Keep soil covered so organisms can work

Sun on bare ground heats, seals, and leaves nothing for worms and microbes to shred. A cover of residues, chips, or living plants is shade and a lunch queue.

Woody chips around trees and shrubs support a slower, more fungal surface. Annual vegetable rows often do better with finer, more active organic cover so cycling stays quicker. Lawns can return clippings instead of carting them off.

Keep mulch off the trunk flare. Watch for slugs and excess wet against stems.

If a bed crusts every dry week, cover is cheaper than another irrigation cycle that still bakes the surface.

In this series

• Treat soil as a living web, not an inert bag of fertilizer
• Roots feed microbes; microbes then feed roots
• Compost feeds life, not just NPK numbers
• Keep soil covered so organisms can work
• Heavy tillage breaks fungi, worms, and structure
• Trees like a more fungal system; annuals like faster bacterial cycling