Published: 14 March 2022

    What Is Soil Anyway? [PICTURE: What is soil]

While it may seem that there is no difference between soil and dirt, those who want to promote the growing of food or vibrant garden beds know that soil is something special. In fact, healthy soil is “a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans.” (USDA)  Whereas dirt, is considered to be dead soil that lost the characteristics needed to support life.

Title: Soil Health: Healthy Soil for Life
Organization: Natural Resources Conservation Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Description: Explains how soil is a living ecosystem and outlines the important role it plays in regulating water systems, sustaining plant and animal life, filtering and buffering potential pollutants, cycling nutrients, and providing physical stability and support for both plant and human structures. Includes links to many more-in-depth USDA and other resources on soil health.

Title: Soil Biodiversity: The Hidden World Beneath Our Feet 
Organization: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Description: Colorful poster describing and depicting the components of a soil community, from megafauna (toads, badgers, and others) to microfauna and microorganisms (bacteria, protozoans, fungi, and nematodes).

    What Makes Soil Healthy?

A healthy soil is a complex mix of dead organic matter and living organisms. Nature continually creates healthy soil, as is easily seen on forest floors. Too often, however, modern garden and agriculture practices do the opposite. Synthetic pesticides and other harsh methods strip soil of its most important elements.

Title: What Is Soil Health?
URL: https://www.ecolandscaping.org/02/developing-healthy-landscapes/soil/what-is-soil-health/
Organization: Ecological Landscape Alliance
Description: A short article defining soil health and soil quality, listing soil’s important functions, and describing nine characteristics of a healthy soil, including tilth (its physical character), depth, water storage and drainage abilities, nutrients, role of pathogens and pests, and range of beneficial organisms.

Title: Soil Fertility Principles
Organization: Bionutrient Food Association
Description: From the website of an organization devoted to increasing the nutrients in our food through soil enhancement, this page explains how “all plants in nature and in healthy environments have well established multi-speciated symbiotic relationships with soil and leaf life” and describes, among other things, the symbiosis between plants and the bacteria and fungi found in the soil.

Title: Basic Protocols
Organization: Bionutrient Food Association
Description: Among many informative pages on the website of this organization devoted to increasing the quality of our foods, this page details how minerals, soil life, carbon, air and water are essential components in a healthful growing environment.

Title: Gabe Brown: Keys to Building a Healthy Soil  
Organization: Kiss the Ground   Transcend Productions. Filmed at the Idaho Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
Description: Hour-long video of regenerative agriculture guru Gabe Brown, author of Dirt to Soil, One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture, presenting his five principles for building a healthy soil, from caring for your soil to promoting biodiversity. The goal is to support plants and all the living things that share that soil by adding life to your soil. 
Click here to view the trailer of the "Kiss the Ground" film:

  Why Is Healthy Soil Important?

Soil is an essential player in life on our planet.  Healthy soil is critical to the sustainable growth of health plants, and invertebrates, which are the foundation of our eco system.  At a time when Earth continues to heat up, we need not only to put less carbon into the atmosphere but also to take out and sequester what is already there. Soil is a major resource for carbon sequestration, and the healthier the soil, the more it can help our planet. Among its other beneficial characteristics, a healthy soil

• promotes water retention
• helps support a balance between beneficial microorganisms and potential pests, diseases and weeds, reducing or eliminating the need for pesticides
• may mitigate the effect of some heavy metals
• promotes healthy plants = healthier food

Title: The Soil Story
Organization: Kiss the Ground
Description: Four-minute video that explains how building healthy soil and other regenerative agriculture practices are among Earth’s best hopes for reducing carbon in the atmosphere by storing it in the ground.

Title: The Importance of Soil: Environmental Soil Essentials
Organization: Hot Mess, a PBS video series on climate change
Description: A 12-minute engaging video about the composition of soil, including details about its mineral and organic components and the nitrogen cycle.

