There are many different techniques out there to improve the overall health of your soil, ranging from the useful to the absurd. However, if you have a discerning eye, you can find which techniques ring true, and which are just superstition. One method that is tried and true is the strategy of covering crops, which is considered one of the most essential strategies that are utilized to feed soil and build up its fertility while simultaneously improving its structure with the pass of each season. Newly destroyed cover crops can provide a source of easily obtainable nutrients for soil microbes, and ultimately, for your crops. One valuable cover crop is a legume, which are valuable because they convert air from the atmosphere into readily usable ones in crop plants. The more variety of different cover crops you use, the better it will be for your soil more likely than not, as each plant serves a different function. Grasses for example add some much needed organic mass and improve the structure of the soil because of how intricate and deep their root systems are usually. Legumes work in tandem with the grass in order to break down the carbon enriched grass roots quickly to make way for your cash crop.

When utilizing a cover crop method, remember to treat these crops with the same love and care that you would for the desirable crop that you are making room for. This is because the healthier the cover crop, the more nutrients that they will provide for the desired crop that you are ultimately improving the soil for.

Jeff Hill is a professional Soil Scientist who utilizes many different methods to enrich soil compositions.

For any gardener or farmer, you know that some of the most disastrous things that can happen to a batch of crops comes not from the farming techniques, but from Mother Nature herself, who has not been known for her predictability. Growing in the elements presents a unique challenge for even the most savvy farmer and gardener, as plants are usually quite susceptible to even the slightest changes in climate and temperature. Even something as simple and common as a heavy rain can disrupt the growth of crops and make for a terrible yield come harvest time. With all of these issues of the environment, one may wonder how any of these crops survive at all without suffering huge losses. Well, the fact of the matter is that over the years, through savvy and determination coupled with experience, farmers and gardeners alike have learned how to stave off and battle the elements in a way that keeps the plants and the soils healthy. One strategy for growing in the elements is to establish what is called a permanent bed. This allows for a stronger soil structure as well as develops a kind of synergy which helps plants protect each other from the weather. A permanent bed is a place where you strategically plant crops so that they are spaced just far enough to prevent bunching, but just close enough so that they shade the topsoil and minimize wind damage. This kind of synergistic growth can be compared to a plant community, where each one protects the other in the interest of the whole, much like people.

Jeff Hill is a professional Soil Scientist who has been helping farmers grow in the elements for many years now.

Deer need three simple items: food, water, and cover from the storms. Water is obviously the most important, but during the seasons of summer and fall, deer look for food mostly. There are plenty of hunters who love hunting deer. Finding a whitetail deal can be difficult but with the following tips, there is no doubt that the science of scouting will help even the most amateur hunter find a white tail.

Scouting from a lengthy distance is the best choice for hunting. This way, a hunter can determine what are the major traffic areas for deer. Make sure to have good optics that will help you see from the long distance. If you get to close, the deer will scamper off and not return to an area that they know to be unsafe.

Once there is a sense of safety in the deer, it is time to move closer. Using the cover of the rain, heat waves, or high wind, all the times when deer are the least likely to move, the hunter should get closer and hang trail cameras in the locations desired. Only get close when the movement is minimal, and the wind direction is blowing correctly. With this tactic, a hunter can pinpoint their whitetail deer and take advantage of the deer’s location.

Hunting is more than just a sport to Jeff Hill; it is a time to spend with his father. Hill loves going out with his dad who is a former Marine because they are able to talk about life together and grow a deeper relationship with one another.

Killing a deer a hundred years ago would have been league more difficult than today. Deer were scarce, and communities had to import deer in order to keep deer hunting a popular sport and attraction to the area. However, as industrial America was built, many farmlands dissipated. This led to a growth in the deer population. There are now more white tailed deer living in the United States today than any other recorded time in history.

What it is interesting about the hunting of deer is the fact that there are noticeably fewer hunters of deer than there were twenty years ago. However, despite the lessening of deer hunting, the technological and tactical sophistication of the sport now rivals military combat. That is an amazing fact. Companies are coming out with advanced electronics, weaponry, and better camouflage that are designed to help kill a deer more efficiently. The average American deer hunter spends just over two grand a year on their sport. It has literally never been easier to capture and kill a deer, yet great money is still spent on doing it.

Though it may seem silly to some people that hunters would spend so much on hunting deer, for some people the enjoyment they receive from hunting is more than just the thrill of the hunt. Jeff Hill knows well that when he hunts with his father he looks forward to the quality time that they spend together talking about life. It is a time that he will never take for granted.

