Celebrating Soil for Earth Day

We understand the need for balance.  We know that ecosystems need the
right mix of predator and prey.  We are beginning to understand that
our nutritional needs are best met from consumption of real food, and
that vitamin supplements are not a fix-it for a lousy diet.   Being
real and being balanced are important for health.

So for Earth Day this year, consider the need for balance and apply
those concepts above to soil.

Soil is not just a growing medium.  Soil is vibrantly alive with an
ecosystem of it’s own.

Culturally, we’ve navigated with the idea that science trumps nature.
The classic “Better Living through Chemistry,” idea.   But if you take
a minute and think about nature, you’ll see, she doesn’t need anything
other than respect from us.  She was here before us and, hey, she’ll
be here after us as well.

Nature knows what she’s doing.   No miracle-grow was needed to create the old growth forests.   Healthy soil provides everything that plants need all on it’s own.  Soil is filled with microorganisms that break down organic matter and change it into nutrients that are accessible to plants.  Soil doesn’t need chemistry.   Actually, chemistry disrupts this process.

There is growing interest in what’s called the Soil Food Web and the intricate relationships between microorganisms that exist in the soil and on plant foliage.  This isn’t some wing nut or tree hugger
approach.  The Soil Food Web is now taught in basic mainstream horticulture classes.  Garden centers carry products to encouragemicroorganism activity in your soil.

The tiny guys living in the soil are busy being beneficial.  And diverse.   It would not be an exaggeration to say that there are millions of different microbes in a gram of soil. Bacteria is the most numerous.  There are also a ton of fungi, protozoa and algae. Soil animals like nematodes, micro-arthropods, earth worms and burying insects are plentiful and important and sometimes fill the predator role to help maintain balance. An important function carried out by larger organisms is the aeration they perform in the soils as the burrow about.

Get this…  you know how you can go to the hardware store and buy plant food?  Specialized microbes will feed your plants for you all by
themselves.  They grab nitrogen (yep, the N from NPK) from the air and hold it in their bodies and make it accessible to plants.  It’s
called nitrogen fixation.

Scientists are finding that plants don’t absorb synthetic fertilizers as well as organic types.  This is similar to findings that humans absorb nutrients from real food much more efficiently than we absorb nutrients from supplements and vitamins.

Another way the underground community feeds plants is by breaking down organic matter into nutrients that plants can utilize.  That’s one way
compost plays a role.  The underground community needs organic matter to thrive.  With conventional gardening and farming, the soil is
stripped of organic matter and diversity.

While providing organic matter, compost and compost tea add organisms back into the soil. Compost tea can be applied to leaves.  Scientists are finding that some
members of the underground hang out on plant leaves and provide protection against many common plant pests.

It truly is a symbiotic relationship between soil and the plants the earth houses.  Plant roots give out sugars that feed the organisms in the soil.  Talk about symbiotic, mycorrhizal fungi live on the surface of most plants roots, consume the sugars and then enable the plant to better absorb nutrients, minerals and water. Mycorrhizal fungi also serves to extend the length of the plant root and helps the plant survive stresses like drought.

We haven’t been good to our soil recently.  We till it up and drag it away for new construction leaving homeowners with clay and subsoil. We pour all sorts of petrochemicals on it.   Even just digging up a new garden plot disrupts the activity beneath the soil.

By replacing the family farm with industrialized farming, we’ve robbed our farm soils of the manure that used to feed soil communities.  We now cram our livestock in much too small factory farms.  In the same way, we rob the soil of the plant diversity it needs by planting monocultures of lawn and on huge farms. We pave it over.  We drive heavy machinery on it and compact it.

Luckily, there are folks actively looking for better approaches.  A lot of energy exists around the attributes of the Soil Food Web and the benefits of compost beyond the organic matter it offers.  The microbial activity of compost has the potential to completely revolutionize modern growing and farming.

I learned more about the work that’s going on in what’s actually beyond organic growing while in San Francisco. Interest is increasing in both the curative and restorative properties of well-made, clean compost.   I spent part of Earth Day learning more about bio-dynamic farming and reading about the work of Ian Davidson and Biologic Systems.  I’ll spend some time on the Malibu Compost site.  Hey, and thanks to me, now you can too.