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As above so below, now start with your soil.

Updated: Oct 15, 2020

I’ve been gardening on and off for many years with some successes and many failures but like a lot of people the current pandemic has really kickstarted my resolve to grow more of my own food. I’m completely convinced that in order to be successful gardener it takes many seasons of trial and error and careful observation to achieve consistently good results. That said I’ll settle for getting lucky sometimes too. But what if I said, you can really tilt luck in your favor?

“As above, so below, as within, so without, as the universe, so the soul” is a quote attributed to Hermes Trismegistus in the Emerald Texts that are the root of alchemic traditions of old europe. The concept is very old evidenced by the ancient Egyptians mirroring the heavens in their placement of the great pyramids on earth exactly as the belt of Orion appears in the sky. When it comes to your pandemic garden this is also true. Whatever you see above ground is a reflection of what is going on below ground, in the soil. If your garden is the universe then the soil is its soul, so feed the soul and the universe will expand. Feed the soil and your garden will grow.

Whether or not you’re just starting off with gardening spurred by the recent pandemic or you had dabbled or even dove deep prior to COVID you may think soil is just a medium for your plants to grow in. It is so much more. Healthy living soil is often the difference between lush abundant harvests of food and something that's just mediocre. Depending on where you live you may be starting off with poor soil. It may lack moisture, organic matter, nutrients, beneficial microbes or all of these. Your site’s topsoil may be completely gone in which case you’ll need to bring in new soil, or it could be dry and dead or compacted. Your task is to bring life back into the soil as quickly as possible. The first key to this is moisture. You want to add moisture and then retain it once it’s there. From there plants and microbes do their exchange that creates a living soil.

One of the easiest things you can do is begin feeding you soil by making compost extract which is super simple to make. You just need some high quality compost, some mesh which could even be an old t-shirt, and water. Compost tea is similar but more involved and takes a minimum of 8 hours to make. A compost extract can be made in a few minutes. Start with a tub or bucket of water, ideally rainwater or filtered water that contains no chlorine. Since you’re trying to make a biologically active tea chlorine is obviously not idea because it’s designed to kill biology. If chlorinated water is all you have then simply fill your bucket ahead of time and let it sit overnight. The chlorine will evaporate off. Alternatively you could add a few drops of tap water conditioner that’s used in aquariums from the pet supply store. With a compost extract you’re goal is just to knock the microbes off of the compost and then through your “tea” inoculate your soil. It’s most effective when applied as a deep root soak for your plants or in areas you intend to plant to kickstart the soil biology.

Biochar is a soil amendment that’s relatively new to gardeners in the USA. Simply put, biochar is just charcoal that’s been inoculated with soil microbes. It’s biologically active charcoal. It benefits the soil be aiding moisture retention and serving as a permanent home for your soil’s microbiology. Biochar is pure stable carbon so it hangs around soil for hundreds or even thousands of years. If you want something to last you need a strong foundation and there really is no stronger foundation than pure carbon. Because biochar is relatively unknown it’s not commonly found at your local garden store. It can be ordered online, one source I really like is Pacific Biochar https://pacificbiochar.com/ but I encourage readers to see if there is a producer near to you.

MIMICK NATURE

Take a walk in nature and observe what’s going on in a really productive ecosystem. Observe the layers of sucession, how the leaves fall from the trees each autumn and make mulch to decompose over the winter only to be ready to fertilize the new growth in the springs. In the forest this process takes years but you can accelerate the process and give nature a little help by creating a compost pile and turning it every month or so. Or you can be lazy like me and just pile it up and let it rot.






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