Keeping Your Soil Alive With Good Health

It's easy to think of it simply as inert dirt, but healthy soil is quite literally alive. A handful of soil from your well-tended organic garden may contain billions of microscopic organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and protozoa that interact with each other, with larger organisms such as earthworms, and with the organic matter in the soil. That interaction breaks down the organic materials into a form that can be readily used by living plants.

The chemistry is complex, but the important thing to know is that the living microorganisms in your soil work to create compounds that make up humus. The stuff that humus is made of, also called "humic substances," performs other functions too, such as breaking down and "cleaning up" substances that may be polluting your soil, for example, synthetic pesticides, petroleum products, and heavy metals.

So, doing everything you can to increase the number of those organisms and to encourage them to thrive is the best way to make your plants thrive, as well. If the microorganisms are happy, your plants will be happy.

There's another, equally important role microorganisms play, and that's protecting plants from diseases and pests. Microorganisms are so small that, when there are enough of them, they can act as a kind of shield in areas of a plant that might otherwise provide a pathway for disease organisms to penetrate. So your plants benefit in two important ways. They get the best nutrition, and they are protected from diseases and pests. And remember, that's true for all plants, from grass to trees.

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