Hi again! Today we’re going to be discussing the importance of soil health to ensure the production of healthy crops at home and on larger scale farms. If you are new to gardening, you might not know how important healthy soil is to any system. When you plant crops, they take a lot of nutrients out of the soil, so it is important to find ways to take care of the soil and preserve those nutrients for future crops. In addition to being the place where many plants grow, soil also filters and cleans water for human use, contains many different organisms that help with biodiversity, in addition soil actually holds an immense amount of carbon which helps to combat climate change.
According to our friends at the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), “Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans.”
Some of the essential functions of soil include:
Now that we have discussed why it is important to keep soil healthy, we will touch on ways to improve soil health and soil structure. Some important principles to improve soil health include minimizing soil disturbance, maximizing soil cover, maximizing biodiversity, and maximizing presence of living roots. With the introduction of one or all of these principals, you can have healthier soil and great-looking crops anywhere!
According to our friends at the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), “Soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans.”
Some of the essential functions of soil include:
- Regulating water
- Sustaining plant and animal life
- Filtering and buffering potential pollutants
- Cycling nutrients
- Providing physical stability and support
Now that we have discussed why it is important to keep soil healthy, we will touch on ways to improve soil health and soil structure. Some important principles to improve soil health include minimizing soil disturbance, maximizing soil cover, maximizing biodiversity, and maximizing presence of living roots. With the introduction of one or all of these principals, you can have healthier soil and great-looking crops anywhere!
Some practices that you can put into place at the farm or at home include no till or reduced till which can reduce soil erosion and soil compaction. The use of cover crops is a great method that can build soil organic matter, reduce erosion, and provide nutrients to future crops. Crop rotation is a practice that can reduce pests and diseases that are specific to certain plant species.
These are all practices that we have used here at Green Bridge Growers that have proved to help improve soil health in a sustainable and organic way. You can implement any of these practices to your at home garden to help improve soil health. If you are interested in learning more about cover crops as a way to improve soil health, you can check out my other blog all about cover crops and how we use them at the farm!
If you are interested in learning more about soil health, I have attached some helpful links below.
https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/soil-structure-and-its-benefits/#:~:text=It%20provides%20an%20environment%20for,contains%20immense%20levels%20of%20biodiversity
https://www.farmers.gov/conservation/soil-health
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/national/soils/health/?cid=nrcseprd1850026
-Keely Charles
These are all practices that we have used here at Green Bridge Growers that have proved to help improve soil health in a sustainable and organic way. You can implement any of these practices to your at home garden to help improve soil health. If you are interested in learning more about cover crops as a way to improve soil health, you can check out my other blog all about cover crops and how we use them at the farm!
If you are interested in learning more about soil health, I have attached some helpful links below.
https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/soil-structure-and-its-benefits/#:~:text=It%20provides%20an%20environment%20for,contains%20immense%20levels%20of%20biodiversity
https://www.farmers.gov/conservation/soil-health
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/national/soils/health/?cid=nrcseprd1850026
-Keely Charles
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