The Garden Gate: Life Beneath Our Feet | ACCENT

One of the things I feel we have lost, is the ability to connect with the soil. Do you remember walking barefoot? Stepping on something scary or uncomfortable? The feel of grass and gravel beneath your toes? Somehow, that connected us to the ground in a right way. Somehow, we’ve come to regard life in the ground as enemies to be killed, when in fact, without them, we will die. Soil-dwellers dig tunnels, leave behind packets of nutrient-rich droppings, drag down organic matter and break it into usable components, not to mention the work of bacteria, microbes, and fungi, which continue the decomposition, making nutrients readily available.

Worms and insects start the process. They’re essential in debris clean-up. Can you imagine what earth would look like without detritus-critters? Twisting, cutting, tugging, pushing, they reduce waste to manageable size, then stir it into the existing soil. A diversity of worms, nematodes, mites, fly larvae, etc., all work to make this happen. Fungi and bacteria take over, continuing the process. Oh! The awesome world of microbial activity! This huge community of symbiotic life works to make the decomposed matter into available nutrients for plants. As in all societies, there are good and bad bacteria, fungi, and soil dwellers. If the soil isn’t healthy because of tillage, toxins and “icides”, the bad ones will be in control, working hard to keep “healthy” from happening, and the ground will produce poorly or not at all. In healthy soil there are networks, or exchanges, that take place between the roots of certain plants and fungi, known as mycorrhiza, made up of many different types of fungi. It forms a webbing of sorts, that may stretch for long distances in healthy soils, anchoring roots, and improving uptake of nutrients. The fungi get carbohydrates from the plants, which the plant got from the sun and photosynthesis. In return the plant receives more available nutrients, water, and better disease resistance. In a healthy no-till, or layered garden, the soil is filled with all this good activity, so when plants go into the ground, they will thrive. This process, to me, is amazing! This is nature’s pattern, and the design for healthy growing, better nutrients for life on earth to consume, and it’s the way it was purposed to be.

How do we support this underworld? What if you’ve been a “soil abuser” but you see that it needs to be different. Where do you start? Begin by learning all you can about cover-crops, no-till, lasagna gardening, cardboard gardening, and any other type of garden prep that calls for building up, not tearing down. There’s lots of information out there; if you want more from me, let me know. I’ll be glad to explain.

Some basics are, stay away from synthetics in fertilizers or soil amendments; limit or eliminate anything that ends in “icide”; no tilling. The base you create will be added to year after year, and you’ll be able to plant through these layers into a wonderful tilth.

I start my garden with cardboard, shingled and layered. On top of that goes all the barn debris from the goats, chickens, and ducks, along with very old rotting hay. My neighbors bring their leaves and dump them on. Kitchen scraps, coffee filters full of grounds, fish parts, and anything that will rot. This year my cardboard will be laid alongside the places I plan to put in rows of veggies, so I won’t have to cut through it. I’ll mulch around the seeds and plants. Look for a farmer who has an old manure pile or who would let you clean stalls, for the contents. The exercise is all part of good health.

Will there be weeds? Yes, but they’ll be easy to pull or chop down, and they’ll become part of the organic layers. Seeds come from birds, critters, shoes, the wind, and parts of the layers. It’s ok. It’s not difficult to deal with.

Bonuses to this kind of gardening are, the soil temperature stays cooler, moisture is retained longer, the soil is easier to dig into, root crops pull up easier, and more. This in addition to food that’s much higher in the nutrients our bodies need to be healthy.

Believe it or not, this is regenerative agriculture. You’re helping to shrink your impact on already worn-out soil, and the healing, the regeneration, has begun. After a couple years you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!