POINT PLEASANT — Members of the public, along with the Environmental Commission, Point Pleasant Garden Club [PPGC], Mayor Robert Sabosik, Council President Valerie Coulson and Councilwoman Charlene Archer attended an educational soil assessment seminar offered by the Ocean County Soil Conservation District [OCSCD], Jersey-Friendly Yards [JFY] and the Barnegat Bay Partnership [BBP] at the site of the borough’s new pollinator garden on Wednesday, April 12.
Eileen Miller from the OCSCD, Becky Laboy from JFY and Karen Walzer BBP taught the participants how to assess and improve their soil at home. During the assessment, the participants rated physical, biological and chemical properties of the Pollinator Gardens on a scale of one to five. These three components cultivate a “healthy soil ecosystem enabling both plants, wildlife and microorganisms,” said Kelly Noto of the PPGC, “Healthy soil provides the right amount of air, water, nutrients and organic matter allowing plants to grow, providing a home to worms, centipedes, roly-polies and microorganisms to thrive.
To evaluate each element, the participants inserted wires into the soil to determine resistance levels, reviewed the color and compactibility of the soil. The PPGC found signs of wind erosion and participants conducted tests to determine how compact the soil is, the structure of the soil, whether it is subject to erosion and how well it drains.
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Representatives from the PPGC and a member of the Environmental Commission evaluated the drainage. While the drainage was above average, according to Ms. Noto, improvements could be made. The Department of Public Works [DPW] will till the planting beds to a depth of four inches to a foot. This tilling will be performed once before the initial plantings and will not be repeated in the future.
“When reviewing the soil’s biological properties, the participants conducted tests to determine how much organic matter existed in the soil, what signs of animal life existed, and whether the roots of plants seemed healthy,” said Ms. Noto. She described the 12 inch hole dug within the garden bed used to evaluate the top-soil and subsoil.
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