I must admit that it has taken me a long while to be convinced of the benefits of soil testing. When I started out, most of the established gardens were resisting the obsessive wave of soil analysis which swept across the agricultural and commercial horticultural landscape. There were scientists and graduates from the universities wanting to help farmers and growers by analysing the chemical and physical properties of their soils. Several times each year, technical representatives from the emerging chemical and agricultural corporations would visit major farms, sporting grounds, and established gardens throughout the country. Around this time, I lived and worked on a private estate and was on one occasion harassed by a foreign gentleman seeking...

Over the years, I’ve experienced only minor problems associated with inadequate soil drainage. This surprises several of my gardening colleagues since I have frequently worked in regions where rainfall exceeds evaporation and contributes to an elevated groundwater. In retrospect, I was fortunate to work on private estates where adequate garden drainage was designed and installed, sometimes dating back to Elizabethan times. Of course, natural determinants of poor soil drainage can be sufficiently inherent to defy normal engineering attempts to resolve them. Soil drainage properties can usually be explained in terms of the geographical location, surrounding physical topography, and the compositional structure defined within the various...

It saddens me to admit that the prevalence of seriously problematic soils appears to have increased dramatically over the previous few decades. Despite the proximity of international tensions, the world seemed a considerably safer and altogether more stable environment when I started gardening in my teens and early twenties. Perhaps this misrepresents the reality. It might be more accurate to suggest that certain issues were once described in concrete terms, without the numerous complexities and differences of opinion which are routinely encountered in the popular media of today. Like everyone else, I’m confused and disturbed by the reports on global warming, climate change, and species decline. When I look at my original notes for this...

The other night, I became frustrated with my football coverage so switched between documentary channels on the cable network. I managed to catch the second half of a program about earthworms. Prior to final credits, the narrator emphasized the significance of the earthworm’s contribution towards maintaining soil fertility. He then suggested that soil fertility was crucial for the long term sustainability of life on earth. Unfortunately, he repeated the words monotonically and they became divorced from any reasonable sense of urgency. As a keen student of organic principles, I’ve been concerned about the long term consequences of poor quality soils for several decades. Irrespective of the demand for organically grown produce, there...

In their uncultivated state, plants must continually depend on their adaptability for survival. In addition to accommodating local variations in their environment, they need to compete against rival plants for their share of soil nutrients and other resources like water, sunlight, and physical space. While this competition can frequently be harsh and unforgiving, there are also situations where plants benefit from establishing mutually co-operative relationships with non related species. By closely observing nature over many years, I have learnt to appreciate and accept these complex patterns of ecological rivalry and cooperation. In turn, this provides me with a useful foundation for establishing companion planting programs within my own organic...