Still in shock from the death of their batboy, the Liberal Bee Jays called Kaiser Carlile a spark [lug of a kid. The manager of the team, Adam Anderson said that Kaiser lived for the game of baseball. The 9-year-old boy was only a batboy to the team, he was more than that to each individual player; to the players he was another member of the team, a friend, and even a little brother. Kaiser was struck in the head by an on deck batter practicing his swing. He passed Sunday evening

One of the newest members of the San Francisco Giants, Kelby Tomlinson, is a former Bee Jay. Having a heart for the loss of a member of his former team, the team that he led to a championship in 2010, he searched for a way to pay tribute to the young batboy. After achieving his first hit in his Major League Baseball career, he knew he would dedicate it to Kaiser. Tomlinson posted a video on Facebook showing his first hit as a Giant. Immediately the video cuts to Kaiser as Tomlinson pays a perfect tribute to an unofficial member of his former collegiate summer league team.

Jeff Hill is a huge fan of the San Francisco Giants. He and his family are all fans of the Bay Area team. Seeing the tribute that Giant’s rookie Tomlinson made and posted on Facebook was just another reason why Hill and his family loves the Giants. They believe that this type of recognition is something that many people should do to show their human side.

Killing a deer has literally never been easier for hunters. A little fact that many outside of the hunting community are unaware of, deer hunting rivals military combat in tactical and technological sophistication. There is a plethora of outdoorsy companies that are filling their shelves with weaponry, chemicals, advanced electronics, and the best camouflage all designed to make a hunter more efficient when hunting. The deer essentially have no chance at getting away from the scary hunters. Despite the huge advantage that every hunter has, deer are thriving.

It is true. There are more white tailed deer living in the borders of the United States today that at any other time in recorded history of the nation. In fact, The New York Times recently ran an opinion article titled “Why Bambi Must Go.” In the article, it explains that the rise of the deer is endangering other animal species including warblers. Despite the advantage hunters have, there are fewer hunters of deer than there were twenty years ago. Deer have gone from being imported into communities to completely taking over their natural ranges.

An avid hunter, Jeff Hill loves the thrill of the hunt, actively pursuing a deer that is trying to outwit him. However, for Hill hunting is more than just a sport, but a time to spend with family. Hill goes hunter with his father and the quality time that they spend together is truly what builds their relationship stronger with every trip they take.

Now in his mid-30’s, Jeff Hill has worked for many years in a great many areas of agricultural science, and has honed a variety of skills through experience. Along the way, Jeff Hill has achieved his Pest Control Advisor status through a plethora of official certifications and specialist licenses. Hill holds a Qualified Applicator License for proper and environmental care in the use of pest eradication chemicals and techniques. His Crop Advisor Certification attests to his deep background in the effective and safe nurturing of crops and soils.

As a Certified Agricultural Irrigation Specialist, Jeff Hill shares his expertise in the most advanced technology and techniques for effective irrigation to maximize crop enhancement fertilizers and to use water efficiently and in the amounts and areas where it will have the maximum use effect, while protecting the crops and soils against the harmful effects of damaging pesticides and fertilizer overuse. His Irrigation Design Certification is part and parcel of his skills with irrigation as it affects plant health and soil vigor.

Jeff Hill has been published in numerous industry magazines, always working to add to industry and professional knowledge about agricultural issues. His writings have included his articles on Sand Media Filtration 101, Not all drip lines are equal, What is Filtration Publication and Calculation of Water Holding Capacity, all published in Advisor Magazine. Fire Ant Control 1999 was published in Ag Alert magazine.

Jeff Hill has made a variety of presentations to professional groups, including CAPCA 2014 (California Association of Pest Control Advisors), Controlling Parasitic Pests Using Drip and Sprinkler, at CAPCA 2015, and Filtration and Drip Line Maintenance at various Coastal Vineyard Meetings in Santa Maria, Paso Robles, Salinas and Santa Barbara.

Experience in presenting his work in various areas of pest control and irrigation design and execution, and the sharing of successes in his work in agronomy, has informed Jeff Hill’s expertise. In his years of work as an Agriculture & Irrigation Consultant, Jeff Hill brings a wealth of background and knowledge. 15 years as a licensed Pest Control Advisor, 10 years as a licensed Applicator, 8 years as a Certified Crop Advisor, with specialty certifications in agriculture irrigation, Drip Irrigation, and Agriculture Filtration, Jeff Hill is deeply qualified as he begins his new business in Agronomics and Irrigation.

