What is one of the most important resources on this planet we all share? Dirt. Well, not just any dirt, but soil that can grow plants. In 1988, the United Nations did a survey of worldwide cropland and determined that total cropland worldwide is declining. Intensive farming and the wrong techniques can create a condition as devastating as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s when millions of acres of farmland eroded due to drought and poor agricultural practices. Huge dust storms left nothing behind but havoc and despair.
Vegetables Today are Less Nutritious
Crops need good, rich topsoil in order to produce nutritious vegetables. Unfortunately, the vegetables that our parents and grandparents ate were more nutritious than the same vegetables sold in supermarkets today. In 2004, a landmark study at the University of Texas compared nutritional data on 43 vegetables and fruits for 1950 and 1999. They discovered that in 50 years, there were “reliable declines” in nutrients. The scientists felt that the cause was commercial agricultural practices and crops bred to be larger, grow faster and be pest-resistant, even if those crops were less nutritious.
Americans Turn to Gardening
Health-conscious Americans are turning to gardening, producing at least some of their own food. The National Gardening Association reported that 35% of all households are growing food, the highest number in more than a decade. People want tomatoes with that real tomato taste, green beans that are plump and not shriveled, zucchinis that could feed the neighborhood. They plant apple trees, so that they know that their children aren’t eating fruit sprayed with dangerous pesticides.
The Right Soil is Everything
There’s only one way to be able to pick that basket overflowing with colorful veggies and fruit – start with good soil. Something that master gardeners know is that every year, if you treat the soil right, it will improve. Good, rich Topsoil in Waukesha WI is “alive”; if you discover earthworms in the soil when digging potatoes at the end of the season, that’s good soil. Worms don’t live in poor, substandard soil. They have high standards!
Bluemel’s Garden & Landscape Center carries the specialty soil mixes from Purple Cow that are perfect for raised beds, container gardens or to improve the soil in your backyard garden.
