What are Soil Amendments?
A soil amendment is anything that when added to the soil, changes its composition. Soil amendments target one of the three pillars of soil health: soil texture, soil nutrition, or soil life. Healthy soil is achieved when all three pillars are working together.
Amending Soil Texture
Soil texture can be improved by adding organic matter, regular core aeration, and with porous rock material for highly compacted soils. Organic matter is increased through routine applications of FertileTea and the addition of organic soil amendments. Organic soil amendments include composted animal manures and plant waste. When dug into the soil, these soil amendments will help break up heavier soils improving drainage. They also enrich sandier soils, providing nutrition for plants, and increasing the water-holding capacity of the soil.
Amending Soil Nutrition
Earthdance Organics uses a variety of high quality organic and organic-based fertilizers and amendments to balance any nutritional deficiencies. These change throughout the year to match the seasonal needs of the lawn and plants. One of our preferred fertilizers are those offered by Hendrikus Organics. Hendrikus Organics is a local Washington business with high quality amendments.
Amending Soil Life
We don’t feed the soil, soil microbes do! Microbial communities in the soil, like nematodes, earthworms, bacteria, and fungi, recycle nutrients and make them available for plants to use. These microbes help to break down materials in the soil, such as old plant material and make them available to plants as food. We just focus on building those communities, so they can do the work for us. As part of our Organic Lawn & Plant Care Program, we apply our FertileTea, teaming with microbes, in regular applications to treat soil. Good soil biology also improves plants’ immune systems, making them more resilient. Adding more organic material to your soil will also encourage earthworms, who in turn, improve your soil by aerating it.
We use a combination of products in order to best improve your soil. For Lawn Renovations, we will add organic soil amendments to better enhance the fertility of your lawn.
