Soil Health Made Simple: A Practical Guide

Soil is a living and dynamic resource. It provides critical services essential for life, including food production, shelter, and water filtration. It supports plant growth, serves as a habitat for countless organisms and even supplies antibiotics. Humans depend on soil for waste management, water purification, and as a foundation for infrastructure.

In part eight of our Program Priority Series, guest Tessa Halloran goes over soil health. In this episode, Tessa covers:

• WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Priority #8: Soil Health
• What is the soil health program priority?
• What is soil health?
• The difference between soil and dirt
• The Soil Food Web
• Why organisms in the soil matter
• Simple steps to care for your soil
• The effects of tilling on soil
• Components of soil texture
• Ways to evaluate your soil for improvement
• Soil testing
• Common soil challenges in Washington
• Soil orders and what they mean
• If soil can have too much organic matter
  

• WSU A Home Gardener’s Guide to Soils and Fertilizers
• Soil Science Society of America (great resources and continuing ed)
• NRCS Soil Food Web Image
• USDA Soil Texture Pyramid
• Soil Composition Wheel
• USDA NRCS Online Web Soil Survey (detailed info about soils per location): Web Soil Survey – Home
• SoilWeb phone apps (find the soil under your feet): SoilWeb Apps: California Soil Resource Lab
• WSU Puyallup soil publications
• Washington Soil Atlas (PDF)
• Healthy Soil For Successful, Thriving Gardens – The Evergreen Thumb (List of soil health related episodes)
  

[00:00:00] Erin Hoover: Welcome to The Evergreen Thumb, episode 56. I’m your host, Erin Hoover, and today’s episode is all about soil health.

WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Priority #8: Soil Health

The WSU Extension Master Gardener Program directly impacts communities by providing science-based education that improves soil health, strengthens ecosystems, and promotes sustainable gardening practices.

[00:00:24] Through hands-on workshops, field demonstrations, and personalized guidance, Master Gardeners empower individuals to adopt techniques that prevent erosion, enhance soil fertility, and sustain long-term productivity. Their outreach has led to measurable improvements such as increased knowledge of soil conservation, better land stewardship, and stronger local food systems.

By actively engaging with residents, Master Gardeners ensure that communities have the tools and knowledge to create healthier landscapes, resilient ecosystems, and sustainable gardens for future generations.

[00:00:53] Soil is a living and dynamic resource. It provides critical services essential for life, including food production, shelter, and water filtration. It supports plant growth, serves as a habitat for countless organisms and even supplies antibiotics. Humans depend on soil for waste management, water purification, and as a foundation for infrastructure.

[00:01:14] As the foundation of agroecosystems, soil plays a vital role in producing feed, fiber, food, and fuel. However, soil health faces significant threats from deforestation, compaction, erosion, and other challenges. In Washington, key issues identified by Washington State University include nutrient imbalances, acidification pests, pathogens, salinity, and sodicity, all of which jeopardize soil sustainability.

[00:01:42] Neglecting soil health has far reach in consequences. Poor soil conditions result in reduced agricultural productivity, diminishing crop yields, and threatens food security. Degraded soils failed to support diverse ecosystems leading to the loss of biodiversity and ecological imbalance.

Without healthy soil structure, erosion becomes a major issue stripping away fertile topsoil and polluting waterways, which harms aquatic life and degrades water quality.

[00:02:05] Additionally, soil degradation accelerates climate change by releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere, increasing greenhouse gas emissions. These issues also create significant economic burdens as farmers and communities face higher costs to restore soil and maintain productivity.

Addressing soil health is crucial to securing a sustainable and resilient future for both the environment and humanity.

Guest Introduction

[00:02:27] With me today is Tessa Halloran. Tessa is the Small Farms and Master Gardener Program coordinator for WSU Extension in Mason County.

Tessa, thanks for being here today.

Tessa Halloran: Thank you, Erin. I’m excited to be here.

[00:02:46] Erin Hoover: Today we’re talking about soil health and one of the Master Gardener program priorities is soil health. So can you tell us a little bit about the priority and why it’s important to Master Gardeners?

[00:02:58] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, absolutely. Well, as I’m sure you know, soils are beneficial to us in so many ways, right?

