Improving Your Soil

Soils become depleted with pounds of produce being grown from your ground. It is logical that removal of produce needs to be balanced with replenishment of nutrients that have been required by the plant and produce. As we initiate sustainable farming, we want to replenish the soil to an ideal mineral content. Minerals are finite, physical substances. When these minerals are depleted, the soil will not produce as well. The idea of can be expressed as the law of the minimums. If one critical mineral is deficient, it will limit the entire production of all mineral inputs to that minimum level available. God has given plants the marvelous ability to extract what they need from the soil. But low nutrient levels make the plants work harder, and yield along with disease resistance declines.

Now is the time to build and replenish our soils through amendments, mulches and cover crops.

1) Amendments are nutrients added to the soil and blended to depth for a uniform mixture. Minerals are from rock sources, raw or refined. Traditional farming amendments have been calculated to a depth of 8 or 9 inches, perhaps based on the depth of their plow. I suggest amendments down to 12 inches depth. There is no need to amend for more soil than you will be able to adequately till, so keep this in mind when calculating your amendment values.

Some nutrients are more soluble than others, and some will drift down, especially in sandy soils. In this situation, nutrients could be drawn out of the reach of vegetable root zone. Some nutrients do not have much mobility in the soil. I will go into great detail on mineral testing of your soil and amending it in future posts.

2) Mulches are materials not blended into the soil, but set atop soil. The advantages include moisture retention, sunlight shielding which in turn keeps weed pressure down, softer rain incorporation into the soil, less soil compaction, encouraging earthworm activity, prevents soil saturation, percolation of mulch nutrients into the soil below. Some mulches like wood chips should not be mixed into the soil, as it would decrease the available nitrogen in the soil, it being tied up in the bacterial breakdown process. Let the mulch decompose on top, and share their goodness to the soil through gentle seepage. Heavy mulching lends itself to a no-till methodology.

Planting of seeds is best done in the soil, so if you have mulched your field, pull away the mulch in the furrow for planting. When the crop comes up, dress the plants again with the mulch to cover the ground.

Mulching may encourage mice and other vermin, so take care that this does not cause problems in your farm.

3) Cover crops are a way to increase nutrients to your garden area, and can be done on your garden plots as an over winter crop or as a rest period where you leave a plot fallow. Alfalfa is a perennial crop that can stay strong for 6 or 7 years. Regular cuttings of alfalfa can provide mulch and amendment material for your fields. Alfalfa has deep roots, and pulls nutrients from deep below. Alfalfa can be cut before it goes to seed, and as such it makes wonderful mulch.

It may be well to compost cover crops to retain nitrogen from being lost in the atmosphere. A covering of soil with its bacteria could capture the released nitrogen, binding it for later use.

Coverings are God's natural plan of nature. Only where man has disturbed the soil will you find bare soil. The Bible records that after sin, man began to till the soil. (Gen 4:2). God is very specific about covering the human form, and looking at nature we see plants actively covering the earth, wherever possible.

Improving soils involves more than just chemical nutrient balancing, but also physical and biological characteristics.

No matter what soils we have to work with, we have promises from the Lord for His blessing to grow food. Following are quotes of encouragement.

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2 Chron. 7:14 

"Human beings were to cooperate with God in restoring the diseased land to health, that it might be a praise and a glory to His name. And as the land they possessed would, if managed with skill and earnestness, produce its treasures, so their hearts, if controlled by God, would reflect His character." BLT 253.3

"You are not working alone. When you are tempted to become discouraged remember this. Angels of God are right around you. They will minister to the very earth, causing it to give forth its treasures." SpM 447.2

With this encouragement - let us join our angels in working our land for His glory. If you do not have land available to feed your family fruits and vegetables, now is the time to procure, even at a sacrifice, such land. God's plan for us is to work the soil, and perfect our characters in the process.

Kneel in your garden, and ask God for wisdom on what to do next. Ask for His leading on what amendments, mulches and cover crops to use. Ask how to best lay out the garden plot. Ask for His blessing that you can learn how to produce more food that ever thought possible, that you might offer the "5 loaves and 2 fishes" to be miraculously multiplied for the blessing of others around us.

I have prayed these prayers on my land, and while there, I have prayed for you. May God strengthen you to sacrifice to follow his leading. May your focus be on how God will use your land to be a blessing to others.