Mineral-rich greensand doubles as soil conditioner

Greensand is good for your garden and will help it to thrive.

You can sprinkle greensand around each apple and peach tree, blackberry or rose bush (up to four pounds to each rose). Or you can spread it along the row either before or after you sow your bush beans or other vegetable seed.

Jersey greensand, in fact, can be applied any time of year, and it is far more than a soil conditioner. Greensand binds sandy soil and loosens hard soil, is an excellent source of potash and potassium carbonate, and is one of the three principal minerals that plants must have.

It has a higher potash content than granite dust and generally provides more than wood ashes.

Plants grown in soil that contains sufficient potash are usually healthy, resist extremes of heat and cold better, and are not likely to be bothered by insects and plants diseases.

Nine years ago one Eastern gardener, accustomed to gardening in humus-rich soil which probably contained enough potash, prepared a new garden in another state where the soil had insufficient potash. She sowed bush beans which sprouted and grew fairly well.

But after the beans blossomed she was astonished at the damage that had been inflicted on the foliage by hordes of voracious bugs. No pest had ever bothered her vegetables before.

Two sowings later, after composted material and humus were spaded under the strip, her healthy plants produced green beans. Later, after the county agent told her that area gardens needed potash, she bought 50 pounds of granite dust and 50 pounds of greensand.

Besides natural marine potash, Jersey greensand contains about three dozen trace minerals that are needed by plants such as potatoes and tomatoes, cabbage and lettuce, cantaloupes and cucumbers. With enough greensand, annuals, perennials, and flowering shrubs blossom longer and their colors are brighter and deeper.

Besides natural marine potash, Jersey greensand contains about three dozen trace minerals that are needs by plants such as potatoes and tomatoes, cabbage and lettuce, cantaloupes and cucumbers. With enough greensand, annuals, perennials, and flowering shrubs blossom longer and their colors are brighter and deeper.

Like humus, greensand improves the absorbency of the soil. Water is held just below the surface where the roots of vegetables and other plants can utilize it.

''Eight to 10 pounds of greensand per 100 square feet can be applied at planting time,'' advises one Pennsylvania supplier of greensand and granite dust.

''Greensand will not lose its strength in storage,'' the supplier adds. ''And the above directions can be greatly increased without harming growth.''

On lawns, about four to eight pounds of greensand per 100 square feet is suggested.

''Greensand will not lose it strength in storage,'' the supplier adds. ''And the above directions can be greatly increased without harming growth.''

On lawns, about four to eight pounds of greensand per 100 square feet is suggested.