[00:03:05] They’re the entire reason that our plants are able to thrive and our water is filtered. And so, for Master Gardeners, it’s really a piece of the bigger picture. So, we really want to prioritize teaching people about soil health because it’s something that often gets left behind, I think in a lot of people’s understanding of their gardens.

[00:03:25] And so we do all sorts of different workshops on soil health amendments, composting, everything like that to make sure people have the knowledge they need to be successful.

What is Soil Health?

[00:03:36] Erin Hoover: So let’s talk a little bit about what is soil health and what does healthy soil look like?

[00:03:41] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, that’s a really good question. For me, I think soil health means that it is able to perform all the functions that it needs to in order to help keep our ecosystems in balance.

[00:03:56] And so making sure our plants can thrive, making sure that it can filter water, uh, decompose different animal and plant matter, and then also provide a home to so many plants, insects, animals, fungi, in order to thrive.

The Difference Between Soil and Dirt

[00:04:20] Erin Hoover: A lot of new gardeners, they think of it as dirt and I know we try to encourage them to think of soil, but you know, what’s the real difference between soil and dirt?

[00:04:31] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, that makes, that makes a lot of sense. I hear that a lot too. I think that dirt is what soil becomes when you like get it on your clothes or track it in your house, or it’s somewhere you don’t want it. Right? I think that living soil is what we rely on to, uh, like I mentioned before, retain water, retain nutrients, filter water.

[00:04:53] Uh, provide decomposition and provide a home for an entire network of life that I think we often don’t even realize is under our feet.

The Soil Food Web

[00:05:05] Erin Hoover: Okay. So that network I know that is the soil food web and I’m sure it has some other names too. Can you tell us a little more about that?

[00:05:12] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah, I think people often say either living soil or the soil food web.

[00:05:18] And really when we talk about the soil food web, we’re thinking about fungi, bacteria, insects, and other different macro and microorganisms that all provide their own services to the soil so that it can break down nutrients and provide nutrients to our plants and do all the other services that we rely on soil for.

[00:05:44] Erin Hoover: I once read a statistic that there are more organisms in our soil than live on the surface of the soil or on the earth above ground.

Tessa Halloran: Mm-hmm.

Erin Hoover: Which is just and crazy to think of that there’s just so. So many living things beneath our feet. Um, and we need to keep them alive.

[00:06:07] Tessa Halloran: Yeah. It’s really amazing.

One of my favorite activities. We take some, uh, kids out to a local farm that has very healthy soil, and one of my favorite things to do is to put a pinch of soil in each of their palms and say, in that pinch there’s a billion organisms in there. Can you even believe that? And they always don’t believe me.

[00:06:28] Erin Hoover: Well, I think even as adults, it’s hard to conceptualize a billion organisms in such a small area.

Tessa Halloran: Right!

Why do Organisms in the Soil Matter?

[00:06:37] Erin Hoover: Why do we need to care about all that, those microorganisms and macroorganisms and all those living things, and in the soil?

[00:06:45] Tessa Halloran: You know, healthy soil, I think is so much more than our gardens too that, that we often don’t think about. I mean, healthy soil is providing the structure that your home sits on.

[00:07:01] Healthy soil is the reason your septic system functions, the reason you have clean water in your well, the reason we get to enjoy—especially in the Pacific Northwest—so many beautiful, clean lakes and rivers and streams, right? And I think it’s important that people realize that every nutrient that’s ever nourished you has come from our soil system, right?

[00:07:25] And so we can’t have our own health without healthy soil. So we’re just so directly linked with it that I think it’s really important for people to understand that and easy steps on how they can improve their soil or take care of their soil.

Simple Steps to Care for your Soil

[00:07:46] Erin Hoover: So what are those easy steps that they can do?

[00:07:49] Tessa Halloran: I think there’s quite a few simple practices that people can take towards improving or maintaining healthy soil.

[00:07:57] One of the main ones that we talk about a lot with the Master Gardeners is adding organic matter, and that can be in a number of ways.

Um, cover crops, which are typically crops that provide different services, whether that is, um, ground cover or pollination or roots that break up compaction or roots that capture nitrogen using cover crops on areas when we’re not growing other things there can really help with our soil health.

