Soil is a dynamic, living environment that supports and feeds life. Soil is the earthy material that plants grow in. It is composed of a matrix of minerals, organic matter, air and
water. Each component is important for supporting plant growth,
microbial communities and chemical decomposition. The soil ecosystem can be defined as an
interdependent life-support system. Some scientists refer to soil as Earth's living skin.
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| Soil after 30+ years of leaving the leaves and top dressing with compost |
This post is intended to be an introduction to soils and is not a deep dive into a very complex topic. The purpose of this post is to give you a starting point in case you want to dive deeper. I do hope you're encouraged to learn more about the soils in your part of the world and that you get engaged in activities that promote soil health.
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| Source |
Soil scientists describe soils using a number of characteristics, but we gardeners should at least know our soil's texture (whether it's sandy, loamy, or clay), its drainage capabilities, pH level, nutrient content, and organic matter percentage. Those are the factors that significantly impact plant growth and determine if any amendments might be needed. Gardeners also need to know that soil can die, that it is a non-renewable resource and that we have the power to protect it.
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| Ordovician limestone is my major harvest |
My garden soil is nearly neutral and it's heavier and
darker than some other soils in middle Tennessee. It's shallow (1 to 6 inches) and sits on top of 400 million year old Ordovician limestone boulders and bedrock. Friends who live about ten miles away have vastly different soil than mine; it's deeper with a different mineral composition that changes the PH, the texture and nutrient content. I plant according to my soil's conditions. My only amendments are leaving the leaves each fall and topdressing some plants with compost. If you are uncertain get your soil tested before adding amendments and then top dress with compost and leave the leaves.
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| There are boulders under those containers |
When you garden on shallow soil you tend to think about soil...a lot! Especially when you visit a garden that has deep soil, or you need to purchase large quantities of soil products for the two stock tanks you bought to expand your container gardening.
I do think about soil, it's why I decided to research it and make it a First Wednesday Wildlife Challenge post. Most of you already know that soil is more than dirt. The difference Soil = Dirt (sand, silt, clay) + Organic Matter + Organisms. You can't have soil without dirt, but you CAN have dirt that's not soil. Basically, if there's no life or organic matter mixed in with the sand/silt/clay, then you're working with Dirt. (source)
Soil has a super important job
- Soil is a living ecosystem made up of living organisms, minerals, water, and air. It's a dynamic system that's constantly changing, growing, and breathing. It's highly biodiverse containing a vast variety of organisms including bacteria, fungi, insects, and other small creatures, all interacting within a complex ecosystem; making it a significant reservoir of biodiversity on the planet.
- It's the foundation for plant growth
- It filters and purifies water
- It reduces flooding
- With proper management it can store significant amounts of carbon, helping to combat climate change by keeping it from being released into the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration is a fancy way of saying carbon storage.
- Understanding its properties and learning how to manage it sustainably goes a long way to ensure food security as well as environmental health.
Soil degradation, where soil loses the physical, chemical, or biological qualities that support life, is a natural process but it is being accelerated by human activity. The reality is that it takes thousands of years to create an inch of fertile topsoil, but it can be destroyed in minutes. Conserving and protecting the soil is the best way to make sure the soil stays alive and healthy. We can all do our part in keeping the soil healthy.
- Plant more native trees; their leaves, trunk and roots store carbon
- Work to insure that your community values and protects trees
- Restore grasslands and keep them healthy
- Plant cover crops
- Stop using NPK fertilizers, unless it's absolutely necessary
- Stop using herbicides
- Leave the leaves
- Be mindful of disturbing the soil and eliminate compaction
- Use compost and add humus
- Stop spraying for mosquitos the chemicals settle on the ground killing organisms in the soil
- Practice no till farming and gardening; tilling releases carbon.
- Farmers and big agriculture must change how they farm. We need to replace our reliance on monoculture farming and return to crop rotation in order to give soil time to replenish the nutrients needed by plants
- Let the stalks, stems and stumps of plants return to the soil as organic matter.
