Soil health is crucial for supporting ecosystem services, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the European Green Deal. In the UK, sustainable soil management practices are essential to prevent agricultural soil degradation and maintain food production and core soil-based ecosystem services. Healthy soils are essential for human health, food production, biomass and fiber production, the production of certain medicines, and retaining and filtering water. The European Union aims to achieve healthy soils by 2050, with the European Commission proposing a Directive of the European Parliament.
Soil health supports various environmental, economic, and societal benefits, including food production, climate change mitigation, and retaining and filtering water. The Soil Association, the UK’s leading membership charity, is campaigning for healthy, humane, and sustainable food, farming, and land use. A new generation of farmers is working with a more holistic approach to improve soil health, making crops more resilient, and fighting challenges like weed and drought.
Soil health is fundamental to life on earth, and worsening soil health can have significant environmental, economic, and societal consequences. Soil is a natural resource that is integral to various ecosystem services, such as food production and flooding mitigation. UKSoils aims to inspire people to learn more about soil and help build communities to take action to improve soil health. A new bill will be brought before parliament this year mandating measures and targets to preserve and improve the health of the UK’s soils.
📹 Improving Biodiversity and Soil Health in the UK with Natural Agriculture
Oxford Real Farming Conference 2022 discussion with Shinya Imahashi; Jasmine Black; Liam King. This session will provide …
What is the best soil in England?
Loamy soils are optimal for plant growth due to their optimal ratio of sand, clay, and silt. These plants flourish in gardens, but it is advisable to incorporate organic matter into the native soil during cultivation and excavation. This will enhance the planting area with essential nutrients and optimize the overall growing conditions. This will ensure that the plants receive the optimal level of nutrients.
What is the UK soil health Initiative?
A workshop involving various farming industry partners, including the UK Soil Health Initiative, WWF-Tesco Partnership, Anglian Water, and CFE, produced printable guides to help farmers manage soils for a sustainable future. The guides provide targeted guidance for various farming systems and aim to increase understanding of soils and plan first steps to improving soil health. Each guide includes three things to consider, three to avoid, and practical recommendations grouped under titles of “Know your site and soils”, “Crop management”, “Optimize nutrient management”, “Improve soil physical condition”, “Manage run-off in the field”, and “Maintain soil organic matter and biological activity”. The guides aim to help farmers identify actions to better manage soils for a sustainable future and provide practical recommendations for various farming systems.
How can we improve soil quality UK?
To improve soil, use composted materials like garden compost, composted green waste, composted bark, leafmould, and well-rotted manure to avoid nitrogen depletion. For mulching the soil surface, a wider range of materials can be used, with coarser materials taking longer to break down. Applying 5-10kg (11-22 lbs) per square meter (yard) is recommended, but wet manures and garden composts should be applied more than drier materials like mushroom or municipal compost.
For weed control, at least 5cm (2ins) of mulch or surface application is required, which amounts to about 50litres (11 gallons) per square meter (yard). For no-dig gardening, 8cm (3ins) is more effective, requiring about 50 more organic matter. It is important to check the amount of wet material with a weighing machine or balance to ensure proper application.
What is the soil problem in the UK?
In England and Wales, nearly 4 million hectares of soil are at risk of compaction and erosion, with over 2 million hectares at risk due to intensive agriculture causing arable soils to lose 40-60% of their organic carbon. The state of the environment report for soil emphasizes the importance of soil as a natural capital resource providing essential services. Further monitoring and research are needed.
Does the UK have rich soil?
British soils are mostly organic and mineral, with peat containing up to 50 organic matter. The country’s agriculture uses 69 of its land area, employs 1 of its workforce, and contributes 0. 5 of its gross value added. The UK currently produces about 54 of its domestic food consumption. Agricultural activity is concentrated in rural locations, with 191, 000 farm holdings varying in size. Despite skilled farmers, advanced technology, fertile soil, and subsidies, farm earnings are relatively low due to low prices at the farm gate. Low earnings, high land prices, and a shortage of let farmland discourage young people from joining the industry. The average age of British farm holders is about 60 as of 2016.