[00:08:27] It can add organic matter. They can, uh, like I said provide a lot of other functions towards improving our soil health. We can purchase or make our own compost and add that into the soil. Our Master Gardeners here like to do the chop and drop method, where at the end of the season, they leave all the roots in the ground.

[00:08:52] They chop all the veggie stems and annual stems off, and then they leave it there and often cover it with cardboard or tarp, um, so that it decomposes and then all those nutrients just get recycled back into the soil.

Um, and then we can also do things like mulching, like, which both adds organic matter and does things like protect from water evaporation.

[00:09:18] It can help with heat regulation and also suppress weeds, which is always wonderful.

[00:09:25] Erin Hoover: Always a plus.

[00:09:27] Tessa Halloran: Always a plus.

Um, I think also reducing disturbance is really important. So minimizing tilling, um, or turning over your soil minimally, um, just when you absolutely need to leaving root systems in your soil is really beneficial because those roots are breaking up your soil and then when the plant is done, they die off and they add organic matter.

[00:09:55] And then growing a diversity of plants also can really benefit your soil, um, because all those plants have different interactions with the soil and kind of provide different services. So there’s a lot of different ways, but those are just a, a few of the main ones I think of usually.

The Effects of Tilling on Soil

[00:10:13] Erin Hoover: As Master Gardeners, we’ve been promoting no-till, um, a lot the last few years. Let’s talk about what tilling does to the soil. Um, what happens to the soil when we till it? Because I know it disrupts the soil structure, so you lose a lot of the oxygen and it makes it easier to become compacted. What else can, does it, what other effects distilling have on the soil?

[00:10:34] Tessa Halloran: Yeah. Um, that’s a really multi-part answer to that question. Uh, so like you said, it, it can disrupt the soil structure. And so one thing that we really depend on for healthy soils are things called aggregates. And those are sort of big chunks of organic matter and minerals, and they have air pockets and they have water pockets.

[00:10:58] And so those are really essential for our soil to hold onto nutrients and water. A lot of times when we till we break up those aggregates, so they get smaller and smaller, or they get completely blended apart, and then we lose that capacity to hold onto those things. One component of our soil that’s very important is clay because a lot of our nutrients that our plants need have a positive charge, and clay has a negative charge.

[00:11:31] And so clay are the smallest soil particles. When we blend up our soil like that, we break everything apart. Well, what’s the first thing to get whisked away in the wind? It’s all the tiny little clay particles or flooded away in rain, right? And so that can all have a negative effect.

The other thing that tilling can do is increase compaction of your soil.

[00:12:03] And I know for a lot of new gardeners that sounds sort of contrary to what you would think ‘cause you’re breaking up the soil, right? But often what tilling is doing is you’re using some type of equipment and you’re walking on the ground. And so while you’re breaking up those top few inches of soil, the heavy equipment that you’re using to do the tilling is actually adding weight and compacting the soil layer below that, and so then you can end up with the top few inches of your soil really loose, but over time, really collect this hard pan layer underneath that.

[00:12:39] Erin Hoover: I was taught that tilling can also actually make weed problems worse because you’re turning those weed seeds back and exposing them to oxygen and light, which allows ‘em to germinate. So you end up with a worse weed problem than you start with.

[00:12:54] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, and that can kind of be very dependent on the weeds that you have in your garden.

[00:13:01] Um, so generally, yes, that is true. Of course, any sort of soil disturbance can bring seeds up to the surface that were a little too, you know, in the dark to get what they needed in order to germinate. And so you can end up with more weeds.

The other thing too is we have a lot of very tricky weeds like Canadian thistle and bindweed, that actually once you chop them up, they can propagate themselves from any little chunk and so you’re really just making a lot more weeds.

[00:13:36] I do know that there have been trials done where, uh, farmers in particular have been able to keep land fallow for an extended period of time, and they till really extensively and eventually just like wear out the weeds. And that is a weed management technique that some people use. Um, but generally on our home gardens, yeah, tilling is likely just going to keep bringing up a lot of those annual weeds that’s have seeds buried in your soil.

Components of Soil Texture

[00:14:09] Erin Hoover: Okay, so we talked about soil composition a little bit, water and air and organic matter and you mentioned clay. Um, let’s talk about some of the other, uh components of soil texture.

