sequestering carbon
• protecting biodiversity
• supporting pollinator communities
• connecting viable habitats
May you find inspiration in the good you are doing in your own little corner of the world.
A honeybee on an apple blossom. Honeybees are important to apple pollination.
Worms help gardeners in many ways, among them aerating the soil and producing nutrient-rich castings (waste).
Soil Matters
Originally printed in the April 2015 newsletter for the Lexington, Kentucky, chapter of Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes
Why care about the soil? Because soil is alive! Soil is the most biodiverse part of your garden ecosystem. Millions of organisms can inhabit a spoonful of rich, healthy soil. Every arthropod, bacteria, fungus, or worm plays a role that affects the other members of the soil community. They shred, graze, parasitize, and predate on each other, but they mainly take care of organic matter. Underground organisms process everything from leafy tendrils to tough tree trunks; they also build the infrastructure for plants’ roots. They make nutrients available, disperse water, and open air pathways for good circulation, creating a healthy community or habitat.
The benefits of biodiversity in your soil don’t stop with the plants. Recent scientific studies support the hygiene hypothesis, which theorizes that people who grow up in developed countries are too clean for their own good. Researchers are finding that early exposure to healthy amounts of bacteria, fungus, and even some parasites could build children’s immune systems, leading to fewer inflammatory conditions as adults. Scientists are trying to identify which members of a healthy gut microbiome affect specific problems, ranging from Crohn’s disease to autism.
Similarly, soil scientists are often interested in isolating the bacteria and fungi that create certain changes in soil chemistry and fertility. However, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) states, “Many effects of soil organisms are a result of the interactions among organisms, rather than the actions of individual species. This implies that managing for a healthy food web is not primarily a matter of inoculating with key species, but of creating the right environmental conditions to support a diverse community of species.”
Where do you find the richest, most diverse, and most resilient soil systems? In forests. Forests can have up to 40 miles of fungus in just one teaspoon of soil, compared to several yards of fungus in a teaspoon of typical agricultural soil. Gardening with native plants and natural systems encourages a rich, biodiverse community above and below ground and mimics the conditions found in the wild forest. So go ahead and get some of that good dirt—er, soil—under your nails.
The soil in a healthy forest supports a thriving, biodiverse community.
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