Soil Resilience

Soil Resilience Helping farmers, growers and gardeners understand and protect their soil

08/08/2026

For a couple of weeks I had quite a few wasps entering my house, which was annoying. One day I took these sweet potato slips out of the greenhouse and put them on the table out the front. Soon I started noticing wasps landing for a drink... They get thirsty. Everyday I have to refill the glass, it's usually half gone by the morning. I think they feel safe landing in the glass because with the potato inside, it helps them see and climb down safely for a drink. At the same time I noticed the wasps drinking from the glass, they stopped entering the house. Now I'm wondering who else is using this resource. It's really helpful to observe nature and see how what's going on. Excessive heat and drought make it hard for little creatures to survive. Has anyone else noticed something different in nature this Summer?

29/07/2026

Fungi release and manage moisture through a process called guttation. Spores are launched in this way to help regulate climate. Together with spores can be a mix of sugars, minerals and defensive compounds. Fungi release these minerals into the air to help cool down the atmosphere, they are nothing short of a miracle. So we need these and their companions in the ground under the cover of diverse green canopies. The way soil has been stripped back for large scale mono-cropping has left us in danger and all that inhabit it to excessive fires, wind, heat and rain. Making our planet year on more exposed to adverse weather conditions. I had a look under the microscope to see what was going on in the liquid. At first glance It looked like it was all bubbling and then I noticed some flagellates and crystal like compounds as well as lots of minerals. I had never seen this before or heard of it.

These are a couple of different compost piles I've been working at recently. One is for a neighbour and the other is for...
21/07/2026

These are a couple of different compost piles I've been working at recently. One is for a neighbour and the other is for my plot. I made the mistake of making a pile without taking into consideration how much water it would use in this heat, compared to how much water is left in my storage tanks. I live off grid and although ordinarily I would have had plenty of stored water. One of the tanks needed emptying before this drought as it was falling into the cabin. Most of it was saved and pumped into another tank, but there still seemed to be 2 practically empty tanks.... Living off-grid is all about being organised... it's a constant learning process.

06/07/2026

Cleaver, the sticky w**d you find in the garden has some real benefits. Some include great support for immunity, antioxidant. Supports lymphatic system, clears congestion in the lungs and very beneficial as a daily tonic. Collect your cleaver w**d, place it in your water bottle with water and leave overnight for a refreshing drink during the day.

30/06/2026

We are planting on a leaf day according to the biodynamic calendar of Maria Thun. So leafy plants that don't produce fruits. Also on the waxing side of the moon and correct star alignment. This gives the plant more energy to get established quicker. The soil is good in this patch and has had plenty of bio-complete compost added however snails are a problem and so I will keep an eye on things. Companion planting works because each has a specific set of needs but when paired up with a few different plants can better grow and support the other.

28/06/2026

This is a mulch recipe we are making , created for free by using collected coffee grounds, seaw**d and comfrey stalks/leaves that we have growing here at Windy Ridge. Like many gardeners we have a big problem with slugs. In Cornwall we get a lot of rain, we've had good sunshine too but still have an abundance of slimy critters. This mulch will hopefully stack some functions by deterring slugs as they don't like coffee or seaw**d but also to boost nutrients in the plants, keep w**ds out and soil moist. The predominant problem here is our soil is sand on top of bedrock, so lots of organic matter needed.

23/06/2026

Comfrey is a very productive plant. Firstly it's perennial and so comes back year after year. It produces so many beautiful flowers that bees absolutely love. As the flowers die away, you can chop a lot of the leaves off leaving any sprouting leaves to re-grow. The chopped leaves can then be used as a direct fertiliser by spreading out around plants of you make a tea. And there are multiple ways to do so. This is my first time brewing the leaves. They've been in the bucket for several days and now stink. I'm using aeration to keep the tea from going anaerobic.Now I believe it's ready to sieve and dilute with water to use straight away. However if I wanted to bottle it for use later on in the season or next Spring, I would use a different method to do so. This is my first time using comfrey tea. I used it last year mulched around my plants and it worked well but doesn't go as far. I planted Bocking 14 Comfrey because it doesn't take over the garden.

19/06/2026

This is a root feeding nematode, apart from its beauty, this little critter will feed on the roots of your plants. It's microscopic. The total magnification is 400 times. Where there's one, there are usually 100's. They can do a lot of damage. One way to outcompete them is to introduce a diverse set of microbes, including, fungi, bacteria, protozoa and nematodes. Predatory nematodes are the one of best for keeping these pests in check. Another would be nematode trapping fungi. But left alone and undetected can do so much damage.

17/06/2026

Sundays compost workshop, held in near Perranporth Cornwall.... It's alway a fun day. We drink tea, we learn, we work, we eat our lunch and learn a bit more, then we start to put the pile together, it starts to make sense... We learn and ask questions, we start to think about our own materials and where and how to source. Last thing over tea is understanding how the heating of the pile should be monitored and when to turn. Some crucial elements that need understanding. I have my own drawings to share but encourage the students to create their own. Thank you to everyone who came and learned the process of making a rapid hot compost, which is usable as a mulch after 30 days of for a beautiful soil amendment up to 6months.

Some more photos from the Food, Farming and Nature hub last week. The vests in the background were an experiment. Each v...
11/06/2026

Some more photos from the Food, Farming and Nature hub last week. The vests in the background were an experiment. Each vest was buried for 6 weeks in different fields... you can see how the microbiology in each field has been decomposing the material. Some more than others indicating the health of the soils. To the right I was teaching the children about the different microbes that we were seeing through the microscope.

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