#soil building

Florida Soil Builders can produce a high-quality agriculture soil amendment for the agriculture industry and have adopted the manufacturing process called "Advanced Composting System". By adopting this system, we can produce a high-quality organic soil amendment utilizing our aerated windrow compost systems.

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This is a bed we added to the hillside above the cabin. The hillside only had ferns and club moss at one point, then it started developing saplings from the tree seeds and hollowstem Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium fistulosum). We chop that every other year or so to add material to the soil, but this bed was created by dumping a large amount of charred and rotten wood and then a thick layer of partially composted food scraps and paper waste mixed together. We covered that with a thin layer of leaf mould and loam to keep animals from trying to dig up any larger scraps. Butternut squash seeds got mixed in from being swept off the floor and grew everything we harvested last year in just two months, so we planted more this year on purpose (after adding a new layer of partially finished compost). The plantain (Plantago major) in the first photo is huge, it’s easily two feet across. It’s also the most bitter plant, even from the newly sprouted leaves.

Adding chemical fertilizer would only work so well due to its compacted structure (that’s improving each year), so natural materials that combine organic material and fertilizer (like the composted deep bedding from the chicken coop) make more sense anyways. We know the acidity is improving because there’s no longer an immediate carpet of moss forming on each shady spot of soil. Now forbs and grasses move in that fast instead. Potatoes, beans, greens, cowpeas, and some smaller brassicas like radishes have done well since the beginning. Pests remain the biggest problem for the crops that like the soil in its current condition, followed by fungal diseases like powdery mildew.

The garden after pulling up the garlic and chopping the beds while leaving what’s left of the clover flowers in the path. The bottom photo shows the current texture and color of the soil where it was disturbed by lifting the garlic. It looked very shorn and mowed to me when taking the photo but in the shot it still looks wild.

These workhorses are beautiful and functional