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Soil Renovation LLC, Daviess County, IN (2026)

09/02/2026

Rest in peace...Wendell Berry August 5, 1934 - August 31, 2026

From "A Poem on Hope"

"Because we have not made our lives to fit
our places, the forests are ruined, the fields, eroded,
the streams polluted, the mountains, overturned. Hope
then to belong to your place by your own knowledge
of what it is that no other place is, and by
your caring for it, as you care for no other place, this
knowledge cannot be taken from you by power or by wealth.
It will stop your ears to the powerful when they ask
for your faith, and to the wealthy when they ask for your land
and your work."

08/30/2026

allows us to see what is going on in our compost and soil. It's one thing to talk about , it's another thing to see it!

08/27/2026

I'm so excited about these books that I read both in about a 1 1/2 weeks!

We're diving into soil microscopy and learning more about what makes our and methods so effective. This is an exciting service that we can provide for our clients! Stay tuned for more...

08/21/2026

Extreme soil building in nature...with Understanding Ag, LLC & Acres U.S.A.

08/13/2026

Building Soil Part 5

Soil care as an art.

One can make the argument, as I will attempt to do here, that building soil is as much of an art as it science. In fact, I would argue, that it is best viewed as an art. The reason is that soil is so incredibly complex that one cannot keep track of all of the variables.

We will explore the various factors that make each individual soil what it is...

Soil type and texture are made up of five different components: sand, silt, loam, clay, and organic matter. The percentage of each of these determines the soil type and texture. Also note that each of these components is highly variable in and of itself. Not all sand is the same and neither are clay, silt, loam, or organic matter. Just by type alone soils are highly variable.

The next factor to consider is the soil nutrients. Soil contains eighteen nutrients and one antinutrient. Sulfur, Boron, Calcium, Chlorine, Copper, Cobalt, Phosphorus, Iron, Manganese, Magnesium, Molybdenum, Nickel, Nitrogen, Potassium, Selenium, Silicon, Sodium, and Zinc are all present in our soils and used by our plants. Another thing to consider is the presence of Aluminum which can inhibit plant uptake of copper, zinc, calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron, and phosphorus.

Each of the above elements are present in the soil at different amounts. Some soils have plenty of almost everything, and others are low in many nutrients. Take note that high amounts of one nutrient such as iron or nitrogen can restrict plant uptake of other nutrients. The interactions of these elements are incredibly complex. Another thing to consider is that just because an element is present in your soil does not mean it is available in a form your plants can absorb.

Microbes are what make those nutrients available to your plants in a form they can use. In a teaspoon of soil there are more than 10,000 species of microbes with a total population between 100 million and 1 billion. Microbes are also very location specific with the microbes 100 feet apart being slightly different in their makeup. Microbes transported from 50 miles away may be unable to live in your climate and even raising their elevation by 50 feet can kill off their numbers.

Think of microbe species like any large mammal. A house cat and a Siberian tiger are the same species, but are very different animals. Microbes are able to adapt very quickly by means of rapid reproduction. They can change their expression throughout the seasons and from season to season to adapt to changes in conditions. So even if there are "just" 10,000 species in a teaspoon of soil, there is much more variability than those numbers might indicate. It's mind boggling!

Climate and microclimates also affect how soils functions. Rainfall, temperature, slope, aspect (which direction a slope is facing), and sunlight all affect our soils.

Another factor that affects soil is the plants growing in it. Plants can alter what type of microbes live in that soil and even soil PH. Each plant community is going to live in different soils as well as have an effect on those soils. This adds another level complexity to our soils.

This is all a lot to absorb! There is so much that goes into making each soil what it is. Something as simple as a soil test cannot truly tell you what is going on in your soil. In fact different kinds of soil tests have different accuracy levels depending on what kind of soil they are being used in. (Soil tests are a whole other subject to get into. Maybe we will cover that at a later time.)

The point is that trying to reduce soil to a simple test or any other reductionist scientific method will always fall short of reality. They are so many variables and factors that affect how soils work that we are likely not aware of them all. That's not to say we shouldn't try to understand what is going on or that scientific study has no value. That's not what I am saying at all!