As a Pest Control Advisor for Treemont Supply in California, Jeff Hill was in constant communication with farmers and landowners, providing recommendations on the best use of their land, the best ways to promote plant growth, and techniques for limiting and preventing erosion. Hill also led with investigations into the reasons for poor water quality and poor soil, monitoring its effects and following problems back to their source.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agronomy

Agronomist Jeff Hill recommends the division of agricultural fields into distinct geographical zones, after intense analysis of soil characteristics and the anticipated production potential of the field. Soil testing is also part of the services provided by Jeff Hill for clients who struggle with matching crops to soil condition. Hill develops grids or sampling sites with geospatial technology to test for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content, as well as measuring the pH and micronutrients of the sample to evaluate the entire field under consideration.

Jeff Hill also collects crop yield maps for comparison with data produced from soil test results, for side by side study of chemical application patterns against other factors in order to develop crop management plans for different field sites. Hill provides detailed knowledge of government regulations to his recommendations for agricultural usage, and in his work creating or reading maps pertaining to soil, contour or plat design. Best crop varieties and seeding rates are recommended based on analysis of geospatial data. Harvester monitor data is used to create accurate yield maps, as Hill demonstrates the usages of technological systems like Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), auto tractor guidance systems, variable rate chemical input applicators and surveying systems.

As a Private Consultant and farm manager, Jeff Hill is versed in the use of variable rate planting equipment and pesticide sprayers in light of the information produced on crops and field condition variables. Remote sensing imagery helps Hill pinpoint and analyze the relationship between soil quality, crop densities, light reflecting impacts and the history of weather for a field or area. Unique needs such as installing, calibrating and maintaining sensors and mechanical controls for GPS vehicle guidance systems, as well as adjusting computer settings, are extensions of Hill’s extensive academic studies in the use of technology in agricultural applications. The aforementioned skills help Hill identify soils in need of pesticides by following insect movement and damage.

Upgrades to modern equipment like Global Positioning Systems enable farmers to take advantage of the constant changes to satellite technology, and Jeff Hill’s detailed insights into irrigation and fertilizer usage render his services valuable to growers and fertilizer companies throughout California, Oregon and Washington, in whose travels he also helps design fertilizer types like lighthouse west bridge Boron and Liquid Compost. Many growers utilize his expertise to choose the correct irrigation systems for their field needs, as well as relying upon Hill for design and installation. The leadership skills developed by Hill in Future Farmers of America and later in the Alpha Gamma Rho Ag fraternity paid off as a consultant, when Jeff Hill was often able to resolve customer complaints and misunderstandings in the sales and service of products, as well as represent entities at trade association meetings for product promotions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agronomy

Jeff Hill attended Reedley College in Reedley, California after high school. Reedley College, or RC, is a public community college southeast of Fresno and three hours from San Francisco to the north or Los Angeles to the south. Associates Degrees at Reedley are available in over 80 different disciplines including the areas of interest and accomplishment to Hill, Plant Sciences and Agriculture Business.

Reedley College often referred to as Reedley, or RC, is a public community college located in Reedley, California, USA 20 miles (32 km) southeast of metropolitan Fresno and a three-hour drive south to Los Angeles or three-hour drive north to San Francisco. Jeff Hill’s Reedley College is a part of the California Community Colleges system, within the State Center Community College District (SCCCD), and fully accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The school offers Associate's Degrees, and students can earn a Certificate of Completion, or transfer to a 4-year university of their choice. Reedley College students can choose to either pursue their AA (Associates in Arts) or their AS (Associates in Science), or obtain their GED (General Education Degree). Reedley College offers more than 80 major degrees and certificates for students to choose from.

Reedley College originated as Reedley Junior College, sharing the same campus with Reedley High School in 1926. Reedley College was moved to its own campus in 1956, and joined the State Center Community College District in 1963. Its name changed to Kings River Community College, but the public demanded the return of its traditional name in 1998, and it is the alma mater of Jeff Hill today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reedley_College

Botany remained subordinate to the study of medicine, even through the publication of the Historia Plantarum of physician Valerius Cordus, which established a pharmacopoeia of prominence, the Dispensatorium, and the work of naturalist Conrad von Gesner and herbalist John Gerard. Finally, Carl Linnaeus published the Species Plantarum in 1753, which hierarchically classified plant species according to shared physical characteristics and remains in use today in the studies of agronomists like Jeff Hill.

