To sustain soil life, indeed to protect the living soil on our planet, it is very important that we understand and reflect on the elements that make up and nurture a living soil. The use of natural fertilizers, compost, and soil amendments assures us of a steady supply of organic matter to feed both the soil and the plants growing in it. Chemical fertilizers create toxic conditions and excess of nutrients which are dangerous to plants, create an imbalance in the soil, and introduce toxins into our food chain. Natural products extend the living soil and create a safer environment.  Continual use of good composting methods and soil building practices are the required fundamental principals that produce a living soil.

Soil and dirt are two different things!

   Soil is a dynamic complex, a living system. Soil, like all parts of the environment, is very fragile. Once damaged it is hard to repair.
    Healthy soil is a balanced mixture of minerals, organic matter, living organisms, water and air. It contains 25% air, 25% water, 45% minerals, 5% organic matter (humus) and living organisms.
   Under healthy conditions, the soil is loose and friable, rich in organic matter, alive with insects, earthworms, microscopic plants and animals. It is well drained, sweet smelling, moist and rich in a variety of minerals and nutrients.
   Plants grown in healthy soils are troubled very little with insect pests and weeds. Presence of insect pests and weeds signal an imbalance in the soil.

   Our grandparents and many prior generations used organic growing practices to feed their families.
   Today, through research in soil science, nutrition, and chemical toxins, we are learning a new respect for the balances in nature which control growth. We are beginning to understand that good nutrition for humans is dependent upon the good nutrition in living soil which feeds the plants, which feeds the animals which feed us.
   Today, we have a clearer understanding of research done more than fifty years ago by an Alabama physician who specialized in stomach diseases and nutritional disorders. The doctor asserted that soil-building is the basis of food-building, which is the basis of human building. His research indicated that minerals are vital to human metabolism and health and no animal or human can appropriate to itself any mineral which is not present in the soil upon which it feeds. He also proved that reestablishing the mineral balance of soil produced plants that were bigger, more vigorous, faster growing, disease and insect free and contained minerals proportionate to the soil.