Title: Bionutrient Rich Food & Health – Westchester chapter
Organization: Bionutrient Food Association
Description: Among many informative pages on the website of this organization devoted to increasing the quality of our foods, this page stresses an "underlying nutrient deficiency in our food supply", and includes information on local workshops and events.   For more information on soil and nutrition, visit their national chapter.

Testing Your Soil, Testing, Testing [PICTURE: Soil testing kit]

Understand Your Soil Before You Start

So how do you know if your soil is healthy? Having a thriving garden may indicate healthy soil, but that’s not always the case. Synthetic chemicals can artificially boost plant growth, masking hidden deficiencies and stripping the soil of important elements. Contaminants such as lead may not affect plant health, so you can’t tell whether it’s present just by looking at the plant; however, such contaminants can definitely compromise the health of humans and other organisms that might eat the plant. The best way to help determine your soil’s health is to test it.

  What To Look For In A Soil Test

There are two main things to measure when testing your soil: soil health and fertility, and contaminants. Knowing how much you have of some key markers of soil health (pH, organic matter, nutrients, etc.), will help you decide whether you need to amend the soil and with what.

Figuring out whether there are heavy metals such as lead or arsenic in your soil will help you decide whether you can grow vegetable crops in the ground, or if you should stick to ornamental plants or vegetable plants in a container. Some soils on sites with lead-painted houses, near roadways, or with a history of certain pesticides (such as lead arsenate) may have “hot spots” with very high levels of contamination. It is always better to test. Do not assume the soil is clean no matter where you live.

Title: Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities: Soil Testing
Organization: Cornell University
Description: Presents the basics of soil testing, including how to decide if it is likely to help you, and provides links to a variety of testing services and a fact sheet on how to interpret results.

  Where To Get A Soil Test

A testing facility should be able to help you decide which tests you will need and give guidance interpreting the results. Since soils vary greatly--even within one backyard--you will probably want to take a range of samples in order to get a better understanding of what might be in your soil. Check with the laboratory you will be sending your samples to find out how to prepare your samples and other requirements. Recommendations on how to improve your soil may be specific to what you intend to use the soil for (flower garden, vegetable garden, etc.).

Title: Urban Soils Lab at Brooklyn College
Organization: NYC Urban Soils Institute
Description: This affordable soil testing service is available to gardeners throughout the country. The Basic Soil Quality Test ($55) will report on pH; salt content; soil class; NPK (nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium) levels; lead, arsenic, copper, and zinc; and organic content.

Title: Soil Nutrient Testing
Organization: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County, Elmsford, NY
Description: Our local cooperative extension performs pH tests on submitted soil samples for $18. Scroll down to section B for soil pH test pdf form, which includes instructions for taking and submitting samples. Results are mailed within two weeks. Scroll further for information on additional soil sampling for nutrients.

Title: Cornell Nutrient Analysis Laboratory
Organization: Cornell University
Description: They offer a range of soil fertility analysis packages, as well as total elemental analysis (heavy metal screening), which suggested for home gardeners.

Title: Individual Soil Analyses
Organization: Cornell College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Description: This lab offers a range of soil tests for nutrients and composition (not contaminants).

Title: How to Take a Soil Sample with Doug DeCandia
Organization: Bionutrient Food Association/Westchester Chapter
Description: A five-minute video showing how to take soil samples for testing.

An initial soil test will help identify any issues that need to be addressed. You might want to test your soil at some point in subsequent years to track down if those issues resolved; in this case, you would be looking into individual soil analyses.

    How To Understand The Soil Test Results

Once your soil has been tested, it is important to be able to understand the results, and what it means for the type of vegetation you can safely grow. You may need to add compost or other amendments to grow a healthy soil. [Link “compost and amendments” to section 4.1; link “grow a healthy soil to section 4]. You may want to address any risks of contamination, by focusing on healthy gardening practices instead, that can be found in this section.