A plethora of great scientific minds and botanists have developed botany, the study of plants, into the vital science of today which informs the career of Jeff Hill. Botany takes as its underlying premise that the plant is the foundational structure of all animal life on Earth, and that the study of plants past and present will inform the future of that life, as well.

Plants generated the largest part of the oxygen and food which allowed humans and other organisms who breathe to acquire the chemical energy to exist through the complex process of photosynthesis, converting the energy of sunlight to change water and CO2 to sugars which are a source of chemical energy and organic molecules. The byproduct of oxygen allows living things to successfully accomplish respiration. Plants provide food, oxygen, medicine and products for people and animals and create and preserve soil. Plants, which may have arisen from cyanobacteria and a eukaryote, changed the oxygen-free atmosphere to one of free oxygen around 2 billion years ago, thus providing the environment for the rise of respiration among animals and humans like Jeff Hill.

Irrigation, a farming method with a rich history stretching across many ancient civilizations, is the system in which water is consistently supplied to crops at regular intervals. Jeff Hill of Clovis, California, is dedicated to helping each and any every client develop personalized farming systems with a focus on both crop health and production. He shares that with the goals of managing both maintenance and revegetation, it is necessary to use water in the most efficient manner possible to ensure a steady distribution, especially during periods of little rainfall and in dry regions. The following methods are among the most common irrigation techniques.

• Surface irrigation is a method in which the soil surface is covered in water, or “flooded” in a controlled manner. Though this isn’t necessarily the most efficient way to manage water as a result of the need for more resources, it’s the most commonly used method both historically and currently with high success rates when managed properly.
• Localized irrigation occurs through a system in which water moves through a network of pipes under low pressure in a pattern decided upon by the farmer.
• Sprinkler systems are another common irrigation method in which water is distributed at high overhead pressure.

While the main focus of irrigation is centered on water, Jeff Hill shares that irrigation specialists will also help farmers develop systems for dust and weed suppression, soil consolidation prevention, drainage, and more. Jeff Hill is dedicated to providing his clients with all the information and tools they need to be secure and successful.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrigation

Choosing to compost is a giant leap anyone can make to help support solutions for a sustainable and healthy future. Jeff Hill has over 18 years of experience in the agronomics field and is dedicated to helping make the earth a safer and cleaner place to live. He knows that whether you’re keeping a composting bin in a tiny kitchen or working with an entire composting system on a fully operational farm, it’s a wise and responsible decision for a number of reasons.

Composting helps preserve resources. By choosing to compost you keep the valuable matter out of the landfills. A great deal of daily residential waste ends up in landfills that could have easily been composted and put to good use because these materials can’t break down in the correct manner in a landfill. Composting also reduces water waste because it naturally promotes water retention.
Composting is a money-saver, allowing you to purchase less chemical fertilizers.

Integral nutrients are re-introduced into the soil through composting, helping maintain a high level of nutrients that will ultimately promote plant growth. Healthy soil means you will grow healthy plants.
Composting helps reduce unnecessary emissions and prevents further pollution. Methane gas is produced when organic matter breaks down without oxygen, and transport of this waste also introduces extraneous emissions into the atmosphere.

Jeff Hill is an entrepreneur and looks forward to building new connections with clients that focus on making the planet a better place to live. He lives in California with his family.

Sources:
http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/why-should-i-compost/

Jeff Hill, the owner of ATP Agriculture and Irrigation Consultants, knows that launching a new business can be simultaneously inspiring and anxiety-riddled. It’s a huge step to take that requires a great deal of thought, effort, and resources, and he recommends that prospective entrepreneurs keep the following tips and tricks in mind to get started on the right foot.

• Launch a business that you’re going to enjoy thinking and talking about. Especially in the beginning, your work will entirely consume your life, and it’s important that you have a great deal of passion to work through the burnout and exhaustion.
• Use social media to your advantage. This is an incredible age where the smallest business owners can spread the message with a minimal amount of knowledge and effort. A simple website will help people find you and get a general feel for what you have to offer.
• Approach every interaction as a potential sale. Have an elevator speech prepared so that you’re always ready to explain exactly what it is you do and why potential clients should choose your services.
• Develop deeper relationships based on trust and respect with your customers. Getting to know potential clients in a more profound manner rather than conducting a simple transaction will build the bedrock of your business. By treating your clients with integrity, you are developing relationships that have the potential to continue far into the future.

Jeff Hill is passionate about working with farmers to create sustainable solutions to promote healthy, thriving businesses.

