The Invisible Army of the Soil

Greetings! Thank you for reading my column.

I will take you on a journey that will help you better understand the soil and its importance. The true Invisible Gardeners are the soil biology. The bad practices of humans are changing the soil and not for good. There is a correlation between health and the quality of the food we eat and between the health of the soil and the quality of the food it produces. The idea of the soil affecting the global health of all life on earth is not new. Early farmers were organic.

We are the real problem. Humans are the real problem. We managed to live in harmony with nature for thousands of years. We have damaged the biosphere in the last 100 years more than in all human history. This dramatically reduces the quality of the world’s food. The lower quality means lower trace minerals or, in most cases, no trace minerals. It is also true for the health of the trees, plants, and all other living things.

The quality of the soil determines the quality of health we may have. Higher and higher volumes of food are grown — massive land dedicated to growing the same crop without proper soil care. Thinking we can grow more and more leads us to believe that the food is still of good nutrient value. Remember, higher volume and more outstanding quality do not smoothly go together unless you have healthy, functioning soil. Microbial life uses CO2 to break down minerals and, in turn, make them available. Everything on earth is interconnected. Producing more food to grow faster is fine as long as you ensure the food also gets its source of minerals.

We need to realize that plants get their minerals from the microbes and bacteria living in the soil. Minerals are recycled through the food chain by soil biology. Fewer animals also mean fewer minerals going back into the ground. So, if you want the food to grow faster and still be nutritional, you must allow for more nutrition, not by fertilizing but by enabling the soil to be alive and do its thing. It is also valid for trees and other plants.

The Industrial Revolution was the beginning of the drop in mineral levels. Lower minerals always mean higher carbohydrates and not the right kind. We started destroying more soil by rapidly developing bad farming habits.

The Industrial Revolution also began the increase in toxins. These toxins have done nothing but kill the soil biology. We are all getting weaker by eating less and less minerals and food quality (unless you eat-grow Organic).

More and more of the earth’s living creatures have been killed or driven into extinction. It is these animals that, through their digestive systems, deliver minerals to the soil.

More and more of the earth’s living creatures have been killed or driven into extinction. It is these animals that, through their digestive systems, deliver minerals to the soil. The health of the soil is as essential to all life as your stomach is to your body’s health. The fundamental principle of organic farming is healthy living soil. We must help the land to function again. Returning the soil to life takes time, so it is essential to start now.  In this weekly column, I will guide you through healing your property, to heal your trees and plants, without using chemicals and the damage that destroys the biology of the soil.

Feel free to email me with your gardening questions. Be sure to state what the problem is. Try to tell me what you are doing about it. Let me know what you are fertilizing it with. If you can, include pictures of the problem. please send it to me at andylopez@invisiblegardener.com in the subject use All Things Malibu.
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Don’t Panic. It’s Organic!
Andy Lopez Invisible Gardener