What Is the Soil Food Web and Why Should Gardeners Care?
Classic Soil Science Bacteria Fungi Algae and Slime Molds Protozoa Nematodes Arthropods Earthworms Gastropods Reptiles, Mammals, and Birds Part 2. Applying Soil Food Web Science to Yard and Garden Care How the Soil Food Web Applies to Gardening What Do Your Soil Food Webs Look Like? Tools for Restoration and Maintenance Compost Mulch Compost Teas The Lawn Maintaining Trees, Shrubs and Perennials Growing Annuals and Vegetables A Simple Soil Food Web Garden Calendar No One Ever Fertilized an Old Growth Forest Appendix: The Soil Food Web Gardening Rules Resources Index Did you know that one teaspoon of good garden soil (about as much as can be balanced on your pinky finger) contains one billion bacteria of between 20,000 and 30,000 species, several yards of fungal hyphae, several thousand protozoa and a few dozen nematodes? If this is news to you as it was to me, you will never look at soil the same way again. All these soil organisms are quite active and need to eat something containing
Given its vital importance to our hobby, it is amazing that most of us don’t venture beyond the understanding that good soil supports plant life, and poor soil doesn’t. You’ve undoubtedly seen worms in good soil, and unless you habitually use pesticides, you should have come across other soil life: centipedes, springtails, ants, slugs, ladybird beetle larvae, and more. Most of this life is on the surface, in the first 4 inches (10 centimeters); some soil microbes have even been discovered living comfortably an incredible two miles beneath the surface. Good soil, however, is not just a few animals. Good soil is absolutely teeming with life, yet seldom does the realization that this is so engender a reaction of satisfaction. In addition to all the living organisms you can see in garden soils (for example, there are up to 50 earthworms in a square foot [0.09 square meters] of good soil), there is a whole world of soil organisms that you cannot see unless you use sophisticated and expensiv
