Soil and Health

Soil and Health: Intro to Soils, Composting and Turf Ecology

(Video Series is Available @: TURF TV: SOIL AND HEALTH )

While studying agriculture at Va Tech, I was assigned the book “Soil and Health” by Sir Albert Howard, who many regard as the father of organic gardening. In his book “Soil and Health”, Sir Howard links human health and the soil – healthy soils equal healthy people. The book was fascinating to me and even today, some 30 years later, I still apply principles set forth by Sir Howard in my lawn spraying business. A strange relationship – organic farming and lawn spraying – but I am convinced from healthy soils we receive healthy turf, healthy environments and healthy people.

I learned from Sir Howard that Dirt is What You Sweep Up in the Kitchen

A soil is much more than “dirt”; it is a thriving living community of bugs, fungus and single cell microbes. When the soil is alive and thriving, the soil is a biological filter processing water, minerals and organic matter into earth friendly compounds. The process is called “composting” - the enzymatic digestion of minerals and organic that produces plant food. Many believe that modern fertilizers “feeds” the plants but it actually fuels the living soil which composts the modern fertilizer into plant food.

If it isn’t Compost, It’s Trash

Most people are familiar with composting as a way to recycle organic matter – you know the leaves and other household wastes piled in a corner of the yard or in the rotating bin as a way to go “organic”. Sir Howard realized that composting was happening in the soil and was necessary for healthy soils (and healthy soils to healthy people). From his observations, Sir Howard introduced the concept of “sheet composting” – the process by which soils - especially pastures – compost in a thin layer. The text book example of sheet composting is a lawn.

Sheet Composting Works

A lawn sheet composts 24 – 7 – efficiently turning minerals and organic matter into plant food, neutralizing toxins and filtering the air we breathe. Your lawn becomes a pollution filter surrounding your home. The process begins with dust, pollen, pollution and debris being captured and trapped in the turf canopy. Then, with adequate moisture and temperature, the living soil starts enzymatic digestion converting the dust, pollen, pollution and debris into “organic” food for your lawn and releasing purified water and oxygen into the environment. I believe that is why so many people are drawn to and comforted by homes surrounded by lush green lawns – they instinctively know it is good for the body and soul.

Isn’t Lawn Spraying Harmful to Composting

Short Answer: No! The organic purists will only use “natural” products to compost. But the truth is that composting is a biological function of the right mix of organic matter and nutrients at the right temperature and moisture – regardless of the origin. A single cell organism cannot read, therefore it does not know that a drop of nitrogen from a modern fertilizer is not organic – it just see the food!

No Water - No Nutrients - No Healthy Soil

But, only healthy soils compost. And to keep Pinellas County sandy soils healthy, supplemental water and nutrients are needed to sustain composting. But when the soil is allowed to become bone dry and/or is missing necessary nutrients the composting process stops and all is washed away with the first rain. What remains is a hot, dry barren soil that is the opposite of a composting healthy soil.

We Must All Do our Part

Sad but true, that the Pinellas County water restrictions and the fertilizer bans will allow our soils to become bone dry and lack necessary nutrients to sustain a composting healthy soil. Sir Howard was correct that health and the soil are directly linked and the decline of our soils in Pinellas County and decline of our lawns will negatively affect the health and welfare of us all. Therefore let us all do our part to keep our lawns and soils healthy by watering every chance possible, use Hydretain to keep the soil moist and fertilize frequently but lightly whenever we can to reduce the impact of fertilizer bans. Good soil is good health.