Build Better Garden Soil

By Harvey Ussery
Published on April 1, 2007
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Build fertile soil by using mulches and cover crops such as this fast-growing buckwheat.
Build fertile soil by using mulches and cover crops such as this fast-growing buckwheat.
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Instead of tilling, Harvey Ussery recommends using a broadfork to loosen the soil for planting.
Instead of tilling, Harvey Ussery recommends using a broadfork to loosen the soil for planting.
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A host of tiny soil organisms live among soil particles and are often fed by the carbohydrates released by plant roots.
A host of tiny soil organisms live among soil particles and are often fed by the carbohydrates released by plant roots.
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Compost whatever organic materials you have on hand, including yard waste such as grass clippings and fall leaves.
Compost whatever organic materials you have on hand, including yard waste such as grass clippings and fall leaves.
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Applying compost to your crops annually is the one of the best ways to build soil fertility.
Applying compost to your crops annually is the one of the best ways to build soil fertility.

Soil is the key to health, both for ourselves and for the animals and plants we depend on. But soil “in good heart,” as farmers used to say, is not something we can take for granted. For gardeners and farmers, caring for the soil must always be our first priority, and the process of building soil fertility is vast and complex.

The best question to ask is not “What is the best soil care?” but “What is the best soil care for this particular piece of ground?” Over the seasons, the soil itself becomes our teacher and shows us which practices lead to beneficial changes.

Let’s begin with this intriguing question: Why is it that in natural soil ecologies, soil fertility tends to accumulate spontaneously over time, while human agriculture often leads to drastic declines in soil quality? Whether we look at prairies, bogs or forests, we find that topsoil tends to deepen and become more fertile over time. Why are humans more likely to destroy than to build soil quality, when natural systems operating on their own produce the opposite result?

One implication is obvious: The key to soil management is imitating natural systems. But perhaps the best answer to this riddle is that topsoil is alive, and any approach to agriculture that treats it as an inert substance is almost certain to be destructive.

What is Topsoil?

Topsoil is formed from tiny particles weathered or worn from their parent materials (rock, of various types). Both the chemical composition of the parent material and the average particle size help determine fundamental characteristics of soil — whether it is acid, alkaline or neutral; and whether it is sand (large particle size) or clay (extremely small particle size). But a layer of small rock particles is not “soil,” and it is not capable of growing a crop.

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