To lend support of your statement, I'll provide an example.
I once had a vegetable garden on my neighbor's yard and the soil there was terrible to support good crop growth. So I loaded the area with perennials and annuals to attract bees, but I have not yet worked on the soil.
Today I was rearraging two plants and when I dug one up, there were hundreds of ants around one plant. I went through the transplating process and kept thinking of the number of ants there and not in my gardens just ten feet away. My gardens have been receiving soil improvements for four years now; there are very few ants. My soil has many worms now; none, and I mean none, were there four years ago. It is now living soil.
In an earlier post I wrote the following and will note here that I did not see ONE ANT:
"Today I planted at a neighbor's garden to provide vegetables for some senior citizens; I planted 3 cabbage, 7 kale, 5 Brussels sprouts, and 8 Swiss chard. Although the seedlings were not in great shape, the soil in which they are planted is superb. In fact, the garden is about three feet above the surrounding area; it has been built up over the decades with fine shredded wood chips added each year. When I first walked into the garden, I began sinking a little; it was that soft and absent of any stones. The worms were abundant. I could create a hole for each seedling with my hand, no shovel was needed."
Does poor soil have more ants than living soil? It's an interesting question. I'm inclined to think there are less ants in living soil.
suumi
AI
