Home gardeners know that they can't treat their soil like dirt. At least not if they want to grow anything.

Healthy soil maintenance is just as important for your garden as it is for large scale farmers. After all, plants are what they eat, so be sure to feed them well. And that means providing your plants with a quality soil from which to feed.

Have you ever heard of "double digging?" This technique involves loosening the soil to a depth of two shovel blades and is considered to be an effective manner for creating raised garden beds. Raised beds provide a superior growing atmosphere for your plants.

When mixed with compost and organic fertilizers, raised beds provide ideal growing conditions. Raised beds accomplished through double digging permit plant roots to penetrate deep into loose, aerated soil, drawing on a large area for water and nutrients. Your plants will hug you for this.

You can and should in fact make your own compost. It makes no sense at all to throw out valuable yard scraps and wood chips.

I have written several articles about the value of composting. One recipe involves the Big Four: Greens, Browns, Moisture Air. Greens, such as grass clippings, vegetable trimmings and weeds provide the compost with the necessary nitrogen. Browns, which include leaves and sawdust, provide carbon. You need both for this to work.

Moisture and Air signify the need for good moisture and sufficient oxygen. Small particle sizes and ample compost pile mixing will assure favorable decomposition.

There are lots of rotted things that can enrich your soil. In recent years there have been experiments involving the use of commercial waste for this purpose. While this is a great idea, it is important to use toxic free waste. Purdue University claims to have found the answer in coal waste.

Specifically, the University developed a soil enrichment recipe that uses both coal ash and industrial waste. The coal waste originated from a local electric utility that burned coal. Many work the same way. And the manufacturing waste was provided by a drug manufacturer. It was identified as non-toxic waste.

Tests revealed that soils mixed with these materials created a rich topsoil that outperformed local topsoil in terms of yield. This was so even when poor-quality soil such as sand and gravel is used. Perhaps, then, there is hope for all of our yards.

To produce this topsoil, the ingredients are mixed into piles on the ground. Wood chips are added to the mix and composting takes at least three months.

In recent years, there have been reports that fertilizer manufacturers have included toxic wastes in their commercially available products, which may not be a good idea. So the idea of turning manufacturing waste into quality soil is smart - so long as the ingredients are toxic free.

The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.

Stuart Lieberman, Esq., and IRED.Com, Inc., will not accept any responsibilty for any reliance on the information in this column or any damages whatsoever resulting from reading this column.