What is the soil strategy for England?
The objective is to manage England’s soils in a sustainable manner by 2030. This will entail addressing the threats to soil degradation and improving soil quality in order to ensure the continued provision of essential services for future generations.
What is the UK strategy for nature?
Future endeavors should concentrate on the restoration of ecosystem function and the establishment of ecological networks on a larger scale. This approach will facilitate the creation of more resilient habitat patches in the face of climate change and other external pressures, while simultaneously enhancing our comprehension of these habitats.
How can individuals support soil health?
The cultivation of long-season crops or cover crops in succession to short-season crops is of paramount importance. The living roots of these crops provide the most convenient food source for soil microbes, thereby ensuring that the foundation species of the soil food web are adequately fed during the growing season.
What are the 5 soil health practices?
In order to improve soil health, it is recommended to adhere to the following principles:
- Cover the soil as much as possible.
- Minimize disturbances to the soil.
- Maintain a living cover throughout the year.
- Diversify crop rotations and cover crops.
How do humans play a role in soil quality?
Land-use change, degradation, and soil sealing are all direct disturbances that cause soil deterioration. The conversion from forest to agricultural land leads to the loss of soil organic carbon, while pesticide use decreases soil biodiversity. Intense irrigation leads to soil salinization, and heavy metal accumulation in polluted soil. Climate change, an indirect effect of human activities, is omnipresent and has unpredictable consequences on soil and life.
Soil can be altered by artificial materials, chemicals, and fertilizers, and can be concealed by buildings and roads in settlements. Soil on spoil heaps also faces new mineral formations, influencing soil genesis. Garden soil is treated to grow vegetables, grass, or flowers, revealing that many soils have been modified or shaped, or even man-made.
How can people help soil?
Soil health is crucial for successful agriculture and the production of food and fiber. Issues like soil organism habitat degradation, erosion, and nutrient depletion can have long-term and costly impacts. Solutions include residue management, crop rotations, covering crops, adopting a soil health management system, terraces, contour farming, and stripcropping. To address common soil problems, review the My Conservation Concerns List and add them to your list. Once completed, click Build Your List to connect with conservation experts for free assistance.
📹 The Practical Guide to Soil Health (For Gardeners)
This was the absolute best article I’ve seen on soil health. I’ve studied for countless hours, the science, the composting for dummies, the elaborate descriptive articles. All of it, but this one is absolute gold. It’s the perfect balance between the knowledge and the practicality. Thank you Huw. Providing us, once again, with another banger.
I’ve found that just raking leaves off the lawn on to beds in the autumn works really well. No need to go through the ‘formal’ composting routine, just let nature go for it. Worms can get through 6-8 inches of garden waste during the late autumn/ winter, and you’ve got a great start to Spring planting
You mentioned my biggest mistake. I came to the farm where I live now, nortwest of Portugal, 9 years ago. The farm has 5300m2 ( a bit more than one acre) and decided to cultivate the entire land. Of course, nothing was growing good, i simple couldn’t make enough compost. Now i do a lot of cover crops to cut and incorporate and the land is thriving
Thank you for your comments on small space+healthy soil. I have four beds but no room for expansion due to building shade. And after this article I finally realize… that’s ok😊. Thanks to leaves and yard waste from friendly neighbors I now make enough compost for my garden. I’m also in my second year of cover crops and what a difference that has made! I have a small but mighty space.❤
‘Grounded : how soil shapes the games we play, the lives we make and the graves we lie in” is a really terrific book by Alisa Bryce, who is a soil scientist. In each chapter she isolates one topic, such as ‘terroir’, graves, playing fields, crimes, tunnel digging and war – and shows the links back to soil and it’s incredible complexity and importance. It’s very well researched but absolutely not a hard dry read – I highly recommend it to anyone interested in gardening and understanding soil. Cheers from Oz!