We just need to be aware of our limitations. That is why I prefer to look at basic principles like having good soil aggregation and water infiltration. I like to use microbes and carbon to fix soil problems as well as providing nutrients in relatively small quantities, but in very available forms.

By coming alongside nature as a friend and nurturing her, we get far better results than by reducing her to a formula and forcing our will upon the land. That has never ended well for humanity.

Nature is constantly changing and adapting. If we are going to care for her, we are going to need to be equally adaptive, flexible, and curious. Just like an artist...

08/13/2026

Sometimes, when you fertilize lawns, cute, little fuzzy puppies show up to supervise...

07/25/2026

Building Soil Part 4

The Big Picture.

With soil, context is king. Learning to read and understand the terrain is the most important factor in your soil building journey. Knowing how different soil types, past land use, weeds/plants, soil minerals, and current management all interact together is the difference between taking actionable steps and just spinning your wheels.

Past land use has drastic effects on how soils act. Learning the history of the land is very important. It's one of the essential questions I ask when working with a client. Any disturbance to the soil profile can have detrimental effects. Often times the area around where a house has been constructed has had the soil regraded and the soil layers inverted. The same could be said for land used for row crop production.

When organic matter gets trapped below the surface, excess CO2 or even methane or ethane can be released into the soil. This leads to the growth of many types of weeds. This especially true if that organic matter is covered with heavy soils like clay that do not drain well.

Hayfields are notorious for having lifeless soils. Cropfields often have a hardpan in them. Strip mined land has it's soil organic matter destroyed and suffers from heavy metal toxicity. These "artifacts" from the past are often present long after the land use has changed. Take note of indicators of past use and take time to learn the history of your soil. This can be critical to addressing problems that could be overlooked.

Soil texture is another major factor. While many tools work well in all soil types, paying attention to soil types and textures can direct you to the most effective course of action. Sandy soils might benefit from cover crops or biochar, and clay might benefit from broad-forking or a microbial inoculant. In both cases we might be addressing low soil organic matter, but our approach may change based on soil type.

Observe any effects related to soil texture and type. Are you dealing with soil that is tight? Is it eroding? Waterlogged or draining too quickly? Maybe it isn't able to infiltrate water at all and any rainfall just runs off...

Dig into the soil to see how deep the topsoil is (if you have any topsoil at all). You can also observe how deep plant roots are penetrating. Can you drive a stake into the soil with your hand or do you need a hammer? Check how deep it goes and pay attention to any hardpan layers. Soil texture is very important in my line of work.

The weeds and plants in a given area can tell you a lot about the soil conditions. Some plants may indicate past pesticide use. There are plants that indicate high aluminum (which can inhibit nutrient uptake in plants), iron, or other elements. Many weeds grow in soils that are low in calcium. Other plants grow in places where organic matter is rotting in the soil. Others indicate sandy soil that doesn't retain nutrients or water. Some grow in waterlogged places.

Plants can fairly accurately indicate nutrient availability. Each species has a "window" of conditions it will tolerate. By taking note of the plants growing in a given area, you can look for themes indicated by those plants. If several plants indicate conditions that pertain to a certain nutrient being too high or low, it can be safe to assume that is the case. There are plants that only thrive when conditions are nearly ideal. Reading the weeds is an invaluable skill that, in some cases, may be more accurate than (but not as specific as) some soil tests.

There are many things you conclude simply by observation. Red soils indicate high iron. Tight soils usually have a low calcium to magnesium ratio. Do these observations line up with other indicators? Is there bare soil? Why? In several cases I have able to address problems for clients by observing that they had used pine mulch on their garden, and then applying an appropriate microbial input.

By observing indicators of past land use, learning about its history, taking note of soil type, texture, and color, reading the weeds, and considering current land management, you can make decisions to improve your soil. Once you have a good idea of what needs corrections, you can apply the appropriate tools.

Building soil is a lifelong journey. There are so many factors in soil that, without proper context, you can easily do more harm than good in your attempts to build it. It is very important to take things slowly and pay attention to feedback loops. Pay attention to what your land and plants are telling you. Learn, learn, learn. Be patient. The reward of rich soil is worth it.

In some ways, soil building is more of an art than a science. We'll take a look at that next...

