Think your soil sleeps in winter? Think again!<\/p>\n

It may be hard to believe that millions of living and breathing microorganisms are under the ice and snow. Bacteria, fungi, algae, nematodes, anthropods\u2014you can\u2019t see them with the naked eye, but they all contribute to the health of the soil.<\/p>\n

Winter doesn\u2019t slow them down. In fact, research from Sweden shows that microorganisms continue to grow in frozen soil, often at rates equal to those during the summer. Scientists have even found active soil bacteria living at temperatures 39 degrees below zero.<\/p>\n

Healthy soil is alive all year long.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s not frozen solid, healthy soil is soft and crumbly. It is darker in color and easy to dig into. It has a sweet and earthy aroma. It looks, smells and feels alive.<\/p>\n

If you took a sample of soil from your garden and looked at it under the microscope, hopefully you would see billions of microorganisms hard at work. Healthy soil should be teeming with these busy biological \u201cworkers\u201d whose main task is to break down organic material and make nutrients available for plants to absorb.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, many soils around the world are in serious trouble. They\u2019ve been depleted for a variety of reasons that range from natural conditions to over-farming and\/or the application of synthetic fertilizers.<\/p>\n

The good news is that more people understand that healthy soil is the key to our future. Quick-and-dirty chemical fertilizers give plants a quick hit of nutrients, but they don\u2019t do anything to improve the long-term health of the soil. Eventually, this leads to a breakdown of soil structure resulting in weaker plants, increased risk of disease and, ultimately, soil infertility.<\/p>\n

So, while the snow continues to pile up outdoors, why not start planning for spring by resolving to give your garden a healthy boost with all-natural Cascade Minerals Remineralizing Soil Booster<\/strong>? Made of pure volcanic basalt, Cascade Minerals mimics the Earth\u2019s own method for producing healthy soil rich in essential minerals and helps kick-start the biological processes required for optimal and sustainable plant growth.<\/p>\n

Your winter (and spring, summer and fall) soil will thank you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think your soil sleeps in winter? Think again! It may be hard to believe that millions of living and breathing microorganisms are under the ice and snow. Bacteria, fungi, algae, nematodes, anthropods\u2014you can\u2019t see them with the naked eye, but they all contribute to the health of the soil. Winter doesn\u2019t slow them down. In… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening-tips","category-soil-amendment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Frozen-Soil.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YalT-bK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2031,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/2031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cascademinerals.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}