[00:14:22] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, so I think it’s good to kind of know that soil generally has a composition, and so your average soil composition is about 45% minerals, 5% organic matter, and then 20–30% water and 20–30% air. So generally, when you’re looking at soil, those are the proportions you’d expect.

[00:14:39] The texture of your soil is a ratio of sand, silt and clay particles. And so, a lot of the time, I think the easiest way for people to understand this is to look at a soil triangle because it will show you how you determine the texture of your soil. And so a lot of the time when we look at soil texture, we see or hear the word loam.

[00:15:13] And what that means is you have relatively equal proportions of those particles. Often, you’ll see that a soil is a clay loam or a silt loam or a sandy loam, and that means that they have a little higher proportion of whichever, sort of prefacing the loam. Um, and so that can really tell you a lot about your soil’s drainage, its ability to hold nutrients, how much air it has, uh, how likely it’s to erode, all sorts of different factors.

[00:15:52] Erin Hoover: I know when we bought this property, I looked at the, the USDA’s web soil survey, and it actually listed our soil as gravelly loam, and gravel is not something you usually see on that soil triangle, which I will get a copy of and put in the, um, on the blog post so people can see what that triangle looks like.

[00:16:10] But so we have very fast-draining soil that does not hold onto a lot of moisture at all because we’re just above the Chehalis River. So it’s all that glacial deposit, that gravel with a little bit of soil mixed in for good measure. So that’s where a benefit I think of knowing historically what kind of ecosystem where you live is, because that’s going to help inform what kind of soil you had.

[00:16:37] So, I’ll link to the web, web soil survey too. Because that’s a good resource for people to understand their native soil.

[00:16:44] Tessa Halloran: Uh, yeah, absolutely that one. And then um, the soil web app is also really fun because it’s essentially the same thing, but it’s a really simplified app and you turn on your location and then anywhere you are, it’ll tell you what soil type you’re standing on.

[00:17:00] And, um, I’ve done it in Costa Rica. I’ve done it on the East coast. I do it all over. It’s just really interesting to see in the moment if you’re curious what type of soil you’re standing on.

[00:17:12] Erin Hoover: It sounds a little more user-friendly than the web soil survey too.

[00:17:16] Tessa Halloran: It is. It’s very, um. And then it links you to the information about the soil order that you’re within.

Ways to Evaluate Your Soil for Improvement

[00:17:27] Erin Hoover: Okay. What are some of the ways that gardeners can tell their soil composition or their soil texture, um, and how to improve on it or what they need to improve?

[00:17:38] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, that’s a really good question. Um, I always sort of preface this by saying that I think when we are evaluating healthy soil, I mean there, there are key factors of any soil that’s healthy, but we always wanna keep in mind what we’re trying to grow in that soil.

[00:17:56] And so if I dig a hole in my backyard and it’s this clay alone that I know that I have, I’m going to be a lot less concerned about just directly planting native plants into that than I am trying to grow broccoli there because I know the broccoli’s probably not going to like it a whole lot. It’s been cultivated and bred to have very specific nutrient needs and things like that and needs more drainage.

[00:18:24] And whereas a lot of our native plants, they’ve adapted to our native soils and so they don’t really typically need a lot of amendment or things like that. But I do think there’s kind of some key factors that you can look at to see if your soil’s healthy.

So I would say first of all, kind of regardless of how it looks, healthy soil smells really good, right? It smells earthy, it can smell fresh. Sweet.

[00:18:50] Um, when I was living down in the Willamette Valley, we always used to joke that the soil smelled and looked like chocolate cake because it was so rich and delicious. Um, so if your soil smells chemically or sour or sulfur-y, free or anything like that, that’s a key sign that something is off.

[00:19:17] Um, I’ll say, if you’re gonna go out and smell your soil, make sure it’s damp first. Don’t dig up a bunch of dusty soil and then accidentally inhale it.

[00:19:28] Then another good indicator is uh, digging like a hole in your soil or when you’re planting, you can pay attention to it, uh, and seeing if there’s biological activity. And so that can look like any number of insects. It can look like earthworms, or it can look like, uh, the fungal hyphae that kind of look like white spiderwebs running through your soil.

[00:19:55] That’s, um. Those are all indicators that your soil is alive and providing a habitat for a lot of creatures. And I would say it’s typically best to do that after a good rain, because that’s when things are going to be the most active in the upper areas of your soil.