07/22/2026

Building Soil Part 3

While plants are the primary soil builders, sometimes we need to accelerate plant health. In poor soils, nutrients are often unavailable due to being too deep in the soil profile, being in an unavailable form, or just general soil dysfunction. In these cases, addressing nutrient shortages can greatly expedite our soil building journey.

Addressing nutrient deficiency can take two primary forms. One is by adding the nutrient directly and the other is by increasing soil function. Increasing soil function can be done with a microbial inoculant, although the inoculant must often be accompanied by other management changes.

If we are going to add nutrients where do we get them? One obvious answer is from other plants. If you have a healthy plant it contains nutrients that your plants need. Duh! Using plants material you have available to make ferments or compost is an excellent place to start. Bear in mind that fruit will contain more micronutrients, and green material (leaves & stalks) will contain more nitrogen. For this reason I often like to use a higher percentage of fruit in ferments and use the rest of the plant in compost.

Certain plants accumulate particular nutrients in their various parts. For example, Tupelo trees accumulate cobalt in their leaves and dandelion accumulates calcium. Study this and use it to your advantage. The same goes for various parts of animals and animal products. Animals are also nutrient accumulators.

An important source of nutrients are our waterbodies, particularly salt water. Many of our nutrients are washed away into the waterways, and make their way to the seas and oceans. Since many of migratory insects, birds, and fish are extinct or in decline, we no longer have the transport mechanisms we once had to move these nutrients back onto our landmasses.

That leaves the nutrient transport up to us. (I like to think of humans as the ultimate migratory species...) Unrefined sea salt, as well as plant and animal products from the sea, are an important addition to our soil fertility. Sea salt can be added to our ferments, and kelp can be added to biofertilizers or compost teas. Make sure to use very little (think pinches...), especially when it comes to the salt. Less is more as we don't want to over salt our soils.

Often times what our soils really need is microbes. From the frozen sea ice to the barren desert, microbes are everywhere. They are an essential part of every ecosystem. They build soil structure (that "chocolate cake" we farmers dream of), make nutrients available to plants, and bind up toxins.

Next to plants, microbes are the other big factor in soil building. In fact, just like you can't have soil without plants, you can't have (natural) plants without microbes. Some microbes like cyanobacteria even perform their own photosynthesis without plants at all. Microbes really are a powerhouse when it comes to building soil fast.

Like plants microbes need to fit the environment. If you put a fungal dominant compost extract into bare, sandy soil those fungi will die. You need to have mulch for the fungi to feed on and keep the soil moist. Preferably you would have many living plants as well. In abused, dry, compacted soils it is best to start with extremophiles like the various photosynthetic bacteria or facultative microbes like lactobacillus.

These microbes will decompact the soil, break up anaerobic zones, and bind up toxins. They should be followed up with mulch or cover crops. Next we can encourage a more diverse set of microbes via compost and inoculants. As the soil improves, becomes looser, and has more organic matter it can then host more fungi and other "higher" level microbes.

Culturing microbes is not necessarily difficult, but it does require specific knowledge, attention to detail, and time. If you already have access to microbes in your fermented foods, compost, and nearby "natural" areas, these can be used to help encourage them in your garden.

The techniques for culturing microbes can be found in books, Facebook groups, and YouTube. That being said, there is little replacement for learning directly from an experienced practioner. Be patient with yourself in the learning process! It is very worth it!

We here at Soil Renovation have removed hardpan in fields, opened up waterlogged soils, and turned around struggling gardens with our microbial inoculants and biofertilizers. These microbial cultures are very valuable when used in the right situation. Just like anything else, context is critical when it comes to microbes. They can only be effective if they are matched to the issue at hand.

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for soil, one practice I recommend to all gardeners is to use the "bokashi" method of fermenting your food waste. It is a far better than a standard slop bucket. You're going to have food waste, so it might as well increase the beneficial microbes in your soil.

While plant management like cover crops, mulch, chop-and-drop, and rotational grazing are the primary way to manage soil, there is often room for improvement by using targeted microbial and nutrient inputs.

Next we will cover reading the terrain and the big picture of soil health improvement...

