Bonding with Your Soil

Feb 8, 2017

Episode 79 - Bonding with Your Soil

Building a good relationship with your soil may not be high on your list of New Year's resolutions.

But it's key to establishing a healthy, abundant garden, according to Linda Borghi.

In this episode of the podcast, Linda, co-founder of the online educational site, Farm-A-Yard,  returns to dig a little deeper into the topic of soil.

Nurturing the Micro-Cosmic Community

The micro-cosmic community beneath our plants has a tremendous impact on them, she notes.  And by nurturing this community, we give our plants a powerful advantage.

There are so many things we can do that are simple and cost very little.  For instance, as Linda says, worms can turn your coffee grounds into a beneficial addition to your soil: worm castings.  Maintaining a worm bin is one way to produce your own castings.  But putting the worms directly into your soil can eliminate the middle man.

The benefits of building healthy soil aren't limited to plant health. The direct skin-to-soil contact you get from gardening has also been shown to improve health both mentally and physically.  Linda share's her own personal story of how gardening helped her recover from a debilitating illness.

Building Soil Energetically

Linda learned all about nurturing soil on an energetic level through her study of bio-dynamic farming.  But then she met her partner in Farm-a-Yard, Evan Folds.  Evan has taken these ideas to a new level via what he calls, "bio-energetic" farming, which he discussed with me on a previous episode of the podcast.

I have to say, as a yoga teacher and long-time meditator, nurturing my garden on an energetic level holds great appeal for me.  So I'm excited to try Evan's "Compost Tea-in-a-Box" which you can get here with 10% off by putting "lettucelady" in the Discount Code box. (The code works for any size of Compost Tea in a Box, but Linda recommends the $49.97 size because it contains an air pump and air stone.)

Making compost is an art, Linda says.  But once mastered, its beneficial effects can be truly miraculous.  Just have a look at what's happening in Egypt.

A Revolutionary Act

Growing your own food is a revolutionary act, as we note in our discussion.  The ability to produce our own, non-toxic food can provide a significant measure of security and independence in uncertain times.  But what if you could actually make a living from it?

Teaching folks how to do just that is Linda's mission.  She shares her beautiful vision of a world transformed by abundant gardens during our chat.

If you're interested in building a better relationship with your soil, you may want to check out Linda and Evan's upcoming free webinar on "How to Handle a Soil Emergency"

http://farm-a-yard.com/gfem/Soil_Emergency_SL

  It takes place Friday February 17, at 4pm ET/1 pm PT.  I know I'll be checking it out! (Disclosure: Sustainable Living Podcast is an affiliate of Farm-A-Yard.).

 

Chronology of discussion points in this episode: 

7:00 Soil is a living organism

10:30 Worms for improving sandy soil

14:00 Other ways to improv soil

15:00 Coffee grounds for worms

16:00 - We are not gardeners, we're soil managers

17:00 - How working with soil directly benefits human health

(article about gardening soil and depression, Earthing and ions)

21:00 Bio-dynamic farming

25:00 Bio-energetic method

28:00 Compost in a box

(microbe makers link) (lettucelady promo gets you 10% off)

30:00 The art of compost

31:00 Greening the desert in Egypt

33:00 The revolutionary act of growing food

35:30 The dangers of "stupid" markets

38:00 Self-reliance

39:30 - Earning a living by growing food in your yard

42:00 - Even Folds webinar on soil fertility

44:00 Soil and the transformation of the world

52:00 Benefits of developing a relationship with the micro-community

53:30 Benefits of understanding water better