[00:20:14] Erin Hoover: Yeah, I know that, uh, the, the fungal hyphae scares a lot of people or, you know, they don’t understand what it is and how it’s actually a good thing.

[00:20:22] It means you, you have relatively healthy soil, um, instead of it being, you know, a, a disease or, you know, whatever.

[00:20:35] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, and I think when we’re looking at our plants and we see signs of fungus, we get really stressed out, right? Versus in your soil. It’s a really good thing.

[00:20:45] Erin Hoover: Yeah. So, yeah, I can see that. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it’s true. We’re kind of trained to think fungus is bad in the garden and on a plant it can be bad, but in the soil maybe not so much.

Tessa Halloran: Yeah, absolutely.

Soil Testing

Erin Hoover: So what about like soil testing? What’s a good time, or how often, what are you looking for in, in soil testing?

[00:21:08] Tessa Halloran: I think, soil testing is highly individual, uh, because what you’re looking for can really depend on what your goals are with your soil or what your concerns are.

There are so many different soil testing services out there that can test your organic matter levels, macronutrients, micronutrients, whether you have contaminants in your soil, your pH level, um, all of that.

[00:21:35] And so I typically recommend that people reach out to their like local extension office, Master Gardener service or conservation district, and before you get the soil test, check in with them, talk to them about what your personal goals are for that space so you can figure out what information you might want to know, and then you also have a point of contact to help you interpret that soil test afterwards.

[00:22:04] Because they’re really complicated looking when you get them back. A lot of people are like, okay. Well wait. Now what does that mean? What do I do with that information?

And so some soil testing services provide advice for people. Master gardeners can provide advice, and conservation districts also often offer interpretation services for your soil test.

[00:22:30] Uh, and typically we recommend people test in the spring or the fall so that you if you need to amend your soil, it’s a good time of the year to prepare to do that.

[00:22:44] Erin Hoover: Yeah. I know there are several conservation districts that actually do the testing as well. And a lot of times they will test soil from other counties too, so you don’t have to your own local count conservation district doesn’t necessarily have to do the testing.

[00:22:59] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, absolutely. Um, and yeah, we use sometimes a service that’s in the Portland area and I’ve called the number before to ask some follow up questions and you know, it’s usually someone who does it for a living. And he is out on a farm and he is happy to talk. And people who work with soil really love to talk about soil, so they’re always willing to help.

[00:23:22] Never hesitate to call.

Home Soil Tests

[00:23:26] Erin Hoover: What about like the home tests? It can do a home pH test or NPK tests. Um, if you send out your soil sample, of course you’re gonna get a lot more detailed data. But if you’re looking for just really basic information, are those worth it, or is it still better to send soil in for testing?

[00:23:46] Tessa Halloran: I would always recommend sending soil in for testing.

[00:23:50] Some of the things like the pH monitors and things like that can work all right. My understanding, what I’ve always been taught with the, like at home nutrient testing and everything, is that it’s very hard to actually get an accurate assessment of your soil with the home tests, and typically your basic soil tests runs you around $40.

[00:24:13] It’s not very expensive. So I would say if you’re gonna do it, do it maybe every few years and just, and just send it into a lab to get the most accurate information that you can.

Common Soil Challenges in Washington

[00:24:28] Erin Hoover: So what are some of the common challenges that Washington Gardeners might experience, uh, with their soils?

[00:24:34] Tessa Halloran: I think I have a little bit of a hard time with this question because Washington soils are so incredibly diverse.

[00:24:43] I think out of the 12 different soil orders, I think eight or 10 of them are found in Washington. So across the state, I mean, you look at how diverse our landscape is, our mountains, and we have desert, and we have ocean, and we have, you know. The very wet west side and, and everything like that. And so all of that, in addition to so many different climate and geologic events over hundreds of thousands of years, have really left us with a very distinctive and very different soils depending on where you are.

[00:25:23] And so I can say, I can answer that question about what we typically see in my area on the west side, but I definitely couldn’t answer it for the east side or some other areas where I haven’t even lived. And so I would say. It’s really great to talk to people local in your area who can help you with guidance on typical amendments that are needed or issues that occur with your soil type.