07/20/2026

Building Soil Part 2

What is the role of plants in building soil? That's right, plants build soil. In fact you can grow a crop while increasing your soil vitality. This is the opposite of what many of us have been taught. The scarcity mindset is what keeps us from building soil. An abundance mindset will allow us to more effectively fix our soils.

Plants are the ultimate solar panels. They use solar energy to turn CO2 and water into sugar. This sugar is the building block of most of the life on earth. These simple sugars are then converted into more complex carbohydrates, fats, cellulose, and lignin. Worldwide, photosynthetic organisms convert more than 100 billion tons of carbon into biomass per year. That is an enormous amount of energy, about 8 times that of global human power consumption.

In our previous post about building soil, we noted that soil is made up of minerals and organic matter. The biomass created by photosynthesis is what makes that organic matter. Plants pump some of the sugars they create into the ground to feed the microbial life in the soil. This microbial life uses the energy from the sugar to extract nutrients from the mineral base of the soil. The microbes convert nutrients into a form the plants can absorb.

Together plants and microbes make nutrients and energy (sugars, carbohydrates, and fats) available to animals and humans. Living and dead plant and animal material are what create organic matter in our soils. So how do we encourage maximum photosynthesis so that our plants can do a good job of creating biomass to feed ourselves, our animals, and our soils?

Time...

Firstly, we must always have living and dead plant material on our soils for as much of the year as possible. Land should never be left bare and there should be a living root in the ground as often as possible. Cover crops are an excellent way to build soils. Also, removing plant material from your growing space robs the soil of valuable nutrients and cover. (That cover, whether living or dead, is essential for maintaining moisture, and remember, water is essential for photosynthesis...) Don't remove any more of a plant than necessary and that includes weeds.

Efficiency...

Secondly, matching the plant to the soil conditions is an essential part of using plants to build soil. Every plant has ideal conditions in which it can best perform photosynthesis. For an example we will look at Johnson grass.

Johnson grass grows in depleted and abused soils. It can take over when soil conditions are poor. It's "invasive" if you will. But Johnson grass is a member of the sorghum family. That means it is a warm season grass that produces copious amounts sugar. It can produce the sugars and biomass we need to restore soil even in very poor conditions.

Another example might be dandelion which grows in compacted soils that are low in calcium. It uses its taproot to break up the compaction and also mines calcium and potassium and brings them up to the surface.

We often call plants that grow in poor soils, "weeds". That right, weeds are giving back to the soil, not taking from it (this is were the scarcity vs. abundance mindset applies to soil building). Our job is to manage the plants on our land, whether weeds, crops, or cover crops, so they can build soil faster.

Instead of pulling plants out of the garden, leave them in place, especially their roots. Plant cover crops on unused land, especially over winter. Use your weeds to build soil, either by grazing them, chopping-and-dropping them, or making fertilizer or compost with them. When plant growth declines get something else growing in its place to ensure maximum photosynthesis (relay cropping) Plant mixtures of plants to ensure maximum biomass production (cover crop mixes, intercropping, or companion planting). Mix perrenial plants and annuals as the perrenials keep the soil alive when annuals are absent.

Seek out plants that produce sugars (like sorghum), that create lots of biomass both above and below ground (sunflowers and rye for example), store valuable nutrients (like beets, turnips, or radishes), or mine nutrients from deep in the ground (say dandelion or comfrey). Add these plants to your garden to fix problems you might have.

Grow aggressive plants nearby your garden that you can use for mulch. Comfrey, Maximilian Sunflower, willow, and poplar trees are just a few of the aggressive plants that can be used to build soil. Embrace plants that are a bit on the "invasive" side. These plants WANT to grow in your conditions and they can perform the functions you need to build better soil to grow the crops that don't currently do well in your environment.

As side note, you can use landrace breeding methods to adapt crop plants to your local conditions so that they too WANT to grow there. This an under-explored aspect of soil building...

Another way to use plants to build soil is by amending the soil or inoculating it with microbes to help the plants better perform their job. This is what many people think of when they think of "building" soil. Just bear in mind that this can be a huge amount of work if your plants aren't a good fit for your environment.

Start with the right plants first!

We'll explore using microbes and minerals to build soil next time...

Soil Renovation LLC

09/02/2026

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