featur
cycl
tips & tricks
SOIL
FOOD
to work
WEB
in your garden
put the
by Monica Mansfield
Mother Nature doesn’t have to think twice
when she creates perfect soil, but we do.
It is a lengthy, intricate process but once
accomplished creates healthy, vibrant
plants. Monica Mansfield provides
some pointers on developing the
soil food web in your garden.
here is soil and then there
is dirt. They look alike to
T
the untrained eye; however, there
is a huge difference between the
two. Dirt is made of silt, sand, and
clay. It contains the minerals that we
want our plants to eat, but dirt alone will
not feed a plant or help it grow. Soil will.
Soil is dirt that is teeming with life. Bacteria,
fungi, nematodes, protozoa, arthropods, and
earthworms are the tiny critters that convert those
minerals into forms that plants can use.
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grow cycle