Leaves of Gold

Leaves are the single most important soil amendment for sandy as well as clay soil. They not only keep the soil healthy, they improve the nutrient value of the food grown on that soil.

Have you noticed how supermarket produce starts to rot before it is even ripened? I know the reason. The produce lacks sufficient nutrients for good health. We humans get sick when our food does not contain a well-rounded assortment of nutrients. Plants are no different.

When people feel that their food lacks proper nutrients, they swallow a multivitamin pill to ease their conscience. We can hardly fool ourselves into thinking that those few supplements will compensate for the multitude of nutrients which we are foregoing when we eat junk food. In the same way, most produce is raised with the addition of synthetic fertilizers which contain a few elements to speed their growth. What about all the trace elements which may be just as important to the health of the plants as it is to ours?

For plants to produce healthy fruit, the soil has to contain as many trace elements as possible. This is not going to happen through the addition of synthetic fertilizer, regardless of what the label promises.

Source of Soil Nutrients

Trace elements are not the only nutrients which have to be added to the soil. They could possibly be obtained from seaweed or fish fertilizer if necessary, but that is not sufficient.

Would you like to know what I consider the most important ingredient of the soil? It is those bags of leaves which my neighbors send to the landfill by the thousands. About 40% of North American city garbage consists of compostable garden wastes, and more than half of that is bagged dried leaves which city dwellers dutifully rake up in the autumn, keeping garbage disposal crews working overtime.

At this time of the year, I would say that 80% of Winnipeg garbage is garden wastes and bagged leaves. What a crime! We are disposing of the single most valuable ingredient of the soil, and we are robbing the soil of the ability to grow healthy produce for our consumption.

Adding Roughage

During the last 50 years, health care providers have impressed on us the need for roughage in the human diet to prevent the diseases of our generation like digestive problems, obesity, and cancer. Well, odd as that may sound, what is good for us is also good for the soil. And that roughage is found in leaves, leaves, and more leaves.