[00:25:46] Uh, I will use this opportunity to plug our Washington Green School because that would be a wonderful place for people to learn about soil structure and how to take care of their soils, or even becoming a Master Gardener and being surrounded by people who have a multitude of experience with amending soils.

[00:26:07] Um, but yeah, so I think reaching out if you’re not in a place where you can become a Master Gardener or attend Washington Green School, then I think reaching out to your Master Gardeners, your extension office, your conservation district, and uh, getting their input, especially if you’re new to an area also on what you may need to think about when you’re taking care of your soil.

[00:26:31] Erin Hoover: it just made me think of an example. So I’m in Grays Harbor County, just south of you and we have, like I said, I’m in East County closer to I5, so we have very gravelly soil and you go a little bit west to Hoquiam and they have very clay soils. A lot of it is very clay-heavy.

[00:26:49] But then you go out to the coast and you get out to Ocean Shores or Westport, and their soil is mostly sand. So there doesn’t hold any water hardly at all. And so they struggle in similar ways that I do, even though our soils are very different. Um, and that’s just within, you know, 50 miles.

[00:27:07] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:27:08] No. Mason County is a very similar thing. I mean, we have people who have extremely rocky soils, extremely clay soils, and then we even have one place that actually has a peat bog on their property, which is not something you typically hear about. And so, yeah, just those little of, well actually probably fairly large events over time that shape the region you’re in.

Yeah. Even a 20 to 50-mile difference can make a huge impact on your soil type.

Soil Orders and What They Mean

[00:27:40] Erin Hoover: So tell us more about the soil orders and, um, since we have so many of them in Washington and what kind of, what they mean.

[00:27:46] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, so soil orders are all going to have crazy names when you look them up. Well, they have nice names and then they have, uh, crazy descriptors, I guess I should say.

[00:27:58] And really what those are referring to are general patterns of characteristics that you see. Typically, that is tied to, like I mentioned, those climate or geologic events. Specifically, a lot is tied to the parent material of an area, which is the rock, the kind of base layer that the soil has eroded from and is derived from.

[00:28:28] That gives a lot of characteristics to different soils, and so I’m not an expert on soil orders by any means, but they are good to be familiar with. Similar to how with plants we think of families and genus and species and varieties. With soils, we kind of have that same multi-layer system that just dives a little deeper each time into describing what type of soil we’re on and what that means.

Common Local Soil Orders

[00:28:56] Erin Hoover: So can you give us a couple of examples of some of the more common in our areas?

[00:29:01] Tessa Halloran: So the, uh, Washington Soil Atlas is a really good resource for looking at different series of soils and the orders that they fall within. And so, um, an example of like a series and an order in my part of the world, which is in Western Washington and Mason County would be the Alderwood series.

[00:29:24] And so that’s within the soil order inseptisols, which are known for being pretty immature soils. They’re not very well developed. So that would be a good example. Um, and I would encourage people to look through the soil atlas if they’re curious about seeing more.

[00:29:40] Erin Hoover: It makes sense that on the coast with more immature soils, because knowing, we did an episode on the kind of the geological history of the area, and we know that, that as that soil was brought up and built onto the Pacific Coast as the, the plates were subducting, the small ocean plates were subducting and it was building that coastline in long Washington.

[00:30:03] So pretty much all of Washington is relatively young soil compared to most of the country east of here from, if I’m remembering correctly.

[00:30:13] Tessa Halloran: Yes, yes, definitely. You look at like the Appalachian Mountain region. Right. And those are really, really old soils that have been around for a long time, versus out here. Yeah. We’re much more newly formed in the context of the earth.

Tessa’s Inspiration for Focusing on Soils

[00:30:28] Erin Hoover: Right. So, what inspires you most about helping people understand and care for their soils?

[00:30:35] Tessa Halloran: I think that soil is so forgotten about. I think that a lot of people don’t realize that what we have under our feet is often the reason for all the success we see. Right?

[00:30:51] We couldn’t have agriculture. We couldn’t grow healthy nutrient-dense food for ourselves. We wouldn’t have a beautiful diversity of plants or um, or clean lakes or rivers or anything like that. And so, I think soil health is such a significant factor in our health and also in our success as gardeners.

