With the soil still warm, October is an excellent time to add compost, vermicompost and other organic matter to the gardens. The August show of Virginia Home Grown, (season 24, episode 6) introduced many viewers to the concept of nurturing microscopic organisms living within the soil like a farmer would livestock.
Thinking of the soil as a living biome is a step away considering it’s just the dirt our plants grow in. Soil rich in organic matter and filled with earthworms, arthropods and microscopic organisms is abundant with minerals and nutrients. The plants grown in this type of soil will produce a harvest that is more nutrient dense and healthier!
I am aware this is a new way of thinking for some gardeners and I do understand how difficult it can be to change gardening practices. Still, if done incrementally, the new ways will eventually become regular practices.
This means putting aside the rototiller, a critical step because the tiller breaks up the network of mycelium that is crucial for the soil’s mycorrhizal network development. This network of fungi enhances nutrient, mineral and moisture assimilation by plant roots. It also forms a plant-to-plant communication network in our forests and other established plantings.
Adding organic matter in the form of compost, vermicompost, partially decayed leaf material or properly decomposed manures will enhance the underground microbes and create more pore spaces in the soil profile. With more pore spaces, the oxygen- and moisture-holding capacity of soil increases. This nurtures the underground microbes — aka your soil “livestock” — which enhances plant health.
Striving for minimum soil disturbance and compaction leads to the need to permanently define the growing rows of the garden and the foot paths.
Focusing on improving the soil leads to mulching soil surfaces in the rows and foot paths with straw, leaf mold, pine tags or arborist wood chips. The mulch suppresses weeds, buffers the temperature of the soil from the air, increases soil moisture and continually feeds the microbes and other soil organisms as it slowly decomposes.
Throughout my career, I transitioned to focusing on nurturing the soil with impressive results. Yes, I have become a soil microbe farmer. I have switched from tilling the soil numerous times a year to no-till practices.
I use organic fertilizers instead of relying on salt-based fertilizers. I top dress and gently work into the soil beds one-quarter of an inch of compost every year. I continue to mulch all garden and landscape beds because this aids in my microbe farming program for the reasons I listed above.
With these changes in my gardening practices, the soil I work has slowly become rich in organic matter, has a higher moisture holding capacity and is teeming with life. The best part is that the weed pressure diminished and the landscape plants and garden vegetables responded with lush growth and abundant harvests.
To make things even better vegetables are healthier to eat because they soak up nutrients from the more nutrient-rich soil.
I also changed how I establish a new garden area. Herbicides affect the microbiology of the soil and kill beneficial insects and insects such as lightning bugs.
As a soil microbe farmer, I now scalp the grass with my mower and cover the area with a blend of grass trimmings, pine tags, leaves, and arborist wood chips to smother existing weeds and turf grass. This layer of organic material can be used to create a new garden bed anytime of the year. After six weeks, I can usually begin planting in the new bed by parting the organic material to dig in the softened earth.
What I do not use is cardboard or any other manufactured weed barriers. Corrugated cardboard is known to contain dioxins and forever chemicals, polyfluoroalkyl substances also known as PFAS. These chemicals are environmental contaminants, and what is in the soil will be assimilated by the plants and end up in the produce and flowers.
Because it’s manufactured to keep our precious deliveries dry, cardboard does not breathe, which reduces the gaseous exchange between the air and the soil. The microbes I am cultivating end up suffocating from a lack of oxygen and a buildup of carbon dioxide in the soil underneath the cardboard barrier.
As for landscape fabric, it is manufactured using petroleum products and other chemicals such as BFAs and Bisphenol A – which you may know as the stuff we do not want water bottles made of. Over time the fabric does break down, adding microplastics to the soil, too. These chemicals eventually end up on my dinner table through the plants I grow.
Like corrugated cardboard, these fabrics do not breathe, blocking the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The fabric barrier also prevents leaves and other organic material from becoming incorporated into the soil profile, starving the microorganisms. Finally, the mulch applied on top of the weed barrier decomposes — creating a rich layer of soil perfect for weeds to grow in.
Given the facts, using weed barrier fabrics, plastic sheeting and cardboard is futile to the goals of a soil microbe farmer, don’t you agree?
An enriched soil biome is able to sequester a higher percentage of carbon from the atmosphere. Given the hot temperatures we endured this past summer, I am all for doing what I can to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Replacing the tiller and herbicides with organic materials and mulches to nurture the living network of microbes, earthworms and arthropods in the soil is an easy step to take.
Happy Gardening
Peggy
