Soil: It’s What’s for Dinner
Soil, the unsung hero beneath our feet, serves more than just a foundation for growth – it's the true feast for plants, fostering life and nourishing our world. Understanding the soil beneath your land isn't just a matter of curiosity; it's the gateway to unlocking its potential. Enter the Web Soil Survey, a tool that unveils the secrets hidden within the earth, guiding you to comprehend and optimize soil health.
At Lightwell, our land predominantly boasts sandy loam, a soil type that offers both benefits and challenges. Sandy loam, common to Northern Michigan, is celebrated for its excellent drainage, allowing water to percolate through easily, avoiding waterlogging, and promoting aeration – a boon for many plants. However, its low organic matter content and reduced capacity to retain nutrients pose hurdles in maintaining soil fertility.
Improving soil health transcends mere agronomy; it's a commitment to the planet's well-being. One crucial aspect is leveraging the power of the soil's carbon sequestration potential. Healthy soil acts as a carbon sink, capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, aiding in mitigating climate change. Enhancing soil health thus becomes a powerful tool in our fight against rising carbon levels.
So, what steps can you take to optimize your sandy loam and bolster carbon sequestration?
Soil Survey: The Soil Web Survey offers insights into your land's soil composition, allowing you to comprehend its texture, drainage, and nutrient-holding capacity. Undertaking initiatives such as MAEAP Certification (underway at Lightwell for 2024!) will arm you with soil testing protocols, improving data input. More information is better! Given this knowledge, you can tailor your soil management strategies, optimizing for your specific soil type and nutrient saturation.
Boost Organic Matter: Sandy loam craves organic matter. Integrate compost, cover crops, and mulching into your practices to increase organic material. At Lightwell, we’ve partnered with Carter’s Compost to provide non-stop compost action at the farm. This not only enhances soil structure but also enriches its fertility, fostering a thriving soil community. For the 2024 Garden Allotment year we will also be amending the land with locally produced Krulls compost to start things off on the right track year 1.
Diversify Plantings: Embrace diversity in your garden allotments or crop rotations. Different plants contribute distinct nutrients to the soil, preventing depletion and enhancing overall soil health.
Reduced Tillage: Limiting tilling practices helps maintain soil structure and minimizes the disturbance of soil organisms, preserving the delicate balance within sandy loam. Tilling will be minimized at the farm, opting for year 1 compost tilling to break up grasses and build a strong soil health foundation followed by mulching and layering allotment rows in years to come.
Perennial Plantings: Incorporate perennial plants into your landscape. Their deep-root systems aid in stabilizing soil, preventing erosion, and enhancing carbon storage. Any covered soil is better than bare soil to prevent wind and water erosion, and something will grow (hello, “weeds”), so might as well be something you can appreciate year-after-year. “Right Plant, Right Place” and all that.
Sandy loam's potential is immense, and with conscientious efforts, its soil health can be greatly improved. A healthy soil web teems with life, from microscopic bacteria to earthworms, all working harmoniously to sustain a vibrant ecosystem. By nurturing our soil, we foster a resilient environment, both below and above ground.
As stewards of the land, it's our responsibility to elevate soil health. As the fertility and structure of sandy loam is improved, we also contribute to a larger cause – aiding in carbon sequestration. Embrace the potential beneath your feet, for in nurturing the soil, we nourish the world.
So, let's raise our shovels and till not just the land, but a brighter, greener future.
More to come,
Erin