Sources: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/200730

Jeff Hill is a professional agriculture consultant. He knows that the variety of organisms has a variety of needs. You would feed a human bodybuilder champion and your cat the same food. A shark and an owl do not live in the same habitat. The more complex a garden or a farm, the more likely you are to deal with a similar extensive variety of needs.

However, this complexity doesn’t mean that maintaining a healthy garden or a farm is complicated. In fact, complex ecosystems are often easier to manage because they take care of a lot of things on their own.

By meeting this variety of needs the organic soil matter becomes more diverse. This means that the functions of different elements of the soil ecosystem are repeated in a diverse number of ways by a diverse set of different organisms.

A big city of people is a great analogy. Every big city has a number of good auto repair mechanics. If you can’t get to one of them, you can visit someone else. If you have an exotic car, you can find several mechanics that specialize in your car brand. The same principles of variety and diversity apply to a healthy soil ecosystem.

Taking care of such an ecosystem means meeting the four key needs of any living creature. These needs are air, food, water and shelter. If you can provide those, then the ecosystem will take care of everything else.

This is the template that you can use to nurture the living component of the soil. While different soils do require slightly different ways in nurturing them, the basics do stay the same, says Jeff Hill.

Jeff Hill says that with enough experience you can tell a good soil by feeling it in your hands. It will be soft, spongy and crumbly like a cookie. They are also stable under pressure.

These crumbs of soil are called aggregates. The influence of a proper soil aggregation is crucial to the health of a soil. Enhancements of soil aggregation have a similar effect to the improvements of the organic matter of your soil.

Just like you would do with other soil health indicators, you can estimate the condition of the aggregates in your soil when the soil is a little bit wet. Take a few handfuls of soil from the top six to ten inches.

Gently break the soil with your fingers and see what kinds of pieces you get at the end. Good soil would break into brownie-like round crumbs. Take these same aggregates and apply some pressure to them with your fingers. Do they break easily? Wet them a little bit with water and try again.

A healthy soil would break not into large blocks, but into small round pieces. The best aggregates can hold pressure and retain their shape under it.

When a lot of pressure is applied, they would break apart easily. Learn how a well-aggregated soil looks and feels like and you’ll be able to quickly identify soil conditions any time you want to do so. If your soil is building in a healthy way, you would have more and more of this brownie-like crumb structure with every year, shares Jeff Hill.

Jeff Hill is a professional agronomist passionate about biology and nature.

Most of the living soil is invisible to a naked human eye. However, you can see relatively big living organisms such as earthworms and spiders. The soil ecosystem is extremely interconnected. This is why the living soil visible to the human eye can give you a great indication about the much greater number of living organisms that you can’t see without a microscope. This is why a simple count of the number of ants, spiders, worms and termites in a handful of soil can tell you how well your soil is doing.

It is better to have such counts when soil organisms are at the peak of their activities. This happens when the soil is in the perfect condition: not too dry, not too wet, not too cold, not too hot. Mid-spring and mid-fall are great times for such measurements and counts. Dig a shovel of soil. Drop it on a white material to make counting easy. A piece of poster board or a white sheet of paper would work great for this task. Break the soil apart and carefully inspect it. Count the number of different living creatures that you will encounter. Termites and spiders usually move very fast, so you need to count quickly.

You don’t need to know the names of all the species that you encounter. It suffices to count the number of different types. Generally speaking, a soil is healthy when you can see three or more representatives of three or more types of soil organisms within two to four minutes, says Jeff Hill.

Jeff Hill is an agronomist with a unique experience who can help growers with plant selection, chemicals, and water.

Making your garden and farm look colorful and bright in the fall is very easy. In many states, September is one of the most beautiful months of the year. Gold, red and orange colors are starting to appear while most plants are still in bloom. There are several tips you can follow to design a garden that will be beautiful in the fall.

Add a few trees to your garden or yard that will stand out in the fall simply because of their color. Plant them strategically so that their colors are brightened and complimented by the colors of surrounding plants. A color may be set off by a background of green plants or it can be blended with neighboring crops and trees.

Do not plant too many mums. Many other flowers are beautiful in the fall, too. You can also use pumpkins to add bright orange.

There are many disease-resistant apples that look and taste great in the fall. Fruits such as the American persimmon do look and taste great after they have experienced some frost.