Title: Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities: Soil Testing
Organization: Cornell University
Description: Key resources include useful 6-page "Guide to Soil Testing and Interpreting Results."

Title: Healthy Gardening
Organization: Cornell University
Description: Page of multiple resources to help you understand your soil test results and steps to take if your soil is contaminated;

Title: Guide to Soil Testing and Interpreting Results
Organization: Cornell Waste Management Institute 
Description: Complete guide to know when soil testing is helpful, how to take soil samples, and how to interpret the results. Lists the levels of heavy metals, including lead and arsenates. 

Title: Soil Contaminants and Best Practices for Healthy Gardens
Organization: Cornell Waste Management Institute 
Description:  Offers useful information on the importance of understanding soil contaminants, including how plants can become contaminated and best practices to growing and maintaining healthy gardens. 

For specific recommended actions on lead contaminated soils, you can also visit:

Title: Interpreting the Results of Soil Tests for Heavy Metals
Organization: University of Vermont Extension
Description: Offers specific recommended actions on lead contaminated soils.  Lists the levels of heavy metals, including lead, in soil for which the EPA mandates cleanup and discusses best management practices for soils contaminated with heavy metals.

Please note: Lowest levels of heavy metals established by the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) in the tables, correspond to "unrestricted use", which includes agricultural use.

    Growing Healthy Soil: Keeping Your Soil Happy All Year Long 

Most soils in our communities could use a little help to become healthier and more productive. After decades of overusing synthetic chemicals, suburban soils are especially lacking. Best practices such as mulching, cover crops, adding amendments, chemical-free weed control, and winter protection will help you maintain healthy soil year-round, while still enjoying a bountiful harvest or blooming season. Start with small changes, until you get comfortable. Then incorporate as many practices as you want, depending on your garden space and its needs.

Presuming there are no contamination issues, soil preparation will vary depending on what you want to plant. For example, native plants may require less intervention and vegetable gardens will need specialized nutrients. 

   Compost And Other Soil Amendments [picture: Composting food scraps]

Using compost instead of artificial fertilizers is one way to help your soil as well as your pocketbook! Look for local compost sources, or start making compost yourself. If your soil tests indicate a specific nutrient deficiency, you may want to use a specialized amendment.

Title: Soil Conditioning: Establishing a Successful Gardening Foundation
Organization: Home & Garden Information Center. Clemson Cooperative Extension
Description: Different amendments are discussed in this website.

Title: Organic Matter and Soil Amendments
Organization: Home & Garden Information Center. University of Maryland Extension
Description: A list of common soil amendments, including compost, and practical information are included in this site, which provides a good understanding of the options available in the market.

Title: Changing the pH of Your Soil
Organization: Home & Garden Information Center. Clemson Cooperative Extension
Description: Explaining how “Soil pH directly affects nutrient availability for plants,” this website provides useful information on amendments to correct pH.

Title: 20 (Organic) Ways to Boot Soil Fertility
Organization: Rodale Institute
Description: “You diligently took soil tests this winter and now they’ve come back indicating that potassium or phosphorus is low on some fields, here and there you have a zinc deficiency, and you know that you will probably need some additional nitrogen. But you’re organic! No synthetic fertilizer for you! What do you do?”

The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) has a host of information on their website. For instance:

Title: Compost Made Easy/Haciendo Abono Facilmente [PICTURE: Compost made easy] [Alternative PICTURE: Indoor composting] :
Organization: NewYork Botanical Garden
Description: Composting basics: what, why, how, and when. One-page bilingual guide.

Title: Outdoor Composting Guide [PICTURE: 3-bin compost system]
Organization: NewYork Botanical Garden
Description: A comprehensive guide to composting, from setting up a bin to checking to see when the compost is ready.

Title: How to Incorporate Compost in Your Garden
Organization: NewYork Botanical Garden
Description: This four-minute video demonstrates how to incorporate compost when preparing a vegetable garden for the growing season.

