To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] Soil 101, microbes
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 10:13:25 -0700
To feed plants, we feed the soil. The soil community then converts the food
we give it into a form the tiny plant root hairs can assimilate. To keep
the process going, just keep feeding groceries to the gang underground.
Lots of mulch does the trick.
There are sound reasons why informed gardeners do not plow or till, why
they create and maintain garden paths, and shun chemical fertilizers. The
living soil is complex and well-ordered; everything is in its optimal
place, and to till it is to turn things inside out, if not upside down.
Imagine Zeus tilling a human subdivision with a hundred-foot RotoCruncher
and you get the idea. Give the soil kids a break and sell the tiller.