Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Dieter Brand" <dbrand@mail.telepac.pt>]

Gloria, Ken,
I absolutely agree, increasing the organic component in soil is the key to 
success. Regarding the ways of doing this, direct methods are better than 
indirect ones since they involve fewer losses in terms of labour and 
nutrients and therefore reduce emissions; e.g., compost is better than 
manure, cover crops and mulch are better than compost. This may be further 
fine-tuned by the selection of cover crops, for example vetch with rye, and 
the use of mulch, for example covering a green mulch with a shredded woody 
mulch.

Regards,

Dieter Brand, Portugal