Title: Backyard Composting [PICTURE: Compost tumbler or Earth Machine]
Organization: Greenburgh Nature Center
Description: A how-to for beginning composters from the Greenburgh Nature Center, this webpage explains methods (bin, tumbler, etc.), lists what materials can be composted, and answers other FAQs. You can use yard trimmings and food scraps to build compost for your yard while reducing the amount of waste that ends up in the Westchester County incinerator.

Title: End of Season Soil Prep: Mineral, Cover Crops, and Mulch
Organization: Bionutrient Food Association: Westchester/NYC chapter
Description: This 14-minute video explains how to set up next year's garden soil in the autumn. It suggests mixing in minerals such as azomite and basalt (rock dust) or BFA’s Spring Blend mineral mix, adding compost, and planting cover crops. It also demonstrates how gardeners can cover the soil with a layer of mulch material if it’s too late for cover crops (past October).

Title: Restrictions on the Application and Sale of Lawn Fertilizer Within the County of Westchester (Local Law)
Organization: Westchester County
Description: Soil in Westchester county is naturally rich in phosphorus, and fertilizers containing this element are major sources of stormwater pollution. This local law, passed in 2009, restricts fertilizers containing phosphorus to a few uses, including brand new lawns and vegetable gardens, and outlaws the display for sale of these kinds of fertilizers, which should only be made available “on request.”

   Much Ado About Mulching [PICTURE: Mulch and ground covers] [Alternative PICTURE: Wood chips]
Mulching, such as with wood chips or straw, is a great way to keep your soil protected. Mulch slowly decomposes over time, providing an extra source of nutrients to plants and microfauna while shielding the soil from harsh elements. It also adds color and texture to your landscape, a desirable feature in garden design.

Title: Using Mulch
Organization: New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)
Description: Mulching basics, including what it is, what it does, what mulch types are best for different kinds of plants, and how to apply it.

Title: Mulching Leaves with a Mulcher Mower
Organization: Leave Leaves Alone/Healthy Yards
Description: This one-minute video shows a mulching mower at work on fall leaves and just how easy it is to leave leaves alone to replenish your lawn. You can mulch with regular lawn mower blades, too!

Title:   Love 'Em And Leave 'Em: LELE Tool Kit
Organization:   County of Westchester, Village of Irvington
Description:  This website argues for keeping leaves on one’s property instead of bagging or piling them for curbside pickup and instructs how to turn leaves into mulch. Along with cost and pollution reduction, this practice enriches soil, ensures healthier plants, and promotes water retention and percolation, leading to healthier and more diverse habitats and cleaner waterways. Includes a page for professional landscapers.

   Preventing Soil Erosion: Cover Crops Yes, Leaf Blowers No

Besides needing nourishment, your garden also needs protection, especially from erosion by wind and water. The ubiquitous leaf blower degrades your soil by blowing off the protective top layer of soil; while mulch and cover crops help guard it from the elements. If you don’t want to use wood chips, leaves or straw, you may also consider filling the space with other plants suitable for this area. Cover crops offer excellent winter protection and soil nourishment. Native ground covers could be an optimal solution to protect bare soil in the long run, and will also help with weed control. [Link “native ground covers” to NATIVE PLANTS page, Ground Covers section.]

Title: Cover Crops in Home Gardens Improve Soil and Reduce Erosion
Organization: Penn State Extension
Description: What is a cover crop, what makes a good cover crop and how to plant

Title: How to Turn In Your Cover Crops
Organization: New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), Bronx Green-Up
Description: In this three-minute video, Kadeesha Williams, Community Horticulturist and Urban Agriculturist for Bronx Green-Up at NYBG, explains how cover crop choices (in this case, grasses and legumes) can help your soil replenish nutrients and boost soil microorganism population, while she demonstrates how to chop and turn in your cover crops at the beginning of the growing season.

   Organics And Other Ecosystem-friendly Practices

A home garden is not an island but affects the environment around it, both on adjacent property and even further if the property is near a water resource. Wise water use and appropriate soil amendments can help.