Professor Richards…as always, thanks for the insights and for relieving us of the pressure of having to have full knowledge of everything taking place in our soil. It can be overwhelming to think I have to master my understanding of soil before I am able to take my first step towards improving soil health. We just moved to a new home and so we’re starting from scratch with our vegetable and flower gardens…it’s a blank canvas which is exciting! Thanks, Huw. (KY, USA)
Whenever money has been tight and/or we’ve moved and don’t yet have a good compost going at a new place- I’ve just bought compost in Spring and used it only in the holes I’m planting in, and a bit around each plant. It gets the nutrients on the plants without having to spend so much $ on amending the entire garden bed as a whole, until I’m later able to.
I am 64, not as strong as I use to be…..so I just RECYCLE saved PAPER feed sacks! 🐓. Poke 4 holes! Sit 8 sacks 2 across, 4 long( rolled down top half before filling ) with WOOD CHIPS BOTTOM 1-2″, raised bed soil and sack is stabilized). As sacks decomposed and soil settles plants grow; you will end up with a slightly raised permanent garden bed! Free start,low work kills weeds underneath sack!!
I have had a wonderful three days in the garden going through some large tubs I had grown in for three years. I have to move them out now as they are deteriorating. However the soil in them is wonderful. Worms have found them and the mycelium is all throughout the tubs. I started with sawdust, woodchips (I know, I know). Then I had some potting soil on top. That was three years ago. Now it is crumbly, rich looking, and full of life. I am putting this wonderful soil into better pots for this year’s garden. So good getting my hands into the soil again. Central California.
A fall planted, winter kill covercrop is the easiest way to add organic matter & feed earthworms. If you have a mild winter & the CC persists, weed wack it close to the ground, cover with shredded leaves & block light with cardboard or black tarp. Come spring, you only need to dig a bit to plant seedlings or lay down a thin band of compost for direct seeding. It can cut your compost dependency & costs significantly. This works best on beds that aren’t too tall. I’ve found that tall, filled raised beds are not earthworm friendly as they like to burrow down into actual dirt as their DNA instructs (endogeic & anecic.) If you want true composting worms for a tall, filled raised bed, you need red wigglers (epigeic.) Wigglers will die off when temps drop below 40 degrees.
I’ve become an absolute compost fanatic but as you say, it takes dedication to produce enough to add 3cm a year to the surface of every bed. I need 3.25 cubic metres of compost annually to achieve that & despite bringing in 300m² of lawn clippings, soft trimmings from 60m of hedge, 200kg of shredded cardboard & everything else I can find, I only just make it every year (I’m off down the shore for more seaweed tomorrow…). I went ‘no till’ (I consider ‘no dig’ a misnomer) five years ago & there IS a fall in yield in years three & four due to the time it takes for organic matter to replace nutrients from fertilisers, be they Growmore or organic such as blood, fish & bonemeal. To combat this, I opted to use 30g/m³ of either applied in early spring to boost nutrient levels & this seems to have worked. I’ll do it again in 2024 but will cease the extra feed in 2025 & monitor the results. Having said that, the transformation in the texture of the top 10cm of soil has been spectacular, to the point i no longer fret over walking on my beds, as there’s no way they can be compacted any more.
I love how you always simplify all the steps! I love learning new things from your articles. This year is my 4th year of gardening, I live in the New York City, and I have a tiny-ish garden, a super busy life, very limited tools and minimum access to compost. I can’t make compost at home because of racoons and other animals in the neighborhood, and lack of space. Although I hope someday, I will be able to dedicate a tiny space for composting, I follow some of your amazing ideas such as chop & drop. I chop & drop all the extra leaves and stems during the growing season, and throughout the winter. I know they dont breakdown as much as in a compost bin, but at least I am returning the nutrients in the soil back, instead of wasting them. One thing I am struggling with is, every year I have to add a little more soil on my beds to compensate the lost matters, but I am still looking for ways for not needing extra soil to buy anymore.
