Looking deeply into soil

As part of our commitment to Sustainable Agriculture & Environmental Stewardship, we held a soil health workshop to learn with our community what it means to design a landscape inline with one’s values. The all-day class focused on fostering environmental stewardship through examining our soil.  Richard King (local soil guru) and Terry Church (Daily Acts volunteer and local environmentalist) facilitated this workshop, teaching 12 community members how to care for land in ways that make it more healthy.

We learned a ton and will start planning our landscaping this week. These soil health principles (from the the USDA-NRCS) will help guide us to better management of our land and gardens. 

Soil principle #1 - Keep soil covered (mulch, cover crops, etc)

Soil principle #2 - Keep roots alive and growing deep into the soil as late into the summer as possible. They provide nutrients to the microbes in the soil.

Soil principle #3 - Minimize disturbance (chemicals, heavy machinery, tillage, over grazing, etc)

Soil principle #4 - Plant diversely

And these two bonus principles are developed by Richard:

Soil principle #5 - Livestock vs wild herds from back in the day - Livestock properly managed can be used as a substitute for the large wildlife herds and predators that once existed.

Soil principle #6 - Plan holistically, managing your resources of land, money, and people.

Thank you Richard King, Terry Church, and Daily Acts for hosting this healthy soil workshop with us!