If you have an area
that you are planning to garden in you can start adding some of the
basic building blocks of life very easily. The first step needs to be
growing microbes. The microbes are mostly made
of water so the area will need to be moist. You could start this
project when it starts to rain so you are not using city water to get it
moist. Given that city water has residual chlorine in it intended to
kill microbes so that us humans don't get sick,
it is pretty much the opposite of what you are trying to do. I would cover the soil
with at least 4 to 6 inches of mulch. The best type of mulch is is by far leaves but straw will do in a pinch. Save the leaves when they fall in autumn for your composting and gardening needs throughout the year. It would be best if you could
mulch the leaves first. I like to rake the leaves
on to the lawn and 'vacuum' them up with the lawn mower. I also have a
leaf blower that has a mulching option. I have even heard of people
putting the leaves into their green waste can and using a weed wacker to
kinda blend them up in the bin. That option
sounds a little messy but whatever your method the point is to get the
leaves into smaller pieces.
Just
covering the soil and having the rain perk through the leaves will
begin the process of adding life into the soil. We want this to really
get going so
the next thing I would do is to make it inviting to the larger creatures
that feed on the microbes, like worms and others. You could take your
kitchen scraps and either bury them in the soil or just spread them out
on top of the soil and cover with the 4 to
6 inches of leaf mulch.
The kitchen scraps will not only add organic matter to the soil it will
add carbon and nitrogen as well as many other nutrients that plants
will need to be healthy. Keeping the kitchen
scraps covered is the key to not having any odors or other nuisances
like flies. After doing this for a few weeks you could add the worms.
Red worms generally live in the top 4 to 6 inches of soil so they will
go up and down as the temperatures change and
the food supply is added to the garden. You can continue to spread your
kitchen scraps to the garden even after you plant. It happens to me
that I will have surplus food that my worm army at my home cannot handle
so I will spread it in my garden covering
it with lots of mulch. When I go back just 4 or 5 days later it is gone
and all that is left is beautiful rich soil and worms eating the mulch.
Worm castings is another way to boost the microbes in the soil and to quote a horticulturalist friend of
mine Steve Zine, you want to use as much castings as you can afford. I
am lucky
to run in circles with many people that know a lot about soil and
gardening. Every time I would go to Steve and ask him about some
problem I have in my garden he would tease me and tell me 'See if you
can find some good quality worm castings'. Of course he
knew I grew worms and had plenty of good quality castings, the point was
that even I could use more of them. It is currently
September and the summer growing season is coming to an end but now is the perfect time to use them. Fresh worm castings are full
of those microbes you are trying to inoculate your soil with. If you
add them to the soil, cover them with that mulch, and allow the winter
rains to peculate the castings into the soil it will bring life to the
soil. I have seen castings added to the top
of hard clayey soil in the fall turn the soil into beautiful loose soil
by spring. I know it sounds like magic but it is the microbes bringing
life to the soil.
