Chicken Soup For The Soil
By Jean Fritz, Fri Dec 9th
Your soil is the most important part of your garden, but toomany people forget to nurture their soil. Soil is a livingthing, containing microbes, fungi, insect life and general"creepy-crawlies" vital to plant health and vigor, as well as areceptacle for chemicals and trace elements. Doing a little soilprep every fall pays off each and every harvest.
First, add more organic matter. Use your rototiller or yourspade, and dig under frostbitten plant material, grassclippings, leaves, wood chips, and compost. Avoid using anydiseased plant material as compost – burn it first if there areno local restrictions on burning. If you live near anylivestock, cover your garden with 1 – 2” of uncomposted manure,then disguise that with other organic materials, and let thewhole thing winter over. A blanket of snow from December throughMarch will turn all of it into about ¼” of the most beautifultopsoil you can imagine.
It’s also time to think about soil pH, or the acidity oralkalinity. The addition of organic materials can lower the pH,or make it more acidic. If your soil is already high in acid andyou’d like to neutralize it, you can also add lime or wood ashesto your garden. Wood ashes are wickedly alkaline, but after aseason or two, create an excellent haven for earthworms and addenough potash to the soil to grow wonderful root crops.
Finally, feed your fungi. Really. Many stores specializing inproducts for organic gardening and sustainable agriculture sellmicorrhizal spores, which is a fungus that helps soil releaseits nutrients more easily. Micorrhiza needs to be fed in orderto reproduce and survive the winter. Use a hose-end sprayer, andfill it halfway with gooey, blackstrap molasses. If you can findthe sulphured kind, so much the better. Fill the rest of thesprayer with flat beer, and spray the solution over your gardenbeds. The sugar in the molasses feeds the existing fungi andbeneficial bacteria in the soil, and the yeasts and enzymes inthe beer add more. You’ll literally make your soil come alive,and that will help your garden thrive next year.
About the author:Jean Fritz is a farmer and freelance writer. Her farm,KittyVista Organics, is located 30 miles east of Indianapolis,and specializes in growing heirloom, open-pollinated and unusualvarieties of flowers and vegetables.
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