For an excellent overview of what's wrong with our conventional approach to soil and a taste of the future of sustainable soil managment, check out this short clip:
Healthy soil looks great, smells great, retains water like a sponge, contains all the nutrients required for plant growth, and supports a vast metropolis of beneficial critters. Healthy soil is 50% clay, sand or silt plus organic matter, and 50% air and water. The key to healthy soil is humus, and at Doctor Soil our formula is organic matter + soil life = humus.
Trust us, healthy soil matters. Take Kay Baxter, NZ organic gardening and seed saving guru, who has been growing the bulk of her own food for 30 years. After 28 years, Kay made a discovery that changed everything: it takes more than good will, intuition and lots of animal manure to grow nutrient-dense food.
This When we think about environmental problems, few of us realise how relevant it is to create healthy soils where we live. Healthy soil captures carbon, supports healthy plants, consumes and detoxifies wastes, holds and stores water in the landscape, purifies water, allows us to produce vast quantities of food in small areas. Building and maintaining healthy, fertile soil where you live is one of the best things you can do for the environment, hands down.
After many years of experience, we know that spending the time to test your soil and to do any necessary groundwork makes all the difference. Tests appropriate to your situation tell us what minerals and nutrients are present, what minerals and nutrients are actually available to plants, and what microbes are present to assist in making them available. Once the state of your soil has been diagnosed, we can advise on or actually help remediate, using site-specific techniques to decompact your soil, aerate your soil, ensure adequate winter drainage and summer retention, achieve critical mineral balances and nutrient levels. We have seen good results in poor clay and silt soils within two months of remediation, and amazing results after a few years.
We service all of Melbourne and will discuss traveling further afield within Victoria upon request, where we carge an extra fee to cover travel costs.