The Necessity And Preeminence Of Humus, In Rich Garden Soil
The Necessity And Preeminence Of Humus, In Rich Garden Soil
I had someone years ago that came to my farm, for one of my seminars. After I was done speaking he came to me and asked if I would be willing to help him start a garden on his property. I told him I would be happy too. He went on to explain though, that there was one big problem, he lived on the shore of Lake Michigan, and all his property was basically beach sand. Yes this certainly created a challenge for sure, but not an obstacle that was insurmountable. In fact it makes for a great lesson on building soil.
What would happen if you took a beautiful healthy tomato seedling, and planted it in just pure beach sand? After a while it would become stunted and its color would turn yellow. It would attempt to set one fruit, with what little energy it had, and it would die. We realize that pure beach sand is not a proper growing medium, to nurture a tomato plant.
What if we had an expensive soil test done, and figured out exactly all the minerals we needed, and we carefully mixed up just the right blend. Would that help the situation and improve the growth of the tomato in the pure sand? I’m afraid not much.
In fact a friend of mine, that is Amish, is a farming consultant. He told me a fascinating story of something that actually happened to him. One day he received a call from someone that was very upset. The man that was calling explained that the previous season he had spent $10,000 for a very fancy GPS system for his tractor. That system was designed to map out coordinates and take special soil tests. This man had read how important it was to get the proper balance of minerals, so he spent a bunch of money to figure it out and apply the minerals. The problem was, the next season he didn’t see that much improvement in his crops. He was angry and wanted to know why. My friend agreed to go to his farm and try to assess the situation. When my friend entered his field he knew immediately what the problem was. The soil was dead. The farmer had been poisoning it for so long, with so many different agrochemicals, there was practically no life left in it.
So why was life the limiting factor? Because God designed plants to live in a symbiotic relationship with microbes. It’s that simple. There are many minerals and other important compounds that plants cannot create or assimilate on their own.
So what would happen with our beach sand if we decided instead to just not worry about the minerals, but instead just get as many kinds of life as we could and put them in the sand. Well the mushroom spores would go dormant. The worms would wiggle away. And much of the bacteria would go dormant or parish. Why? Because life necessitates being fed. As an example, if you brought a cow home to your homestead, and put it in a fenced in area that was pure beach sand, and only supplied it with water. What would happen? It would die or bust through the fence to go somewhere else.
Are you prepared to start to see the biology that is on your homestead as another form of livestock? If you can begin to see how important this life is, you are on your way to a garden that is full of abundance.
So minerals by themselves didn’t work. Biology by itself didn’t work. Would it work to put the minerals and biology together? Nope. The livestock are still without the food they need. So we can now deduce that food is the limiting factor to taking beach sand and creating a garden. So unless you become extremely savvy and knowledgeable about what the best foods are, you’re not going to proceed towards the abundant harvests you’re desiring. Now I am going to save the lessons on the best foods for another day. I need to make one more really important point yet in this post.
Whatever kinds of food you decide to give your soil livestock, whether it is a cover crop or a special kind of wood chips. What I want you to understand today, is that when they eat that food, the byproduct that remains is called humus. Humus is the beautiful rich substance that is the result of good decomposition in the soil. It gives the soil its rich color and wonderful smell. But God designed humus to be incredibly important for many reasons. Humus has the ability to hold on to minerals. There are negative and positive bonding points on high quality humus. This is what keeps your fertility from washing away with a big rain. Those bonding points grab and hold on to the minerals until the plants or biology need them for growth. Humus also has the ability to store huge amounts of water. Humus is the limiting factor to creating a fertile soil that has what the plants and microbiology need.
Now this article has laid the groundwork for you to learn how to build soil. It has also primed the pump, for a very important spiritual lesson as well. If you are interested in that spiritual lesson, it was posted to my new Heartfelt Exhortation profile today as well. God bless everyones gardens!