Soil Microbes Are A
Gardener’s Best Friend

Soil microbes include bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, soil algae, cyanobacteria, and soil protozoa, all of which are small enough to dance together on the head of a pin. These tiny little organisms exist in your garden in the millions per gram of soil. Many live in the thin film of water that surrounds each particle of soil or speck of organic matter.

Not only are these little guys great in number, their volume ranges from several hundreds to thousands of pounds in every acre of soil.

Their function, as with all life, is to feed, excrete, replicate and die. As they do so, they break down both the organic and mineral components of your soil to water-soluble chemical compounds that plants can feed on.

Larger soil animals like nematodes, mites, springtails and worms assist them. But it is the soil microbes that carry the heavy load of dissolving mineral and organic matter in your garden.

Since garden gnomes live beneath your garden, these little critters are among our best friends. And, whether you know it or not, they are the best friends any gardener can have. Without these tiny organisms, your plants would starve.

But if you fail to feed them by adding organic matter, their numbers will dwindle and the garden will suffer. Feed them a steady diet of compost and mulch .

The compost pile would just sit and not rot without this army of digesters that turn it into a feast for your plants. Organic matter rots because it is consumed and spit out by the army as organic fertilizer .

This army also surrounds every grain of sand and soil, breaking them into chemical elements fit for plant food.

Soil microbes are the organic gardener’s secret tool that help the soil turn into plant nutrients that can feed your garden.

Happy gardening,

Geefrank

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