Sterilize Your Soil to Control Bugs and Disease

Cathy Isom has some excellent tips about what you can do with soil to beat back garden bugs and disease.  That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.

Learning how to sterilize soil may be the thing you need to make your garden thrive this year.  

Soil sterilization helps you kill off the pests and fungi that can wreak havoc on your garden.  It’s especially useful against bacteria, nematodes, viruses, and weeds.  

The primary way to sterilize soil involves high temperatures.  For small quantities of dirt, it’s possible to use a microwave or oven to do the job, but that’s impractical for outdoor beds.  For large areas, you’ll want to use solarization.  

No matter what method you use, be sure not to add fertilizers to your soil before you sterilize it.  If you’re starting a brand new gardening space, sterilizing the soil is the perfect way to get yourself a clean slate.  It’s also ideal if you’re planting containers using recycled earth from the garden.

I’m Cathy Isom…