Rewilding soils entails returning native, diverse, and resilient soil microorganisms to areas where they have been destroyed. Under the microscope I can diagnose that most urban soils lack a complete soil foodweb, which means the soil is unable to cycle nutrients, decompose organic matter, and build soil structure on it’s own. As such, many gardeners, farmers and arborists have turned to artificial means of boosting nutrients and controlling their growing environment. The use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides further destroys the delicate soil microbes, resulting in a dependency on more chemicals. This cycle can be broken, but it takes work. It involves using overlapping principles of permaculture, including fostering an environment that is conducive to soil microbes, and at times inoculating soils with soil microbes.
In this presentation I will explore options for restoring soils naturally. I will discuss the pros and cons of various soil amendments including: compost, compost teas, compost extracts, mycorrhizal inoculants, and other shelf-stable “bugs in a jug”. I will teach you how to distinguish what is “snake oil” and help you design a program for your landscape that will really work. My goal is to make working with compost and liquid biological amendments successful and accessible to everyone.
Colleen Dempster is passionate about restoring the environment. In recent years she turned her attention to “rewilding” soil, and in turn boosting the health of plants and people. She obtains a Masters in Environmental and Life Science from Trent University, a Post-graduate Certificate in Ecosystem Restoration from Niagara College, is an ISA-certified certified arborist and is certified by Dr. Elaine Ingham’s Soil Foodweb School as a laboratory technician. She has worked to help arborist companies develop compost tea programs, and now works as an educator at Fleming College and as an independent consultant who makes high quality compost, teas and extracts from her home in rural Uxbridge.