Fall is a great time to visit public gardens, arboretums, and parks to get some new ideas about what you can do with your own garden. You can see what is possible to do with a garden by noticing plants that grow well in your area in the cold months. If you are located on the East Coast, you can travel to Pennsylvania to Rodale Institute Experimental Farm. On the West Coast, where Jeff Hill lives, you can visit Earthbound Farms. You can also check the website of your state’s organic farming and gardening association to find gardens and farm that are located close to you.

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Jeff Hill has a degree in plant science that provided him with a unique skillset.

If you live in a cold climate, the best thing you can do heading into winter is preserve your own food in the freezer. It is incredible how little some farmers know about preserving food for cold months.

While food preservation may sound time-consuming, it actually saves time compared to frequent trips to grocery stores.

You do not need an advanced degree in biology to learn how to preserve your homegrown fruits and vegetables for winter. All you need is easy-to-follow techniques and common sense. Freezing is the easiest preservation method. It also preserves the most vitamin C compared to drying and canning, which are also not very complicated.

You can freeze your fruits and vegetables raw, after dipping them in the boiling water or fully cooked. The best vegetables suitable for freezing are the ones that you would usually cook such as corn and spinach. When cooked and frozen properly that can be stored for up to a year. Foods that have spent over a year in a freezer may still taste okay, but they will hardly have any nutrients in them.

Vegetables that do not require cooking, such as onions or celery, do not freeze well.

Freezing fruits and vegetables as soon as possible after harvesting and blanching them prior to freezing helps preserve the color, texture, nutritional value and taste.

When freezing berries or grapes it is better to put them on a tray and then place the tray in the freezer. Once the berries are frozen, you can remove them from the tray and place them in freezer bags.

Frozen things do expand, so keep that in mind and leave extra space in the freezer container during the freezing process. That’s what agriculture professionals with experience like Jeff Hill do.

Jeff Hill is a plant science expert who focused on plant health and agronomy during his studies in college.

You may be afraid of canning foods at home because it seems dangerous. If you follow step-by-step instructions for canning fruits and vegetables, your sauces, jams, pickles and tomatoes will be just fine. You can always tell if a jar was properly sterilized by looking at the color of the canned food or the lid of the jar. A bowed or rounded on top jar points to botulism. A lid that doesn’t pop when you open a jar indicates that the jar was not sealed properly. If the liquid has a strange color that looks brown or black, it means that something went wrong. If the food looks slimy or moldy, you should throw it in the garbage.

Canning offers a number of benefits compared to freezing. First, you do not need a freezer for food when it’s canned. Second, some foods, such as pickles and peaches, taste better when canned.

Canning is more complicated compared to freezing and drying. It also preserves the least amount of nutrients in food. In contrast, dried foods are great sources of nutrients and energy. You do dry your foods the old-fashioned way: by hanging them in a dry place and letting them dry or by using a dehydrator or an oven. Just like with freezing, blanching vegetables before you start the preservation process helps them keep their nutritional value. Slicing or dicing produce into pieces helps it dry faster and makes the process easier.

Agriculture experts like Jeff Hill know about the importance of strictly following the rules. Use a screen when drying food outdoors. Cover the produce with a cloth to safeguard it from insects. Once the food dries, keep it in the refrigerator or in a dark cold place.

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Jeff Hill is an agriculture expert who helps farmers grow healthier crops and build better soils.

One of the worst ways to prevent the development of the living soil is the use of pesticides. Both natural and non-organic pesticides can destroy entire populations of living organisms. Occasionally such methods do have a place in fighting garden pests, but it is almost always better to rely on natural techniques that improve and build the soil. With time, healthy and diverse community of biological elements in the soil will work on its own to remove troublesome weeds, diseases, and pests.

Organic amendments such as cover crops, manures, debris, and residues can help you build a healthy, strong and productive soil in your garden. Improvements and build-ups of the organic matter in the soil require consistent additions of organic materials. This is why choosing the right amendment for your garden is a matter of both knowing your garden and being able to access organic material on a regular basis.

Tests of soil quality and nutrients can help you decide whether you should add nutrients, build up the levels of organic matter or solve a particular issue such as compaction. Today’s types and options of soil amendments are only limited by creativity and imagination of the gardeners.

Both urban and suburban areas are great sources of food waste that you can obtain from restaurants and neighbors. If you live close to a horse farm, free horse manure may be your amendment of choice. If you are unable to transport the amendments, then you can grow green manures. You can also use lawn clippings, fallen leaves, cardboard, coffee grounds and so on. Experts like Jeff Hill know about the importance of using the proper materials. The rule of thumb is very simple: if it was once alive and it’s toxin-free, it can be added to the soil.

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