Grow Your Soil!

Growing awareness of the importance of soil health means that microbes are on the minds of even the most casual gardeners. After all, anyone who has ever attempted to plant a thriving patch of flowers or vegetables knows that what you grow is only as good as the soil you grow it in. It is possible to create and maintain rich, dark, crumbly soil that's teeming with life, using very few inputs and a no-till, no-fertilizer approach. Certified permaculture designer and lifelong gardener Diane Miessler presents the science of soil health in an engaging, entertaining voice geared for the backyard grower. She shares the techniques she has used - including cover crops, constant mulching, and a simple-but-supercharged recipe for compost tea - to transform her own landscape from a roadside dump for broken asphalt to a garden that stops traffic, starting from the ground up.



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  The key to success for every gardening venture is rich soil. Achieving that basic building block is easy with this accessible soil improvement guide, which offers a broad understanding of the science of soil's microbial life in an engaging, entertaining style. Diane Miessler is the author of Grow Your Soil! She is a certified permaculture designer, a soil science enthusiast, and a gardener with more than 50 years of experience. She has a monthly column in The Union, a newspaper that serves Nevada County, California.

Dr. Elaine Ingham discovered the soil food web nearly 4 decades ago and has been pioneering research ever since. Widely recognized as the world's foremost soil biologist, she's passionate about empowering ordinary people to bring the soils in their community back to life. Creating healthy soil isn't rocket science.



It's easier than you think! Step away from the rototiller, stop digging, skip the fertilizers, and let microbes do the heavy lifting. Discover no-sweat soil-building steps like turning weeds into on-the-spot mulch, using cover crops and kitchen waste to feed and protect your soil food web, and brewing super-easy, super-charged compost tea to fend off soil pathogens. Then sit back, relax, and watch your garden thrive. Foreword by Elaine R. Ingham

Beauty, Magic & Tomatoes: Why I Garden, and How the Soil Food Web Helps

10 Suggestions for Creating Healthy, Living Soil

Making Soil: Building a "House"



1  The Skinny on Soil: What Makes Soil Good & How Does It Get That Way?

  What Is Soil?

  What Makes Good Soil Good?

  What Good Is Good Soil?

2  Building a House: Start with the Roof (Mulch & Cover Crops)

  Mulch

  Cover Crops

3  Build the Walls: Organic Matter & the Soil Food Web That Sticks It Together

  Soil Organic Matter

  The Soil Food Web: A Gardener's Best Friend

  Biodiversity 101: Microbes

  Biodiversity 102: Algae, Bugs, Worms, and More

4  Install Ventilation, Plumbing & a Nice Pantry: No-Till Growing, Paths & CEC

  Step Away from the Rototiller!

  Make Paths

  What Is CEC?

  How to Increase CEC

5  Feed the Inhabitants: Photosynthesis, Minerals & Soil Testing

  Photosynthesis: Empty but Necessary Calories

  Macronutrients & Micronutrients

  To Test or Not to Test

6  Compost and Compost Tea: It's Not Rocket Science

  Benefits and Tools

  Is It Compost or Is It Mulch?

  How to Build a Compost Pile

  Maintaining a Compost Pile: It Needs Your Love

  When Is It Done?

  Growing Pains

  Fungally or Bacterially Dominated?

  Worm Bins

  Frequently Asked Questions, Answered

  Compost Tea for a Non-Rocket Scientist with a Bucket

7  Where Do I Start? Building a Garden That Feeds Itself

  Step 1: Pick a Spot

  Step 2: Get Water to It

  Step 3: Decide where You'll Walk

  Step 4: Soften the Soil

  Step 5: Pull Stuff Up, Throw Stuff Down

  Step 6: Mulch

  Step 7: Plant Stu