Title: Using Water Wisely
Organization: New York Botanical Garden
Description: Healthy soil is inevitably and inherently connected to water. Plants need water as much as soil does in order to be alive and maintain its physical properties. This one-page information sheet highlights how excess water in soil leaches nutrients and how, especially with lawn management, it is especially important to be conscious of our water usage to protect the plants in our garden and downstream from us, too!

Title: The Myth of Soil Amendments
Organization: Washington State University
Description: More is not necessarily better. The author, a professor at WSU, says that when transplanting trees and shrubs, soil amendments should not be added. The effect on these woody plants is detrimental due to nutrient and water handling differences between the amended backfill and the surrounding native soil. The author’s webpage includes other informative and thought-provoking articles on gardening myths.

Title: A Guide to Native Plant Gardening
Organization: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Description: This site outlines the steps for soil preparation and weed elimination when planting a native garden. Usually, if native plants are well selected for a site, no soil amendments should not be needed; in fact, a healthy soil helps mitigate or eliminate the effect of toxins and harmful chemicals, already existing in the soil. But for sites where the original topsoil has been stripped, the site explains how what types of soil amendments can help.  [share with NATIVE PLANTS]

Title: Why We're Not Fans of Amending Soil 
Organization:  Monarch Gardens LLC
Description: An award-winning gardener explains his four principles of amendment-free gardening:
1) The perfect or ideal soil is the soil you have right now.
2) Matching plants to site often means less maintenance and less plant death over time.
3) Matching plants to one another. 
4) Planting tightly means more soil building and less work long term.

  Special Soil Situations: Urban Soil And Container Gardening

Many of us begin our gardens with less than a pristine palette. Many suburban properties are basically fill whose origin is mysterious. Many of us garden in containers. Both situations call for special considerations. Old potting soil in containers can be reused and revitalized (providing the previous plant grown in it was not diseased) by combining it with equal parts of topsoil and organic compost.

Title: Urban Soil Primer
Organization: Natural Resources Conservation Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Description: Relevant and of interest to suburban as well as urban gardeners, this 75-page illustrated publication, addressed to “homeowners and renters, local planning boards, property managers, students, and educators,” provides a primer on soil and clearly addresses the challenges of using soil found in a built environment, for example, “generally higher pH values resulting from additions of cement, plaster, and road salts.”

Title: Safe Gardening & Greening Resources
Organization: Groundwork USA
Description:  "Vacant land and brownfield sites have the potential to be reclaimed as safe and nourishing community assets—provided urban gardeners and community builders understand the risks and follow best practices to protect themselves and communities from exposure to contaminants." This set of tools includes guides such as "Knowing Your Soil," an overview of common urban land uses and their associated contaminants, along with resources for testing and soil remediation; and "Best Practices for Food Production in Areas Suspected of Contamination." (Yonkers-based Groundwork Hudson Valley is a member of the Groundwork USA network of local organizations "devoted to transforming the natural and built environment of low-resource communities.")

Title: Urban Gardening: Managing the Risks of Contaminated Soil
Organization: Environmental Health Perspectives (online journal)
Description: Through the experience of gardeners facing challenging, contaminated soils in Providence, Boston, and New Orleans, this article describes the issues facing urban gardeners and ways they have chosen to address toxicity and other issues. Includes a sidebar on “Best Management Practices for Urban Gardens.”

    Where To Learn More

Title: Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center
Organization: Westchester County and the Friends of Hilltop Hanover Farm
Description: Located at 1271 Hanover St. in Yorktown Heights, Hilltop Hanover is a working farm and environmental education center run on land owned by Westchester County and works to develop and advance “sustainable agriculture, environmental stewardship, community education, and accessible food systems for all.” It offers educational workshops on topics “from beekeeping to farm-to-table cooking” and donates a minimum 10 percent of produce grown to food pantries and soup kitchens.