[00:31:22] And I think it’s just a magical world that a lot of people don’t know a lot about, and then they find out about it and they’re like, whoa, I didn’t even realize that. Then you can see people start to put the pieces together of, oh, well that’s why that plant isn’t doing well there. That’s why my garden wasn’t as successful.

[00:31:41] And a lot of the time I think we get presented with some sort of shorter-term solutions, you know, to providing nutrients to our plants or different things.

But it’s important to keep in mind that while those do have their place, if we continually amend our soil and make sure that it’s well taken care of, we’re going to need a lot less of those additional products and support uh, for our plants, including even plants being less susceptible to diseases and attacks from pests and other things like that.

Can Soil Have Too Much Organic Matter?

[00:32:20] Erin Hoover: Kind of going back around to earlier, um, you were talking about organic matter in the soil. Is there such a thing as too much organic matter?

[00:32:28] Tessa Halloran: No, I don’t think so.

[00:32:32] In my opinion, um, organic matter is so essential because there’s so, when we look at soil structure, we look at what we’re kind of given what has formed naturally over time and we’re trying to amend our soil to grow things that haven’t evolved to grow here over time, um, or to help those things be healthier, or what have you.

[00:32:56] Organic matter is one of the few things that can positively impact and change a bit of the structure in our soil so that it can capture more nutrients, capture water. In fact, organic matter can hold significantly more water in nutrients than an equivalent amount of minerals. And then because it typically needs to decompose, that means we’re also feeding that soil food web.

[00:33:30] And so organic matter is just like an essential piece of the cycle when we talk about soil health.

[00:33:37] Erin Hoover: I think it’s probably one of the more easily depleted as well, like you said, because it’s breaking down and being um, consumed by those organisms. That’s why it’s so important to replenish it, to give those organisms more food, um, and increase the water-holding capacity of the soil.

[00:33:54] Tessa Halloran: Yeah, absolutely. And you look at, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever dug around when you’re in like an old forest floor or something, but like how light and fluffy, all of that top layer of soil is. ‘Cause it’s just constantly needles and organic matter breaking down and decomposing on top. It’s really incredible to see the differences in those layers of the, of the soil when you’re looking for organic matter.

Final Thoughts

[00:34:19] Erin Hoover: Alright, any final thoughts you’d like to add about soil health or soil composition?

[00:34:25] Tessa Halloran: I think that soil health and soil science are very intimidating subjects for a lot of people because if you get really into it, I mean, it’s chemistry and physics, it’s very complicated, right?

[00:34:40] But I think even people can feel a little intimidated just starting to look into it. It feels overwhelming. And so I would say just jump in and pick a few practices that you think you can implement and then just keep digging into it and, and just adding a few more practices every year or learning a little bit more, um, so that you can be successful in your garden.

[00:35:10] Erin Hoover: Well, thanks for joining me today, Tessa.

Tessa Halloran: Thank you for having me. It was very fun.

[00:35:16] Erin Hoover: Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Evergreen Thumb, brought to you by the WSU Extension Master Gardener Program volunteers and sponsored by the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.

We hope that today’s discussion has inspired and equipped you with valuable insights to nurture your garden.

[00:35:33] The Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State is a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is to provide unifying support and advocacy for WSU Extension Master Gardener programs throughout Washington State.

To support the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State, visit www.mastergardenerfoundation.org/donate.

[00:35:55] Whether you’re an experienced Master Gardener or just starting out, the WSU Extension Master Gardener program is here to support you every step of the way. WSU Extension Master Gardeners empower and sustain diverse communities with relevant, unbiased, research-based horticulture education.

Reach out to your local WSU Extension office to connect with master gardeners and tap into a wealth of resources that can help you achieve gardening success.

[00:36:20] To learn more about the program or how to become a Master Gardener, visit www.mastergardener.wsu.edu/get-involved.

If you enjoyed today’s episode and want to stay connected with us, be sure to subscribe to future episodes filled with expert tips, fascinating stories, and practical advice.

Don’t forget to leave a review and share it with fellow gardeners to spread the joy of gardening.

Questions or comments to be addressed in future episodes can be sent to hello@theevergreenthumb.org.

[00:36:51] The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed by guests of this podcast are their own and do not imply endorsement by Washington State University or the Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State.