to keep them happy. Some of the

Micro-Nutrients for plants are Iron, Magnesium, Zinc and Sulphur.

When soils do not have sufficient nutrients available, deficiencies can be seen in plants by their stunted growth, discoloration of leaves, or weak flower production. Under these conditions, otherwise healthy plants like flowers, shrubs, vegetable bushes, trees and grass, become vulnerable to disease and insect damage.

The beauty and healthiness of the plants in your landscape are direct results of the health of your soil.