Ahh, the phrase that alights us winter-weary gardeners eager to plant seeds and see life in verdant bloom once again. But what does it mean?
Soil is the miraculous skin over the earth’s fertile land, one we humans are just barely beginning to understand. It is full of the most glorious cacophony of species imaginable—a veritable cornucopia of tiny beings scuttling about, eating, pooping, living and dying, and in the process making life on earth possible.
One teaspoon of garden soil can contain more than a billion microbes, each of which plays an important role in breaking down decaying matter and making those nutrients available to plants to start the cycle of life over again. They etch minerals from rocks, and secrete glues and gums that bind soil particles together, helping it to both drain and hold the perfect amount of water. They sequester carbon, and they thread themselves into the roots of plants to form vast underground mycelial networks that shuttle nutrients between organisms like complex superhighways. And so, so much more.
Scientists estimate that we humans have identified less than 3% of the species living in the soil, and we know even less about the complex ways they interact with each other and with the plants we love. This field of study is literally blooming with an influx of attention as we continue to learn more about the vital importance of healthy soils teeming with living microbes.
So what does this mean for us farmers & gardeners?
Our soil-dwelling life-givers are remarkable in their ability to stay alive in a dormant state during the long, cold winter months, waiting to spring into action again as the soil temperatures warm in spring. While they are dormant, they are fragile. They aren’t eating or drinking and they must use their limited resources to simply stay alive until it is possible to begin to move around once more. If we get in there too early and start digging around with shovels, trowels, or tillers, we can kill these important collaborators and destroy the soil structure they’ve worked so hard to build, making our soil more compacted and causing problems with erosion, runoff, and unhappy plants who will suffocate from a lack of oxygen to their roots.
Waiting until the soil sufficiently warms up in spring before trying to get in there and work it or plant seeds is the best way to protect our belowground friends. If you’re the sciency type, you can use a thermometer to measure your soil temperature, and use this chart to decide when to plant each of your garden crops. But it isn’t necessary to be this precise. If the surface of the soil is frozen, you know it’s too early to plant. And if you dig down into the soil and you hit a layer of frost a couple inches down, that’s another indication that you’re being too eager.
If a shovel or trowel sinks easily into the earth without hitting a hard, frosty layer, that’s a good sign. But keep in mind that these fragile microbes don’t want to be disturbed more than they have to be, especially as they’re just beginning to wake up from their winter rest. So don’t bother them more than you have to as you get going!
You can aerate heavy soils prior to planting by using a digging fork or gently lifting the soil with a shovel—but in the spirit of kindness to your tiny, precious gardening partners, patience is a virtue.
Even cold-hardy seeds like beets, carrots, onions, peas, and greens will germinate better as the soil continues to warm up in the spring, so there is no need to rush your planting. In fact, in very wet and cold soils, these same seeds may rot before they sprout.
So do yourself and your soil-dwelling comrades a favor and hold off planting for a couple weeks after your soil thaws out. Your seeds will sprout faster and the underground ecosystem of your soil will be happier.
And if you need a refresher on which seeds are cold-hardy and can be planted while there is still a danger of frost (and which are not) along with a bunch of other tips about starting plants from seeds, we’ve got you covered.
Happy Sowing from all of us at Snake River Seed Co-op!