Title: Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County: Horticulture and Environment
Organization: Cornell Cooperative Extension
Description: Located at 3 West Main St., Suite 112, in Elmsford, our local branch of the national cooperative extension system “is your resource for information on soils, site improvement, plant selection, proper plant care, eco-friendly practices, integrated pest management, composting and so much more!” It offers gardening classes as well as diagnostic services for plant and insect problems and for soil pH testing.

Title: Bionutrient Food Association, Westchester Chapter
Organization: Bionutrient Food Association (BFA)
Description: Local chapter offering ongoing educational and networking resources about creating healthy soil, growing nutritious food, regenerative agriculture, etc. Sign up for newsletter to be informed of webinars and other events.

Title: New York Botanical Garden Adult Education Program
Organization: New York Botanical Garden
Description: Conveniently located in the Bronx, NYBG offers workshops on soil science and other important topics for gardeners, compost on-site demonstrations, and other educational programs.

Title: Rodale Institute: Education
Organization: Rodale Institute
Description: Located in Pennsylvania, Rodale Institute is dedicated to “growing the organic movement through rigorous research, training, and consumer education. It has been the global leader in regenerative organic agriculture for over 70 years.” Webinars and virtual workshops on subjects such as organic gardening or compost are available.

Published: 25 February 2022

Accessibility

Accessible gardening helps people with physical and/or developmental limitations enjoy the benefits of gardening. When organizing a new garden project, keeping accessibility in mind can help your project be more inclusive. Then, when the time comes to design the garden, see the resources on designing for accessibility in the Section titled,  Garden Design.

Published: 25 February 2022

When planning a community garden, there are several considerations to keep in mind. The space on which the garden will be built should be identified and procured well before actual construction begins. A thorough evaluation of the proposed garden site should be undertaken and include consideration of sunlight, access to water, adequate drainage, local animal populations (a fence may be needed to keep out animals), lot size, proximity to volunteers, soil quality. Permission to use the land for a community garden must be secured, and any local zoning codes or ordinances that might apply should be explored.

Published: 16 November 2021

The Planting Westchester initiative is to encourage and empower all who live or work in Westchester County to grow more plants so that together we can:

• Grow vegetables and fruits to increase local food security in all our communities
• Plant native plants and trees to conserve and restore local biodiversity, including pollinators
• Protect and plant trees to reduce pollution, flooding, and erosion, and to offer shade and cool our climate

We are providing you with comprehensive tool kits to help you choose, plant and maintain trees, shrubs and flowers, with an emphasis on native plants and trees. And it’s not just about planting. We also have resources to help you learn about your soil, and to protect existing trees and other native plants from invasive species of plants and insects.

Nine topic resource sections

• Trees
• Fruit Trees
• Soil
• Planting by Water
• Community Gardens
• Native Plants
• Backyard Vegetable Gardens
• Container Gardens
• Combating Invasive Species

How did we come up with these resources?
Nearly 100 dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers worked on this project for months. Members of the topic committees collected and selected the best existing resources on their topic--the best how-to articles, books, videos, toolkits etc. that are applicable in Westchester County and our region, with an emphasis on the local organizations that offer such resources. The results of their hard work can be found in the nine topic sections. We are deeply grateful to and acknowledge the volunteers who contributed to this project.

Underlying this project are core principles of inclusive, socially-equitable decision making; community participation, communication, and relationship-building; and the value of healthy natural systems including biodiversity not only to environmental and climate resilience but to human health and well-being.

Planting Westchester information will be updated. We welcome feedback and suggestions. Send us an e-mail at .

Be part of a growing solution
Westchester County is 500 square miles, 14 percent of which is comprised of lakes and streams, and encompasses urban and rural settings and everything in between. Over one third of the land in the County is categorized as open space, which preserves the quality of life in Westchester by protecting its scenic vistas and environmental integrity. The County is home to a numerous and diverse array of flora and fauna that lives in this open space, and is increasingly threatened by invasive species.