Imagine one day you go shopping, and then wake up in the hospital, not able to walk or talk? Even worse, what if you were a mother of a baby girl whom you are now unable to hold and breast-feed?

This would be my ultimate nightmare.

This is what happened to Sharon Cooper, a plant nursery owner from Australia. She had a stroke shortly after giving birth to her daughter. Sharon still wonders whether all the pesticides from her nursery contributed to her condition. She was a healthy energetic woman prior to this incident.

Sharon was paralysed, but the thought of her baby girl gave her determination to recover... She found the way to gain her mobility back by growing and eating superfoods. But she did not stop there – she wrote a book called "The Superfood Gardener," where she teaches how to grow vegetables that provide maximum nutrition and healing properties.

The book is out both in print and as an e-book. It received great reviews at the book fair in Europe. It can help thousands of people. I reviewed the book on my website and I invite you to check it out: The Superfood Gardener Review

I got to know Sharon as the most genuine, honest and empathetic person when I was asking her my gardening questions.

Here is one of the answers she wrote exclusively for you, readers of my newsletter, Healthy Bits.

I asked her, "What is the most common mistake that people do that your book helps avoiding?"

And she said,

" In a nut shell, not preparing the soil before they plant into their garden bed.

As professional nursery growers the most important element of growing great plants is the soil mix. The soil must have the correct PH levels. This is identified by using a PH meter and corrected with limestone ( to increase) or sulphur (to decrease) the levels and bring it into balance. The soil must be packed with nutrients for any plant to thrive both in pots and in the garden.

Many home gardeners plant out their garden without giving much thought to the whole process and just like people, plants need constant nutrition to thrive. This mostly comes from the soil.

You need to prepare your soil well before you plant, up to two weeks is ideal.

Firstly you need to identify your soil type: Some key types of soil and how to identify these are as follows:

Sandy Soil: Easy to cultivate and doesn’t form clods or clumps

Silty Soil: Not as easy to dig when wet and is very dusty when dry

Clay Soil: Not easy to dig when wet or dry and is very difficult to cultivate while wet.

If you find you need to improve your garden soil the best way to do so is to add organic matter. The best type of organic matter is compost and it’s easy to make at home. It puts nutrients back into the soil and makes it more friable.

Hot or cold compost piles are standard for many home gardeners but compost bins and tumblers are popular as well, though a cost is involved initially. Once set up it gives a much more tidy appearance and deters animals

All compost piles are made from green matter or brown matter. Green matter ie: vegetable scraps and fresh grass clippings add more nitrogen and moisture to the pile. Other examples of compost materials to use are

Bark or Wood Chips: High in carbon

Coffee Grounds: The worms absolutely love this green material. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen content.

Newpaper: Shredded newspaper is another great way of adding carbon to compost but you need to make sure it’s shredded otherwise it won’t decompose.

So important is getting the soil right that we dedicated eighteen pages on how to do this. "Getting Down and Dirty – It all Starts in The Soil" is packed with important information for identifying soil types and building great compost.

To grow vegetables packed with nutrients our bodies require to remain healthy you must put your effort into soil preparation first.

Happy Vegetable Growing! "

Hope you found this information useful!

Best,
Olga