Creating Your Garden Paradise
article by Jonathan Bishop
Living Soil
T
he importance of organic matter in soil
cannot be over emphasised. We have an
old Atlas Cedar at one of the properties that
we work at, a huge, 200 year old tree, with
branches that sweep down to the ground. For
years the soil beneath it had become compacted,
so hard that no spade would penetrate it. One
winter we added an organic mulch of chipped
bark and compost, placed into an equally large
tree circle beneath the tree. We did nothing
else and just let Mother Nature take care of the
rest. Come spring the soil beneath it was fine
and permeable, rich and dark in colour and
filled with thousands of worms. The worms
had broken up the soil for us and for the tree.
Water could now permeate the surface and get
to the tree’s roots; the old tree had nutrients it
could take up into its branches and leaves and
it appeared to be a lot healthier than it had
been previously.
Earthworms are truly the gardener’s friend, they do
many jobs including aerating the soil and moving
organic matter around in it. Their natural behaviour
is to come out at night and take leaves and organic
matter into their long deep burrows. Here they
happily munch away on it, turning it into worm
poop - or if you want to be polite, worm castings.
Worm poop is a very rich fertilizer. Now you can
20 20
buy this wonderful stuff bagged up at quite a price!
However, if you are managing your garden soil
correctly you will have lots of these creatures in it
already. If you have just moved into a new property
and the soil has been compacted by excavators, there
are things you can do to get worms to colonize your
garden. Worms can be encouraged by simply adding
a layer of organic matter in the form of compost or
manure during the winter months. If you find a source
of well-rotted horse manure you will bring some worms
in with it as well as many other beneficial organisms.
So what happens to the worm poop? Well worms like
many other creatures don’t take all the nutrients out
of their food. So there is plenty left for someone else
to feed on. This material is further broken down into
its basic nutrient form by organisms like bacteria and
fungi. Once in their elemental form, these nutrients
can be taken up by your garden plants. These are
chemical elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium as well as micronutrients like copper, zinc,
iron, magnesium and manganese.
Plants need nitrogen for growing leaves, magnesium
to photosynthesise sugar, manganese for the production
of crucial enzymes and iron which is essential for the
formation of Chlorophyll and the production of
energy within the plant. These elements all need to
be available for plants to thrive.
Although you can add these elements through
chemical fertilizers, enriching the soil with organic
matter has more long lasting benefits. Top dressing
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