How Soil Can Keep You Healthy

The food cycle begins with soil. Without a healthy living soil plants will not be able to grow and provide food. The food pulls its good nutrients directly from the soil. At Agriscaping we always said “with a healthy soil, you have a healthy plant”.

Dead soil is drying and splitting and lacking needed nutrients to grow healthy food. You won’t find earthworms in this soil. So-so soil is usually ignored soil. It is what is in most of our yards and a good place to start. You can add elements to this soil to create a healthy soil. Healthy soil has a vital living ecosystem. It contains living organisms, bacteria, fungi, and other microbes along with a lot of worms that are happy and healthy leaving little goodies behind.

The first step to get healthy soil would be to test your soil. To test a soil you can do it yourself by buy a kit from a store. There are several types of kits you can purchase either at local nurseries, online, or in hardware stores. The most important things to know about your soil are the PH and the N,P,K (Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium). Or you can send in a soil sample to your county cooperative extension or hire a soil engineering specialist. Be sure to test several places in your yard because you can have different soil types around your yard.

Once you find out what is missing in your soil you will need to amend it. Be sure to buy organic and from a trustworthy source any amending materials. Then you need to decide if you want an open-loop system or a closed-loop system.

Open loop system brings in what you need from the outside. You are dependent on what is brought in a how much is available. You will need:

-Fertilizer, compost, mulch, amendments and soil
-Seeds that will be planted
-Food also purchased at the store

When you are starting your homestead or urban garden you will most likely have to start with an open system until all that is needed can be produced.

Closed-loop System is when nothing or very little is being brought in from the outside.

-Food grown gets eaten, sold for profit or fed to your productive animals
-Seeds are harvested from plants in your garden
-Animal waste is used for composting or fertilizing
-Nothing is wasted

You decide what is brought in and how much is readily available. Remember that when bringing things in you have no control of what is already in it.

Let nature break down food waste (compost), wood chips or animal waste you are putting all the healthy nutrients back into your gardens and fields. If you gives the worms something to eat they will leave behind some good fertilizer for future growth. If you have healthy soil and all the nutrients inside of it, your plants will grow healthy as long as you water them properly.

You can learn more about this and the ins and outs of cultivating healthy soil by joining our Agriscaping Mastery Program for more helpful tips and so much more to grow your own elegant edible landscape.