How to make Healthy Soil

The process of making healthy soil has to be viewed in the same way as you would growing any living thing.

As discussed in this blog, we are dealing with microscopic organisms that need the same basic things any living being needs; water, food, oxygen.

How much depends on the organism.

The anaerobic creatures require more water and food than oxygen as their name implies. So they multiply and thrive in environments such as the middle of our compost pile and as they multiply they increase heat.

We need these guys because they speed up the composting process  by breaking down the cell tissue to a food source for our aerobic organisms.

The aerobic organisms are more about attaching to the plant and transferring nutrients into the plant. We often call this microryza. Click the link for detail here.

One way to think of this in the natural environment...
I work with trees a lot, so, we have all seen a tree in the forest on the ground. The bottom is compacted tightly where there is no oxygen; this is where the anaerobic guys are breaking down the cell structure very quickly. 
On top we may even see some grass growing out of the top or at least mushrooms and moss - this is aerobic (has oxygen). As the bottom of the tree disintegrates down by the anaerobic bacteria working, the two come together as the tree dissolves, and the end result is a very fertile environment for things to grow in.

When we layer compost with the brown and green (see link), we are actually creating that environment to create fertile soil.

SO WHY CAN'T I JUST PUT A BUNCH OF MANURE ON MY GARDEN AND CALL IT GOOD?
When you put the brown and green on your garden...your garden becomes the compost pile.
The compost environment is NOT where plants grow well. The process of that tree breaking down has to be completed for the best results in soil for the next plant to grow in. Several things are happening in the way of bacteria breaking down the cell tissue and microbes using heavy amounts of nitrogen that are going to create problems when trying to grow plants in rotting manure and garden waste.

To do it right, you build the soil in the composting process...then...put that soil in your garden for your plants to grow in.

This is done with composting. There is a lot of information on composting and most of it is pretty accurate however never estimate that time is essential to help the organisms get the job done.