I want a copy of this book.
Shannon Foley, of Soil Secrets,
lent her copy to me.


BOOK REVIEW HERE:


http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2007/01/27/teaming-with-microbes-book-rev...


Published by Timber Press.
I really like this publisher.
Spent time with them at the BEA last Spring
in LA.


Teaming with Microbes: Book Review
January 27th, 2007 by Kathy Purdy · 6 Comments


FROM THE BOOK REVIEW:

It probably would have taken me a lot longer to get around to reading Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web if Carol hadn’t suggested it for the Garden Blogger’s Book Club. Partly because I would normally wait until my library got a copy, instead of buying it brand new. Partly because my attitude was, “I already know we need microbes in the soil. Duh, that’s what compost is for.” Ah, but little did I know how little I knew.

Fine tune the pH of your compost? Who knew? Paramecia and amoebas, those one-celled creatures you study in high school biology, part of the soil food web? Who knew? Speaking of high school biology, I remember learning about the nitrogen cycle, and just as these authors state (p. 48), it was taught as a chemical process. I remember hearing about nitrogen-fixing bacteria, but the rest of it was all chemicals. If anyone knew that biological processes were involved every step of the way, they sure weren’t writing high school textbooks. That’s when the light bulb went on for me: thanks to the electron microscope, among other things, organic gardeners now know why compost works, and not just that it does work.

And what’s been learned will (or should) change what you do in the garden. But are you ready for this:

Rototilling and and excessive soil disturbance destroy or severely damage the soil food web. They are outmoded practices and should be abandoned in established garden beds.

For the record, we don’t own a rototiller. And I’m not into double digging on a regular basis. But I hate, I really hate edging my bed with a spade, or digging a hole for a new perennial, and hitting a knee-busting, shoulder-jangling rock. So whenever I start a new bed, or edge an established one, I remove rocks when I find them, even if it means digging a lot deeper or wider than I originally intended. I’m not talking about pebbles, mind you. I’m talking about stones as big as my open hand, and bigger.




 

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