Why Save the Soil
May27,2022
From The Desk of
The Invisible Gardener
Save the Soil?
I get asked a lot about what I mean by “Save the Soil”.
My first book came out in 1971 or 72. It was called “How to Heal the Earth in your Spare Time”. I could just as easily have called it “How to Save the Earth, in your Spare time” and as a matter of fact, I am planning on doing just that, called my latest book “How to Save the Planet in your Spare time”. I suppose healing is easier to get the meaning of, than saving but to me, the soil is the key to having the type of planet that we have. One with oceans, atmosphere, land, weather, and all the living things that inhabit it. If we want to continue to have this environment to live in then we must start to take care of the soil. The living microorganisms on the soil are the real invisible gardeners. It is they who work towards providing us with the food rich is everything we need to grow healthy and strong. Gaia is the best recycler on the Planet. She makes sure the trace minerals from one part of the earth are redistributed to all the other parts. Whether it is done through the weather, or the oceans, it is the soil that provides. Plants grow and die and spread them around the world, like their manure which birds, for example, poop while flying from one part of the world to another or from creatures of the ocean or animals on land.
However, what I have found is that folks are taught not how to keep their soil alive but to fertilizer with chemicals, use pesticides, etc. It leads to the soil not having the essential minerals and food value needed o benefit from eating. There will always be some type of microbes living in the soil. Even in the desert, there are microbes. I think I read some that they found microbes near lava tubes, and in the Sahara Desert.
The key here is to have the right types of microbes in our soil. These will provide my plants with the proper environment for their growth. One of the best ways to ensure that your soil has what it needs, we make compost. The main reason to make compost is to return to the soil, the microbial life that normally would be there.
I know that recycling comes to mind and that is a good benefit. When a person calls me and tells me that they say having a pest or disease on their plants, they expect me to come and do something organically to the plants.
That’s partly true. There are short-term solutions and long-term solutions. The long-term deals with the cause and the sooner you correct it, the sooner it will get corrected. The short term just provides temporary relief at best. Just like painkillers for the body. They do not deal with the cause of the pain, only make it so you don’t feel the pain.
So, I do two things, first I start to work on the long-term solution which is to change the conditions that is damaging the soil. This usually is over watering, chemical fertilizers, no humus in the soil, no real soil, and not one earthworm. We start folks with an organic method of gardening. One that uses compost, and mulch, use proper organic gardening techniques. This will usually take a few years before the soil structure re-establishes itself. There should not be any place you dig where you do not find an earthworm.
In the meanwhile, I have learned that there are many safe natural ways to deal with that pest or that disease. Many of these will surprise you. Much like our stomach which has its own microbes which turn nutrients into digestible food for us. If that stops working or goes out of whack, we won’t survive too long!
I am starting up a series of online workshops. We meet on Zoom. I will then also be able to answer your questions. The next Blog will cover more on the workshop, subjects covered, and costs. I am working on setting up a page on the website. I will also have a page for the podcast.
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Next Blog, I will go over making compost properly with the microbes needed.
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Stay tuned lots more are coming!
Andy Lopez
Invisible Gardener
Thanks, Everyone!
You can hear more on my podcast “Talks with the Andy Lopez – From the Soul to the Soil “.
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Andy Lopez
The Invisible Gardener
Talks with the Invisible Gardener – From your Soul to your Soil
