3 Easy Ways to Add Super Powers to Your Soil This Spring

Plants and trees need healthy, active soil to provide them with all the nutrients they need to thrive. For various reasons, soil can become depleted over time leaving our plants hungry and a little lackluster.

There are some really easy and inexpensive ways to add nutrients and encourage beneficial bacteria and other microorganisms to keep the soil in tip-top shape.

Living soil is essential for plants as organic matter is broken down more readily and nutrients are made available to the plants that you want to grow. Check out these ways you can add superpowers to your soil ready for spring planting.

Benefits of Bacteria and Microorganisms in Your Soil

Source: Plant Health Cure BV/YouTube

Beneficial bacteria are actually attracted to tree and plant roots as they feed on excess sugars that are deposited during the photosynthesis process. But, this is not a one-sided relationship.

These beneficial bacteria help to guard delicate roots against harmful bacteria that cause disease. They also make nutrients more available, in particular phosphorus, that would otherwise be difficult for the roots to reach.

Other soil life, such as earthworms, help to break down organic material by eating it and pooping it out. This earthworm-made compost is then available to plant roots.

We need to keep the activity in the soil vigorous if we expect to see healthy and thriving plants.

1. Add Organic Matter to Your Soil

Adding organic matter to your soil is essential regardless of the type of soil you have. It can lighten heavy clay soils and help sandy soils to retain water and nutrients better. It also adds food for our earthworm friends.

You can add your own homemade compost to your soil, or you can directly add certain scraps from your kitchen. Trench composting is a way of dumping kitchen scraps directly into a cavity and covering it with soil. The scraps decompose in situ and provide nutrients to the soil.

Banana peels are also collected for making compost tea or giving direct hits of potassium when buried under newly planted seedlings. Coffee grounds, too, can be used for extra nitrogen and may work as a pest deterrent.

In empty beds, you can add organic matter and turn it into the soil gently with a garden fork (though see below for more thoughts on this). If you already have plants in your garden bed, you can use organic matter as a mulch and evenly cover the surface of the soil with it. This way, the worms will do the work for you.

Try No-Till Gardening

Source: MIgardener/YouTube

The idea of no-till gardening is to leave the soil structure intact as much as possible. Any organic matter that is added to the garden beds is just put on top. This technique is copying what would happen in nature on a forest floor, for example.

No-till gardening advocates believe that by turning the soil over, we are exposing microorganisms to the sunlight, which causes them to die. While their bodies decompose and add nutrients to the earth, it only creates a temporary surge in nutrients. This is an unsustainable process.

As well, organic matter serves better when it is left on top as it acts as a barrier and mulch for the soil.

The argument for turning organic matter into your soil if you are creating a brand-new bed and have very poor soil quality. Once you have built your soil up into a much healthier state, you can begin a no-till gardening strategy.

2. Grow a Winter Cover Crop

Keeping your soil protected over winter can help preserve the life within it. Planting a cover crop such as cereal rye, clover, or buckwheat works wonders. The crops can be hoed into the soil at the end of winter and left to break down. The key is to do it before seed heads grow and shed seeds all over your garden.

There is also the temptation to weed everything that pops up during the winter, but you can in fact just leave them in place to act as nature’s free ground cover. When you see chickweed and spring cress cropping up all over, consider leaving it be and ‘chopping and dropping’ it, or tossing it into your compost bin at the end of winter.

3. Grow Green Manure

Source: GrowVeg/YouTube

If you aren’t into adding animal manure to your garden, consider using green manure. Green manure is made from plants that are particularly good at providing nutrients and nitrogen to other plants. They are often plants with deep taproots that mine minerals from deep within the soil and bring them to the surface.

Green manure plants are fast-growing plants that provide a lot of mulching material. The leaves can be cut from the plant and used as mulch in garden beds and around fruit trees.

Comfrey is an especially good candidate for green manure. You can use the leaves directly on the soil or you can make a comfrey tea that can be used as a liquid fertilizer.

Related Content:

• 10 All-Natural Amendments to Soup Up Your Soil
• Crops That Can Withstand, and May Even Improve With, a Little Winter Frost
• What is Chop-and-Drop Mulch and Why You Should Use It for Your Garden
• 6 Tips to Get Your Home Garden Growing This Spring

Easy Ways to Help the Planet:

• Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based Recipe app on the App Store, to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
• Reduce Your Fast Fashion Footprint: Take initiative by standing up against fast fashion Pollution and supporting sustainable and circular brands like Tiny Rescue that raise awareness around important issues through recycled zero-waste clothing designed to be returned and remade over and over again.
• Support Independent Media: Being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
• Sign a Petition: Your voice matters! Help turn petitions into victories by signing the latest list of must-sign petitions to help people, animals, and the planet.
• Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest news and important stories involving animals, the environment, sustainable living, food, health, and human interest topics by subscribing to our newsletter!
• Do What You Can: Reduce waste, plant trees, eat local, travel responsibly, reuse stuff, say no to single-use plastics, recycle, vote smart, switch to cold water laundry, divest from fossil fuels, save water, shop wisely, Donate if you can, grow your food, volunteer, conserve energy, compost, and don’t forget about the microplastics and microbeads lurking in common household and personal care products!