Rich

In the past, to gain richness, gardeners and farmers have typically added plenty of macronutrients to their soil—the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) found in most fertilizers—for their plants to grow large. However, they haven’t always taken into account the availability of micronutrients that make plants truly healthy and naturally able to combat diseases and insect pests. Nor have they always understood the role of soil microbes in making these nutrients available to their plants. Similarly, twenty years ago researchers continuously claimed to find no discernible differences between produce grown in healthy soils and those grown with a glut of synthetic fertilizers.

Today, however, much research has shown healthier soils produce healthier fruits and vegetables, while produce grown with only added NPK has been steadily declining in nutritional value for years. Additionally, the discovery of bioflavonoids has given us a fuller picture of the importance of taste in the nutritional quality of our foods and the importance of the overall health of our plants and soil in creating healthy food. 

Similarly, we now have a much clearer picture that healthy plants are a product of healthy soils and that healthy soils are a result of healthy soil microbes. Recent research has illuminated the incredible and varied role of a multitude of different microorganisms in our soil, showing us that soil health is due to the presence of astronomical numbers of many kinds of these tiny drivers of soil health. These microbes are the “engines” that cycle nutrients in the soil, making them available to plants, and offer many other ecological services that further balance soil health.

These essential microscopic catalysts live off of organic matter in the soil, recycling all of its essential components to be used by nearby plants. But they’re greatly diminished and often destroyed by the components in artificial fertilizers and chemicals, which often are tempting to use for their quick “results.” One can think of synthetic chemicals, then, as being like antibiotics for your garden. While they may show some immediate benefits, they destroy the necessary balance of microbes in the system.

Adding cured compost is the all-around best way to add both macro- and micro-nutrients and essential microbes to your soil and can and should be added to any garden. If synthetic chemicals are like antibiotics, killing your soil life, compost is your soil’s probiotic, adding innumerable microbes to restore a healthy system. Plus, in adding compost, you’ll also be adding the organic matter your soil and soil microbes need.¹

For your garden, a soil test, often performed for free by your local cooperative extension (search online for instructions for your county extension office), can give you a great picture of your soil’s richness in terms of macro- and micro-nutrients and organic matter when you are first starting and at any stage in its development as you grow it. 

_{¹ One could argue that being rich and full of organic matter is one and the same, but soil can have plenty of organic matter but still be poor in nutrients. Many swamp and marsh soils are exactly that.}