For Immediate Release:

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

How to keep your soil alive and why
First off, I would like to thank everyone for following my column! I have that I am helpful in providing useful information to homeowners on how to maintain a healthy environment for their plants. I try to explain things in as simple a fashion as possible. I know it can be complicated and not everyone can do it. I understand that most gardeners do not read my column let alone understand what they should and should not be doing. While I do appreciate ate the calls for me to come and garden for them, I am not a gardener. I do not do gardening for folks. Finding a good gardener is not easy and quite a task. So I am always asking folks if they have a good gardener or if they are a gardener and are organic. I am always happy to pass along this information. So any organic gardeners out there just email me, and I will keep your information. Please understand that because I recommend them, I am not responsible for them and how well they garden. Just saying.
Now to my article for this week:
I recently saw a great movie called “Symphony of the Soil” everyone should watch this. They are saying what I have been saying for the past 50 years!
To make the movie simple, what they are saying is “IT IS THE SOIL.”
I learned immediately that everything is connected to the soil. The food we eat is dependent on the health of the soil. The diseases and pests of plants, humans, animals all living things are dependent on the health of the soil.
Somethings are obviously connected to the soil and somethings are not. Just b because we have freedom of movement doesn’t mean we are not connected to the soil. Birds are also connected to the soil even tho they have wings and fly.
I started telling folks a long time ago that all pests and disease start with the soil. So it makes only common sense not to destroy the soil. The soil is like our skin, damage our skin, and we will not live for long. So too, if we damage the topsoil, all living things will die sooner than later.
So you must understand why I am always talking about the soil.
In the movie, they tell you about the ten different types of soil from around the world and how plants evolved differently depending on the type of soil. The word “Native” when describing plants, indeed refers to the kind of soil they have developed. So a shrub or tree that is not native to here is being asked to grow in an entirely different microbiological environment than the one it has evolved to grow in. Plants, trees, etc. have a special relationship with the microbial life it has co-evolved with over the millions of years.
To take this plant and try to grow it in a completely different environment will put extra stress on the plants to get all the minerals etc. they need for healthy growth. Take Hibiscus for example. They are Native to Tropical Asia and Native to Florida. The soil there is very different than the soil here. The environment is very different than the climate here. I lived in Florida for many years. I took care of many Hibiscus plants. They are one of the easiest to grow, and they never got whiteflies. Yet here in Malibu, I often see Hibiscus covered with whiteflies! There are many differences between Florida and California, the main one being we are not a tropical environment but more desert. The microbial life here is quite different than the microbial life we find on Florida soil.
It is the microbial life that provides the proper nutritional diet needed for healthy plants. When a pest or disease attacks a tree or plant, it is because it has become food for the pest or disease.
So, this is what I have to say today that is important. If you want to grow a plant or tree that is not native to this area than you must help the soil to duplicate the microbial life that this tree would normally be growing in. In my opinion, that is the main reason we compost—to duplicate mother nature microbial life in the soil. When you make compost, you are supposed to use a part of the local soil. You do this to help encourage what microbial life is there. You use local animal manures which are an essential part of local microbiology. You add plants that were grown here. One reason why I love azalea/gardenia mix is that it is made from earthworm castings (local worms) and shredded tree bark (local trees), both of which will have some local microbial life. A homeowners property will have a blend of plants from around the world. Therefore, we must provide such a similar combination of microbial life. It is surprising to me that most homeowners do not tell the gardeners to continually add compost and mulch along with rock dust. It is, even more, surprising that gardeners do not do this as a matter of proper garden care. All of this leads to soil that is in poor health and plants and trees will, in turn, be unhealthy.
With the current climate change and with the cycle of droughts, soils are under more and more stress, and plants and trees are also stressed out. This will lead to more trees dying. Why wait until the tree is almost dead before taking action? Please start now, today, applying rock dust, live compost, and an acid mulch (no on wood chips). You should also change over to subsurface irrigation. Add a garden filter to the drip line to clean the water, add a fertigation unit to provide compost tea. Do it now while you still have some time.
Any questions?
Leave belwo in comment and I will answer both here and on my radio show.
You can also just email me…
andy Lopez
Invisible Gardener
andylopez@invisiblegardener.com