A healthy soil food web is the foundation
for a vibrant garden

diagram from Soil Biology Primer, courtesy of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service. Used with permission.

what is the soil food web?

The soil food web is a complex system of organisms living all or part of their lives in the soil. Who eats whom, how the microscopic creatures interact with larger ones like worms, rodents and birds, and how they are necessary for the tilth of the soil determines their role in helping provide the most nutrients for plants (and then us). There can be a mind-boggling billion of microscopic creatures and miles of fungal threads in one teaspoon of soil!

changing perceptions

Healthy soil is far more complex and critical to our health and the health of our plants than we have acknowledged before.

In this era of environmental crisis the “tried and true” methods of garden design and food production are necessarily giving way to new and resourceful thinking. For many reasons both economic and emotional, this is easier said than done. However, one truth stands above all others: our human civilization depends on the health of a few inches of surface soil. Soil is the foundation, our hallowed ground.

Watch a 15-minute movie on soil, agriculture and health

We can easily start nurturing the the soil food web in our own yards by first stopping the use of chemical fertilizers, weed killers and pesticides, then starting a compost pile and worm bin!

Sheet mulching--a great way to nurture the soil food web

resources

This 48-page booklet, The Soil Biology Primer, is a basic introduction to the soil food web. It was written by and can be purchased from the Soil and Water Conservation Society


Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis

a beautiful and enlightening book with many interesting charts and color photographs. Clear and straightforward explanations of the soil food web.


Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets

a fascinating and visionary book about the role of fungi as a barometer of planet health. Factual, practical and full of color pictures.