What is soil ??

Saturday some members of Transition Hendersonville were lucky enough to attend a soil building class lead by Roger Bass.  It was a great class and I know I walked away with more knowledge on caring for my soil.

What is soil?  The ideal garden soil is loam, a mixture with relatively equal parts of sand, silt, and clay and 5 to 10% organic matter.
Soil is an ecosystem teeming with microbes constantly breaking organic matter apart.
The soil food web:
Bacteria are the most numerous living components of soil.
Fungi are the primary decay agents in the soil.
In a healthy soil food web, fungi and bacteria do much the same work and share many of the same functions.
Protoza eat mostly bacteria.
Worms eat protozoa.
Termites and ants mix surface and subsurface soil.
A fully active soil food web will have better nutrient retention in its soil and will result in improved soil structure.
Fertilizer is a salt and dries out and kills bacteria and soil life.  If the plant does not immediately use the fertilizer it leeches through the soil to the water table.  Bacteria and microbes eat natural nutrients and release them when they die.  Microbes can remain dormant until conditions are right and then they come alive.  Organic fertilizers feed the soil life.
Clean water comes from healthy soil. Water coming from conventional agricultural fields is laden with excess inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur.  Water running off a forest is clean.

Now that you know about the soil - you will never call it dirt again !

Thank you Roger