Garden With Ernest

We need to be growing healthy soil. Because the health of the soil on the planet is vitally important. To put it simply, soil is at the very core of life on earth as we know it. And in our gardens growing a healthy soil is a sustainable way of combating climate change.

Lets start from the ground up

Soil is one of the basic foundations for life on our planet, we grow our food in it, and we build our gardens from it. The Earth’s ecosystem has formed around it. Without healthy soil our life would be almost impossible. Therefore, to grow crops sustainably we need healthy soil.

It can take hundreds of years to make a centimeter of soil. And that can be eroded away in less than a year. We need to protect this amazing natural resoure , that we depend upon.

Why do we need healthy soil?

Soil gives roots a secure foothold. It also filters rain water and holds onto moisture and nutrients. Healthy soils also provide habitat to a many micro-organisms that decompose organic matter. And these micro-organisms feed the plants and insects.   

So to have a healthy, sustainable garden you need to look after the soil. And soil needs feeding, to keep it alive and well.

How do we know if our soil is healthy?

You can not measure the health of your soil by how many crops you get. It is not as simple as that. Because there are so many other factors.

Even poor soil will produce crops if you add water and fertilizer. But continued use of fertilizers can harm crops, soil health and the enviroment, especially if in gets in to waterways and rivers.

Soil also has to have the right chemical balance so plants can grow in it. But most importantly it needs to be alive, full of organisms , bacteria, fungi and nemitodes.

One teaspoon of healthy soil can contain between 100 million to 1 billion individual bacteria.

How can we grow healthy soil in our garden?

• Protect the soil: Soil needs to be covered by living plants, cover crops or organic mulch. Because bare soil drys out quickly, and microoorganisms die when exposed to sunlight. Also bare soil can erode, and when soil erodes the nutriants in it erode too.
• Minimial soil disturbance: “No Dig”, only dig when it is really nessecary. Digging is harmful to all the beneficial bacteria and microorganisms.
• Plant diversity: Polyculture encourages biodiversity. Mixing different plants together makes them more resilience, because it is copying natural ecoystems. Plants naturally live close together, share nutients, shield the soil and each other. And this improves soil health.
• Encourage wildlife and benificial insects: bees are not the only benefical insect. Ants, beetles and many other bugs burrow into soil. They all have an important role in keeping soil alive and healthy.

Feed the soil not the plants.

We need to feed the microorganisms, bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi that live in the soil. For they break down organic matter, and release the nutrients from it into a liquid food that the plants can absorb though there roots. This is a process known as osmosis.

That’s because nutrients and minerials have to be soluble, dissolved in water. Microbes break down organic matter, in to a simple molecular form. That is the only way plants can absorb them.

Vegetables get hungry

Most gardeners know that plants need food to grow. Just like us, they need nutrients to keep them strong and healthy. A healthy plant is is better at fighting off pests and diseases. And vegetable plants often require lots of food to produce good crops.

Plants get most of their energy from the sun. This process is called photosynthesis. Plants absorb carbon dioxide, water and light and convert them into food. But they also require other nutrients and minerals, they get these from the soil.

So healthy soil supplys essential nutrients, water, oxygen and supports plants roots. They also protect the fragile plant roots from the sun and fluctuating temperatures. And a healthy soil is alive and teeming with life.

Tip from Ernest: Some people think fertilizers are all plants need to grow. Giving plants fertilizers, is like humans taking vitamin supplements. It will give plants a boost but it is only a short term fix.

Soil is so much more than just dirt

Rocks and minerals are the basic building blocks of soil. But soil is also filled with a mass of microscopic life. Many of these microscopic organisms are still unknown to science . However almost all of the antibiotics we use to fight of infections are obtained from soil microbes.

So who knows how many other undiscovered microorganisms lie under our feet. Maybe some of these will become future medicines.

Healthy soils protect the earth from erosion and stores carbon

Large amounts of organic carbon can be stored in soil. The soil can contain about three times more carbon than plants and twice as much as the atmosphere. Carbon in the air, can also be stored in soil. “Currently, soils remove about 25 percent of the world’s fossil fuel emissions each year.” According to the Earth Institute.

So growing healthy soil is an important weapon in our fight against climate change.

Links between Healthy and human health

Healthy soils producing healthy food for us to eat, there are also other benefits to be had from playing in the dirt.

Scientist, David Strachan, is reaching a link between a soil bacterium and stress-related disorders. He belives exposure to this bateria is good for us humans. And researchers are working on a microbe-based “stress vaccine”

“The idea is that as humans have moved away from farms and an agricultural or hunter-gatherer existence into cities, we have lost contact with organisms that served to regulate our immune system and suppress inappropriate inflammation,” said Lowry. “That has put us at higher risk for inflammatory disease and stress-related psychiatric disorders.” Christopher Lowry