How nutrients are stored in the soil

Soils consist of clay, humus, silt and sand. It is the clay and humus that store the soil’s minerals. They do this by forming tiny particles called colloids that are electrically charged.

Clay and humus are negatively charged, but humus also has some positive charges. Minerals are therefore either negatively or positively charged. Minerals that are positively charged are named cations. The negatively charged minerals are known as anions (no, not onions, anions!).

Cations are attracted to the negatively charged clay colloid and they can also stick to the humus colloid. However, anions can only be stored on the positively charged humus colloid.

This means that if there is no humus in the soil, then anions like nitrogen, sulphur and boron will not be easily stored and will in fact leach readily. Sandy soils contain very little clay or humus so that there is very little storage capacity. That is why sandy soil needs such regular fertilising.

The mineral storage capacity of a soil is vitally important to the nourishment of your garden plants. Such soils require a complete fertiliser and soil conditioner where multiple ingredients have been composted in a high carbon base. 

The Dirty Life - good enough to eat!

Food, a French man told me once, is the first wealth. Grow it right, and you feel insanely rich, no matter what you own.

Kristin Kimball, The Dirty Life, p 16.

Last night, with The Agronomist away visiting farmers in the north of the state, I crawled into bed early with a copy of The Dirty Life, by Kristin Kimball and a large cup of tea! Sheer bliss!

The Dirty Life is a memoir of "farming, food and love". It is the story of a love affair between a city girl and a man who wants to farm organically. Organically for this man means shunning mechanical tools such as tractors; it is draft horses for this man! It is also the story of the farm that they rescue and turn into a flourishing business where they supply the food needs of over one hundred local families. This is a cause that is becoming very dear to my heart, and of course the use of draft horses hit a sentimental note for me, as I recalled my Dad’s love for the heavy work horses (the man in my banner is my Dad!).

Essex Farm near Lake Champlain (USA) is crafted into a “whole farm”  where for an annual fee members can each week collect their share of beef, pork, chicken, milk, eggs, maple syrup, grains, flours, dried beans, fruits and forty different vegetables that are seasonal.

Kristin Kimball reminds us of something that many of our grandparents knew all too well, and that is that there is happiness and great rewards to be gained from hard physical work, best agricultural practices, good food, a small footprint, and pursuing our dreams and passions.

This is a book not just for those of thinking of a tree change, but more so a book for those people wanting to change the way they eat and the way they view the world around them.

As I wrote, this is something that is a growing passion for me. It has always been for  The Agronomist. We have always gardened as organically as possible, and The Agronomist has always maintained that he would never, ever work for a chemical company, only too aware of what these global companies have been doing to our food and land. I have no doubt that he would allow us to be homeless before he would take that path. So, time to put our actions to our words.

We have a business, Plant Health Solutions and we are making available to gardeners, nurseries and farmers pure, organic nutrient products that will feed that lovely soil that gifts us with our wonderful food. There is also a range of human and animal health products as well. The Agronomist is happy to provide agronomic advice as well.

 The Agronomist has been toiling away on the website for weeks and weeks, and it still needs some tweaking, so if you visit right now, just be prepared for a work in progress sign. Our clients will be able to buy online, from anywhere in the world.

Our growing excitement about this project is indeed making me feel insanely rich, despite being insanely poor right now, if you catch my meaning! It feels good to have a real passion again, and something that The Agronomist and I can pursue together – soil good enough to eat!