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Soil Regeneration
Good soil - Adequate moisture, oxygen, nutrient, and organic matter. In healthy soils there are 20 ^ 10 individual bacteria in 1 tsp. of soil.
Soils - formed and nourished by the cycles of plant roots drawing water and minerals from the subsoil, and the fall of leaves, fruit, and other organics to the ground.
Minimal Soil LOSS
1.Growing forests and shrubberies' protection
2. Using ploughs (if necessary) that do not turn the soil (soil conditioning)
3.Encouraging life forms, especially worms for aeration and fertilizer.
Soil Rehabilitation
1. Prevent erosion - Cover soil by planting trees and controlling overland water flow with fast-growing pioneers.
2. Add organic material - cover crops, green manure crops, kitchen scraps/compost, dead vegetation.
3. Loosen compacted earth - first with pioneer planting or, if necessary, chisel plow or soil reconditioning machinery.
4. Modify pH
Acidic: chalk, limestone, gypsum, dolomite, etc.
Alkaline: acidic phosphate, urine. For all soil: blood, bone, manure, compost and compost tea.
5. Correct nutrient deficiencies (compost and compost tea)
6. Encourage life forms - Plant diversely.
Weeds, 'Pest plants' - Indication of soil damage. Can be analyzed to determine history of land.
Ex. Great strawberries, Blooming azaleas, great blueberries = Acidic.
Thistle and dock = iron and copper deficiencies, acidic soil.
Bladey/Guinea Grass = There may have been a recent fire or the land may have been over-grazed.
Many of these plants are pioneers, and are actually modifying the soil so that other species are able to grow.
Succession
The first living components in a natural system are these weeds or hardy 'pioneer' species. We always see 'weeds' in overgrazed, eroded, or fire-damaged areas. They stabilize water flow later giving shelter, providing mulch, and improving soil quality.
We imitate natural systems and evolving forests by planting:
Mixed trees, shrubs, and veggie crop, utilizing livestock as foragers, and carefully planning so that we receive short, medium, and long term benefits.
Ex. Forest: We receive first coppice material, then pole timbers, and eventually honey, fruit, nuts, bark, and plant timber. What was young and crowded will become more productive and phase certain species out, leaving large, mature, stands filling a canopy.
Time/Space Niche
Plant for the future: Pioneers, ground covers, under story species, tree legumes, herbage crop, mulch species, long-term windbreak and tree crop.
Important: Mulch is grown relative to location. This way weed competition, wind, frost, and nutrient deficiencies are nullified simply by planting in succession. While we are fencing/preparing soil we can create a small nursery to supply every 2.2 acres with 4000-8000 plants then design a succession (several overlapping guilds) in a carefully-designed long-term plan.
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