Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Six Steps to Creating Healthy
Soil
In a well-balanced ecosystem, external inputs aren't necessary. Gran-
ted, even when our garden is healthy, we still may bring in some inputs
in order to maximize health and yield, but nature does most of the work.
Some people might argue it doesn't make sense that we should have to
bring external inputs into a garden at all. After all, nature doesn't do this.
I agree that it's unfortunate to have to go to this extra work, but here's
the thing. First of all, we're probably trying to grow things that wouldn't
grow naturally. Second, our soil has been so abused in the past by defor-
estation, farming methods, tilling, chemical use and on and on to the
point that we need to actively fix it, fast. We don't want to wait 10 or 100
years to be able to grow healthy food.
This is why we may concede, for example, to ship some lime halfway
across the country to get more calcium into our soil. Being environment-
ally conscience, we don't want to ship this lime and we may not want
this rock to be mined in the first place. This is a complex topic that mer-
its debate, but I believe we need to do it. We need healthy plants and we
need healthy food.
We've now looked at the basics of the soil food web. We've peeked
into the lives of the different organisms that live there. We've seen why
insects, diseases and weeds show up on the scene. We've looked at the
fundamentals of soil, and how to learn about it through some simple at-
home digging and testing through a lab.
Now it's time to see what to do about it. This section covers the six
steps to creating healthy soil and abundance in your organic garden.
