One handful of soil from your garden contains more living organisms than there are people on the planet. However, before you panic and reach for a pesticide or a disinfectant, consider this: the vast majority of those microscopic creatures are not only beneficial, they are essential to life on earth. Without them, we would be a dead planet, like Mars. 

In fact, if your soil is healthy, the harmful microbes are greatly outnumbered by the helpful ones. The “good guys” even help to keep the “bad guys” under control. This means that if your soil is healthy, you don’t really need to purchase chemical help. This can save you money! So how do you build a healthy soil, chock full of these good guys? One of the best ways is to add compost. Compost feeds the good guys, building their numbers and increasing their diversity. This allows them to do all kinds of good work for you, free of charge.

So, if you want to build a strong, mutually beneficial relationship with billions of invisible workers, return life to your soil with compost!