Book Review: Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis

This book is an excellent introduction to the life in our soils and how to treat it well. The book has 2 parts, the first being the organisms in the soil and the second covering the practical side of managing soil and using soil food web tools.


In the first part of the book the first two chapters cover the soil food web and classic soil science. Following this each chapter deals with different organisms in the soil, starting small with bacteria and then archaea and gradually moving up to larger organisms such as arthropods and gastropods. There's lots of interesting information in this part of the book, including information of root exudates that attract bacteria and fungi, which feed on these sugars. This creates a domino effect as bigger and bigger microbes are attracted to these fungi and bacteria, which they eat. In a healthy food web, this is how nutrients are cycled in the soil. However, if you use chemical fertilisers on the soil, then these microbes are killed or starved of their food source which removes competition and allows pathogens to spread - meaning that you then have to use even more products to manage plant pests and diseases and then more chemical fertiliser. I have to say that while there is a lot of great information in this part of the book, I found it a bit dry and felt it went on a bit too long.

However, I felt the book really came into its own in part 2, where we get practical tasks and advice on increasing the diversity and health of the microbes in our soil. As the adage goes: Feed the soil, not the plant. To this end we're given the three soil food web tools of compost, mulch, and compost teas. Each has a chapter on the benefits and how to make the right type for the plants you either already have, want to encourage - or in the case of moss - want to discourage. We're also given a list of 19 'Soil Food Web Gardening Rules' which are concise and allow the reader to know the next step without wading through the book in search of an answer. Rules include: "Most vegetables, annuals, and grasses prefer their nitrogen in nitrate form and do best in bacterially dominated soils" and "Course, dryer mulches support fungal activity".

The book has given me a better understanding of what's happening beneath my feet. I know have the science of why helping these microbes will make my gardening life much easier - and more interesting. The authors impress on the reader that there is a lot of research happening in the area of soil science at the moment - so it sounds like it's an exciting time in that area of research. Each part can be read separately, so if reading about archaea isn't your thing - don't let it put you off. Just read the chapters you are interested in and perhaps by the end of the book you'll want to know about bit about archaea. Even if you don't read part 1, this book is a very useful introduction to soil science and how we can improve our gardens.

It's worth mentioning that the International Year of Soils has begun! For more information about it, click here.