Thank you! Oh, I’ve taken a bunch of garden classes and yup, all about the “science” as chemistry of the soil…..but what about the Biology and the Structure (Tilth) of the soil? I’m delighted that you speak so eloquently about all 3 points. I have sandy soil with lots of tress —> leaves and enough microbes and insects to support my free-range hens. 👍🏻 My hens don’t care for the comm’l feed when they can eat bugs instead. 🤣
Hi Huw. Amazing article. I thought you were walking with me in my garden and highlighting all my problems with my heavy clay soil. Hi have followed some of your advice with looking after the soil and my raised beds are looking good. I am feeding my new pets, Mr worms and they pay me back. Needs to work more on one area of soil very exposed to the elements. I have horses manure and shop bought compost plus home made compost to help. 😊
My raised beds’ soil PH has been dropping over the past few years from all my added compost. I’m going to add some dolomitic limestone in order to add some calcium & magnesium and to raise it’s PH a bit. I’m also exploring a nominal addition of silicon dioxide (diatomaceous earth) so to add a bit of silica to the soil, to help reduce the impact of downy mildew on my squash and cucumber vines. Have you done (or will you do) a article on soil PH and amendments? Thanks.
Great vid, very well simplified. I found that the education of soil health just as fascinating as the planting/growing last year. It’s been an interesting journey, discovering what works in the soil in my allotment (new last year). I’ve enjoyed trying various techniques to improve the land, from a variety of mulches – manure, seaweed, grass cuttings, ash, to picking suitable varieties of veg for specific spots. Corn did very well in the poor soil for example. And of course religiously and proudly building my compost pile. Can’t wait to see how much better the soil is this year! I have high hopes. 🙂
Too often growers are told that compost is a prerequisite for success. For 90% this quantity of compost is not realistic or the quality of compost brought in is detrimental to soil health. Thank you for recognizing this. There is far too much emphasis placed on bringing in compost. Raising the organic matter content of heavy clay soils can take a while.
Thanks Huw…love these articles. Question about spreading disease. Does using the chop and drop method or adding the garden plants at the end of the season encourage disease? Wondering if composting gets rid of the diseases if present. Also what is your opinion on using green matter and the idea of it robbing the existing transplants of nitrogen. I have ordered your book here in Canada so hopefully it will be along soon. And maybe all those questions are answered there…thanks again
Huw, what are your thoughts on bio-available silica for plants? I just watched Gardening in Canada (Ashley) talk about it and I’m very intrigued. More specifically, perhaps, how one can make sure they have enough silica in their raised beds besides using a purchased supplement. Whether it’s worth focusing on, or whether you just need to add some native soil to the beds.
Can you have a living soil in containers? I see a lot of advice that you need to fertilize containers a lot because there are no nutrients in them besides fertilizer, and that you don’t need to add organic matter to containers because there’s no much soil life to feed. It sounds weird to me. I grew veggie garden almost in 100% homemade compost in containers last year, I relied completely on the soil food web, I added no fertilizer, and I had a decent harvest. Please tell what would be the difference in maintaining soil health in container garden if any. P.S. Appreciate your hints for wet areas – hugging you from a slugs kingdom in Pennsylvania US wetlands 🤗
Just one question as I have a new allotment and need to deweed and prepare my soil for growing over winter crops if possible. I have bought green manure with the plan of this adding some much needed matter into the soil. It’s mainly a winter rye with some other plants mixed in. When I chop it down can I leave the roots to rot in the soil or must I turn that area over which seems counter intuitive to the do not disturb theory?
I have raspberries / blackberries in-ground. All mature 2-3 year old plants, all very large. Im going to put a raised bed in those places. (currently flat ground). I want to keep these plants. These beds would be for my raspberries / blackberries. I know theyre invasive. Can I just put the raised beds / dirt above them (4-5ft of each plant would still be above ground, it would bury the bottom 1ft)? Do I need to dig up all the plants / roots and replant them in the raised beds? Thanks!