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I suppose you are familiar with slime molds. Especially if you have ever picked up the kitchen sponge and it feels like someone sneezed on it.

Science doesn’t know for sure whether slime molds are plant or animal. I think they’re interesting because one of life’s lowest forms has managed to find a living in something as foreign as my kitchen.

One of the best ways to encourage healthy soil is to feed the organisms that make soil. And the best way to feed them is more plants.SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Slime molds rank above bacteria, but below fungi. And if you’re a frequent gardener, you know your landscape is rife with all of these.

One lower life form that makes its appearance in the summer months is “throw-up” fungus; so named because it looks like the dog got sick under a shrub somewhere.

A typical garden is also full of millions of bacteria, molds and fungi and a few of the higher life forms like mosses, beetles and earthworms. Together they create the secret world of your garden, a place where nature knows what she is doing. For without bacteria, molds, fungi, insects and invertebrates, our plants wouldn’t exist.

These organisms provide the important way that plant matter gets broken down in the first place. And broken down plants are how soils are formed. Without soils, as you know, we wouldn’t have food plants. And without larger plants such as trees our climate wouldn’t exist.

Bacteria also break down plants and turn them into soil. In fact, composting capitalizes on the concept when we encourage more bacteria by providing a warm and moist environment for them. Composting is a way that we do quickly what nature has done all along.

Healthy soil is alive, and we wouldn’t want to do anything to change it. And in most places on the planet, we only get a foot of it at best, before we reach the inert subsoil that doesn’t do much to support plant life, but only serves to anchor plants.

One of the best ways to encourage healthy soil is to feed the organisms that make soil. And the best way to feed them is more plants.

Even if you don’t compost or apply some sort of organic matter to the top of your soil, at least don’t rake up the leaf litter. It’s a pet peeve of mine when I see mow-and-blow crews blasting every last leaf from landscapes.

Bacteria, molds, funguses and earthworms need those leaves to make a living. And if we are living on top of what was theirs first, the least we can do is give something back.

Compost as much as you can and apply the compost to your garden. Mulch with something organic. Or at the very least, or in addition to the above, let your garden beds get good and leafy with what nature provides to feed the soil.

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