Soil Amendments - The Good, the Bad, and the Ridiculous

 Gabe Brown had four years of crop failures, which made him change his methods and emphasize cover crops.

Ridiculous
Let's start by dismissing the two ridiculous soil amendments, highly recommended by word-of-mouth, but useless for the soil:

1. Egg shells are made of calcium but they do not blend with the soil. They might be picked up by birds but do not affect the soil. Like meat products, they may attract the wrong crowd.
2. Epsom Salt is promoted by Martha Stewart - world famous gardener cook and hostess. The compound is a good bath salt and dissolves instantly in water. I bought an economy 8-pound bag and let half of it fall into the water. Not on purpose! It dissolved into the water and vanished, just like my toenials. No, I made that up. We use it for foot soaks. The Epsom Salt Council recommends it for every plant imaginable, but that is seldom the case. 

The Bad

Foods are not a good idea since they promote a distinctive and unpleasant garbage can aroma in the garden area. That is why most composters will stick to leafy matter that does not attract raccoons, skunks, and bears.

Chemical fertilizers can have a temporary impact on plants but they slow down or stop God's Creation process. Man-made fertilizers are toxic. Walk down that fertlizer aisle and inhale.

 Decades ago, the Salatin family began building the soil, which had been stripped bare from predatory farming.

Chickens hunt for food in the heavily manured fields.
This reduces pests and fragrance, preparing the chickens for market.

The Good

I am willing to share decades of reading and experience with everyone, which should save time and effort for some, incite curiosity among others.

• Save time! Soil amendments - whether finished or raw compost, leaves, manure, shredded wood, plant material, or all those exotic materials listed by Rodale Press - can be left on top of the soil, where God's own sanitation crew will pull it down up to the soil's capacity. Some common sense should be used for the kinds of manure, the freshness of the bouquet, and the amounts.
• Red Wiggler earthworms will pull down organic matter, dig, aerate, and fertilize for free. I added them early to the entire yard, and the results were immediate.
• Leaves are the foundation of all soil fungi, which are the network builders in feeding all plant roots in the yard. Leaves are mostly carbon, which should not be scorned. Fungi need carbon to grow, so why pay money or exert effort to haul carbon sources away.
• Pine Needles have a pleasant aroma for a long time. They can be a perfect mulch, not allowing any weeds through, but some gardeners fear they are too piney. I covered one garden deep and hardly any weeds came up - and even that took some time. But I grew Hostas, Pokeweed, and Blackberries there. Books say - do not overdo pine needles. I suppose it is good not to use them by the truckload, except where suppressing weed growth is a virtue.
• Coffee grounds add nutrition to the soil. Some people get pounds of them from coffee shops. I just toss the coffee didees into the rainwater barrel. Every so often a rich mixture of rainwater, grounds, and paper soak the bird bushes near our window. I dote on those bushes so they serve as shade and as perches for birds when feeding and entertaining us.
• Cover crops are great for the soil and for weed suppression. I overwhelmed myself with Buckwheat last year, but it built up the soil and elbowed all weeds aside. Buckwheat dropped enough seed to come back and grow six feet tall this year. All growing roots improve the soil.
• Weeds are powerful in improving the soil. Invasive weeds are not fun (English Ivy); nor are toxic ones (Poison Ivy, Giant Hogweed, Poison Hemlock). But deep taproots should not be scorned (dandelion, Poke) since they contribute so much to soil building as they shed organic matter and feed the beneficial fungi. I let Pokeweed grow modestly in the rose garden and then prune it back, but wildly in the back to feed the birds. Dandelions are herbs, so they grow where they wish.
• Newspapers, Cardboard. They must improve the soil because I have to replace them as weed blockers. Cardboard lasts the longest. I hold down both with shredded wood.
• Shredded Wood Mulch is best when used without dyes. I am not sure what chemicals are included in those dyes, but coloring wood is akin to spraying the lawn green. Wood mulch holds down the newspapers and cardboard, limits the sun germinating weeds, keeps moisture in the soil, and decomposes into the soil.
• Tree stumps and logs are ideal when borrowed from people removing trees from their property. Stumps are primarily food zones for all kinds of creatures, where the soil meets the wood. They also serve as perches for birds, bases for solar lights, and modular fences.

 This is the best single book on the soil food web.
Lowenfels realized the folly of chemical gardening.

 Those who study this book will be decades ahead of the rest, but it is not easy reading.

One gigantic effort is not going to convert a property overnight. Who has the energy or materials to do that? Instead, a regular application of natural ingredients will build the soil over time.

I asked neighbors for newspapers and received stacks of them, used those, and then areas to use stacks more. When I had plenty of paper from a small truckload of them, a second load arrived. Now I open the front door a crack and yell "No more newspapers!" They laugh.

Sometimes I appear at a neighbor's door with a bunch of roses in a paper cup. "Here are your newspapers back." They like that as much as I like their contributions.

YouTube
One way to study this topic is to search YouTube for organic gardening advice. I am linking a few for starters.

Gabe Brown on Soil Health - Cover Crops

Joel Salatin Polyface Farm

Joel Salatin - Building the Soil

Soil Carbon Cowboys

Hot Peanuts fix nitrogen in the soil and the plant is everywhere. City slickers buy nitrogen and kill the plant with toxins. Make sense?