- Compost food scraps to add to soil when decomposed.
- A well planted garden that has a living mulch keeps soil from eroding. Eroding soil pollutes the air and water and makes them unsafe for all of us to breathe and use.
Our soil needs all the help it can get. It is an irreplaceable resource and necessary for sustaining life on this planet. We need to act now to ensure that soil is a priority in our communities. We still have time to rebuild our degraded soils. It’s time for all of us, our neighborhoods, cities, towns, companies, and countries to help save our soils. This may be one of the great challenges for humanity in
the 21st century.
xoxoGail
Here's a recap of what the First Wednesday Monthly Challenge is all about.
The first part of this challenge is to do something, even lots of things each month that support the critters living in our gardens. Gardening with native wildflowers, shrubs and trees that make sense for our ecoregion is a good place to start or continue (as the case may be). Plants and their pollinators are a classic example of mutualism: they have coevolved through evolutionary time in a reciprocal beneficial relationship. This is also true for other critters that visit and live in our gardens.
Activities that increase our knowledge of the natural world are equally as valuable. Helping others learn about nature is included. Golly gee whiz, there are so many things you can do.
The second part of the challenge is to post about it somewhere: Your blog, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or even your neighborhood listserve. Wouldn't an article in the local paper be a coup for nature! Why post it? Because positive publicity is needed to educate our friends, neighbors and communities about how important even the smallest changes we make as gardeners can be for pollinators, birds, insects and mammals, including humans, that live all around us.
Why now? My
neighborhood is changing. Yours might be, too. Every day an older home
along with many (if not all) of the mature oak, hickory, maple, Eastern
cedar and hackberry trees are cut down. Insects, birds, even mammals
lose their home site and food supplies when we lose trees. During construction
soil is compacted by bulldozers, trucks and piles of
debris cause runoff; surface runoff that can carry pollution to
streams and rivers. It's
important that our neighbors and our community have information about how important trees
are to our ecosystem. Trees contribute to their environment by providing
oxygen, improving air quality, climate amelioration, conserving water,
preserving soil, and supporting wildlife.
In place of the "bee lawns" composed of Claytonia, Salvia lyrata, Ruellia humilis, fleabane, Western Daisy, Violets, self-heal, clovers, native grasses (in my neighborhood it's poverty oat grass) and sedges, they're being sodded with non-native grasses. These monoculture turf lawns contribute nothing environmentally. Here's what we lose when our diverse lawns are replaced with pristine turf grass:
- Gone are the lightening bugs.
- Gone are the ground dwelling/nesting native bees.
- Gone is the habitat for insects, spiders and other critters.
- Gone is plant diversity.
- Gone are trees that provided for hundreds of moths, butterflies and other insects.
- Gone are the nesting sites for woodpeckers, hummingbirds, Chickadees and other birds.
- Gone is a healthy foodweb.
It breaks my heart.
We can't stop the progmess, but,
maybe we can make a lot of educational noise and help our new neighbors
see the value in providing for critters and ultimately helping the environment.
A gardener can hope!
xoxoGail
Here's an
incomplete list of things you might consider doing or changing in your
garden, and things you can do for and/or in your community. But don't limit yourself to my list, make your own list or check
out the
internet for ideas.
Looking for ways to get involved go here for a list of environmental advocacy groups.
Buy the best wildflower, butterfly and bird id books for your state.
Read nature books to your children and grandchildren. Buy them nature books.
Get in the garden with your children and grandchildren.
Shrink your lawn and make your planting beds larger.
Plant your favorite native perennials and shrubs. Leave them standing after they've gone to seed to continue to provide for wildlife. What you plant in your yard makes a difference to wildlife. I garden for wildlife so every tree, shrub and plant is chosen with wildlife in mind.
