Stay Grounded: Soil Building for Sustainable Gardens

By: Melinda R. Cordell

Narrated by: Tonya J. Williams

Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's Summary

One of the most important things gardeners can do is to build up the soil in their garden. But keep in mind that soil building is not a one-time operation, it’s a process. As humus is devoured by microorganisms, worms, and plants, more organic material must be added constantly in order to keep the soil biomass, and thereby the plants, well fed and happy. Also, humus makes the soil porous and fluffy, builds a strong soil structure, and releases nutrients in a form that’s easily absorbed by plant roots.

Chemical fertilizers will not add humus to the soil. These are merely nutritional supplements; plants and their soil need real food - organic material. This audio guide teaches you all sorts of ways to get organic material into the soil to improve soil health and soil fertility, which in turn improves plant health - for better gardens, higher yields, and more gorgeous flowers.

Examine topics such as soil building; saving the world; one dirt clod at a time; earthworms as earth movers; green manures; compost; why your soil is evil; getting to know your soil; taking soil samples; the soil food web; earthworms as super soil savers; how to protect earthworms; a field guide to earthworms; epigeic earthworms; endogeic earthworms; anecic earthworms; organic matter and humus; how Mother Nature shows us how to make great soil; how not to let leaves go to waste; mulching the world; how to fix out-of-control weeds with newspaper mulch; compost as "black gold"; learning the basics of composting; extreme composting as the ultimate in recycling; 60 weird things you can compost; organic soil amendments; green manures and cover crops; cover crops and their benefits; green manures and their benefits; places to plant them; plants to use for green manures and cover crops; alfalfa as a gardener's secret ingredient; the case against chemical fertilizers; no-till gardening; fixing lousy soil; fixing subdivision soil; aerating and adding; and much more!

©2017 Melinda R. Cordell (P)2018 Melinda R. Cordell

loads of info

short and packed with useful info for the beggining gardner. focusing on healthy soil is key to raising healthy plants. narrorators speech takes a bit to grow accustom to. going to save this book to listen to again.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good info but lots of repetition between chapters.

This is a collection of articles more than a book. there is a lot of repetition. There is good info in here but it gets tedious listening to tips on using newspaper to stop weeds 3 or 4 times.

An interesting, informative book on soil building

Stay Grounded is an interesting book on soil building (and no I'm not being sarcastic). The author writes engaging, informative, helpful gardening books. I learned a lot that I can't wait to implement in my own garden. There was a bit of repetition in the book, probably because it was made up of, at least in part, a collection of articles written by the author. Perhaps the book may be better if it is broken up instead of reading (or listening) to it all at once.

I don't usually listen to nonfiction audiobooks, but I found it a pleasant way to learn about a subject (though having a written copy to refer back to as well would be helpful. The narrator was engaging and pleasant.

I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook. This is my honest and voluntary review.