Maintaining Wild Tip – Avoid compacting saturated soil
by Besa Schweitzer, chapter member
When soil is saturated, try to keep vehicles and foot traffic off garden beds to avoid compaction.Don’t work in the garden when soil is soft because soil compaction will occur.
Soil compaction removes air and water pockets from the soil that plant roots need.
If saturated soil must be walked on, I put down boards to step on to help distribute the weight and protect the soil structure; this also makes me less muddy.
Learn more on the Missouri Botanical Garden website
About our new Maintaining Wild series:
To help you keep up with your native garden care in 2026 we’re posting a maintenance tip each week on our website and on Facebook. These tips will include native garden specific tasks as well as some basic gardening advice.
A new tip will appear weekly on Facebook, on Friday at 1 pm.
To join the discussion, comment on our Facebook page.
Stay tuned for a new garden maintenance tip each week to help get you out into the garden and make 2026 a year for Maintaining Wild. Let’s have a discussion and share our knowledge!
View all tips on a single page: https://stlwildones.org/maintaining-wild-tips/
