A Garden Resolution for the New Year

By Bruce Reed

Adapted from an article originally published in the Santa Barbara News Press

How do we make a better start, a more wholesome start, within the small gardens in which we each have control? What New Year’s resolutions will make our gardens more sustainable?

“Sustainable” is a term much bandied about. This is at least partly because its meaning is so instantly understandable and at the same time difficult to define. This instant recognition and lack of definition means that almost any context in which the term is used sounds reasonable or will find some in agreement. The concept touches on many aspects of life and so definitions are not easy to make. But a good way to think of the idea is to think of how it relates to dirt.

Resolution: build the soil in your yard! Soil is much more than dirt. Millions of different species of organisms live and eat in fertile soils, like your small garden plot. The number of individual organisms, even in a small volume, soars into the billions.

Every bit of dead organic material is a buffet for uncounted numbers of creatures, each breaking down the material into further products available to other creatures. While bacteria and fungi are the most numerous members of this vast community (and they are legion, in both numbers of species and in numbers of individuals) they are by no means the only creatures conditioning and processing the soil under our feet. Soil-dwelling arthropods, a huge group of animals related to insects, crabs and spiders are numerous and range in scale from the visible to the microscopic. The many species with diverse body types have many roles, such as shredding leaf litter, decomposing litter, preying on other microbes and more.

Leaf litter and other organic waste are a treasure trove of stored nutrients. Keeping this material and composting it saves the costs of transporting it away and of buying new fertilizers. Other single-celled „animals” besides bacteria are also important. Amoebas are examples of these kinds of creatures, generally referred to as flagellates. Unlike most bacteria, they are mobile, using little whips or tentacles as motors. They engulf and „process” bacteria and other organic matter. Many types of worms, such as earthworms and nematodes, are also a significant part of this underground kingdom. Earthworms both eat and move by engulfing the soil in front of them and passing it through their body. And here is the magic of their work and the work of all these other creatures – not only do the worms take some nutrient value from this matter, but they also chemically change the matter that is excreted and passed on. Humic acids are added, mucous is added, and many existing materials are combined by the action of the stomachs of these many and varied creatures. These new materials free otherwise inaccessible nutrients, food, for other creatures and most importantly to plants.

Of course, this part of the cycle is where our self-interest lies. We need the soil to remain fertile because we depend on plants to grow to provide us food, to soak up carbon dioxide and produce more and more oxygen. Even the most dedicated meat-eater is depending on plants to provide food for his favorite future meal. In this largely unseen cycle, the waste of one creature becomes food for another. Any bit of waste is processed multiple times and in many ways. What was once a dead leaf becomes food for another plant, and so, food for us.

The removal of leaf litter and other organic matter has become an accepted, even expected part of landscape maintenance in the last few decades. Tidy yards with no hint of a fallen leaf or any decay are appealing to some. It certainly shows attention to detail. Unfortunately this is an effort which leaves the soil impoverished. Without new organic material for microbes to break down, many of their populations will decline, hibernate or die. Without their continuing activity, plants will exhaust the available nutrients in time, leaving the soil more sterile and less able to support life.

Now, while the moist season is still with us, is the time to plant. Using natural cycles and forces to our advantage saves us energy we would otherwise expend. But true sustainability depends on more than energy savings. To achieve a sustainable culture we need to find broad uses for all of our waste in the way that the great population under our feet already does.