Plant more natives and then consider planting even more. "A typical suburban landscape contains only 20-30% native plant species. Try reversing that trend in your own landscape by using 70-80% native species." (source)
Plant
for bloom from late spring to early winter. Bees are most active from
February to November (longer in mild climates) late winter blooming Hamamelis vernalis
and the earliest spring ephemerals (like the toothworts, hepaticas,
spring beauties, and False rue-anemeone) are perfect plants for a
variety of pollinators.
Commit to never, ever, ever, ever using pesticides in the garden.
Stay away from native plant hybrids and cultivars that are double flowered. They are sterile and have no pollen or nectar for insects and no seeds for the birds. If possible plant “true open-pollinated native wildflowers”
If you want to garden for wildlife and pollinators, don't let lack of
space stop you! Plant your favorite wildflowers in large containers.
You just might have the prairie or woodland garden you've always wanted...in a pot!
Create a water feature. Provide water year round that is accessible to birds, bees and other critters.
Make a rain garden in low spots to collect and mitigate runoff.
Show some soil! Our native ground nesting bees nest in bare soil, so don't mulch every square inch of your garden.
Get rid of the plastic weed barriers in your garden, it's not good for anything.
Invite bugs into your garden. Plant annuals that attract beneficial bugs.
Learn to tolerate damaged plants. Imperfection is the new perfect.
Don't be in a rush to clean up the fall garden. Leave plant stalks and seed heads standing all winter. Leave those fallen leaves or as many as you can tolerate! Insects over winter in the fallen and decaying leaves. Leave a layer of leaves as a soft landing material under trees for moths and butterflies to over winter. Many caterpillars drop to the ground from the trees in the fall and need a soft landing site and a place to live over the winter.
Allow
a fallen tree to remain in the garden. Limbs on the ground are a
perfect shelter for small animals such as rabbits, chipmunks and
squirrels and a habitat for beetles, termites and other insects.
Make a brush pile. Stack fallen brush, cut tree limbs, broken pots for ground beetles. Ground beetles are excellent at eating "bad bugs". Bugs are also good bird, toad and small critter food.
Rethink what you consider a pest. Lots of good bugs eat aphids. Spiders are important predators and they're great bird food!
Add nesting boxes for birds.
Turn
off your yard up-lighting, eave lights and porch lights after 11pm.
This is important for nocturnal critters including mammals, snakes,
insects, bats, birds (especially during migration). (Birdcast suggestions)
Plant shrubs and small trees that provide berries and nuts.
Keep a nature journal: You can observe visitors to your water feature, make note of when they visit. Notice which flowers attract the most pollinators and which ones are just pretty faces.
Join your state native plant society (Tennessee Native Plant Society)
Join WildOnes even if there's no local group you can join the national organization. (Middle Tennessee WildOnes)
Support your local native plant sellers. (GroWild in middle Tennessee, Overhill Gardens in east Tennessee, Resource Guide TN Native Plant Society)
Encourage your local garden clubs to offer native plant talks.
If your garden club has a plant sale encourage them to sell more native plants.
Get trained as a naturalist (Tennessee Naturalist Program. Almost every state has their own Master Naturalist training program
Take an online course on tree, fungi and wildflower id.
Take an online course on designing with native plants.
Take a walk in your neighborhood and observe nature. To quote Joanna Brichetto in Sidewalk Nature "Look Around. Nature is here, is us, our driveways, our baseboards, parks, and parking lots."
If you are already gardening with wildlife in mind then add a few signs that help educate your neighbors. (Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership)
Join the Xerces Society.
Set up an information station where neighbors can pick up brochures about your garden and other info.
Get certified (National Wildlife Federation, check to see what your state offers)
Support
trees by joining the effort to make sure developers don't remove more
trees than are necessary for their project. Work to make sure there are
tree removal permits and that they are actually enforced in your
community.
Gail Eichelberger is a gardener, Tennessee Naturalist and nature writer in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.
