You Are Doing It All Wrong!
Have you ever thought about what is going on below your plants and crops? Of course not. Why would I spend time wondering what is going on beneath the plants? I am growing my plants and that is all I care about. It is a great start to care about your plants, but did you know that the overall health of your plants depends entirely on the health of your soil? Let us discuss why.
Did You Know that there is a huge difference between dirt and soil?
Go out to your backyard and search for an area that is just bare dirt. Everyone has one, just look. We are looking for bare dirt that does not have anything covering it, minus a weed or two. Now dig down a bit and tell me what you see. Do you see any kind of life, like worms or other insects and bugs? If all you see is dirt without any organic matter or living organisms, then you do not have healthy living soil. Living soil has microbial life inside the soil. And in the permaculture world we take microbial life very seriously!
There is such a thing as the soil food web.
Whereas, a complex relationship between the diverse groups of fauna and flora are found in the soil. We are trying to increase the diversity of organisms in the soil food web. Increasing biodiversity will increase nutrient availability and soil fertility.
So Why Does This Even Matter?
Because if your soil is unhealthy then you are going to have one heck of a time establishing a healthy and happy garden. Just like us humans. If our gut biome is out of whack and unhealthy, we will experience many other health issues.
Sounds Too Difficult!
Stop being lazy. A little hard work not only builds character, but will help with the fertility of your soil. Building it requires a bit of effort. The answer is really quite simple. Just add a lot of organic material and wait until it decomposes. Organic materials can be grass clippings, compost, leaves, wood chips, etc.
There is a long way and a short way.
The long way is to just start piling any and all organic material to your garden and then waiting until it breaks down completely. Or, you can speed up the process by using a method called sheet mulching, also known as lasagna gardening. Sheet mulching is basically creating a compost pile in place that can be planted into immediately.
Sheet mulching is a way to make an instant garden bed and will also break down or compost in place, building the soil fertility beneath. Some other helpful ways are, practicing crop rotation, heavy mulching and gently aerating garden beds with a garden fork before planting. Introducing amendments such as, rock dust, compost, worm castings, fish and kelp emulsion, compost tea, and worm tea, just to name a few. Will also speed up the process and introduce nutrients to your soil. We are trying to add as much organic matter as we can to build fertility just like a forest does naturally.
So, there you have it.
Soil fertility is one of the key elements to having a successful and productive garden and can be done very easily. In the forest, the soil is always covered. Mother Nature will do this with leaves, weeds, or tree saplings. If you go into the forest and clear out a small area leaving only dirt, re-visit the area in a few weeks and you will see something else growing there. In nature, the soil is always covered for a reason.
To protect the soil from the elements. If soil is left uncovered it will soon turn into unhealthy dirt. Remind yourself that everything in the gardening world takes time. So be patient with yourself and your current level of knowledge and always always always keep that soil protected by covering it.
And, don’t forget to Party On!
Until next time…
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