Helping Mother Nature reverse our damage

And it is not just because of the amount of rain (and snow) we have had this winter, or even badly-maintained ditches and clay tile land drains well past their useful life, many having been dug by 19th century French prisoners of war. It is probably due to soil structure.

We hear a lot of talk from horticulturalists these days about no-dig cultivation in the garden and adding lots of fibre to our beds so that the worms and insects can get to work, and this applies on a larger scale in agriculture.

With the reduction in mixed farming and the traditional forms of crop rotation, and the pressures to get more and more income from the same area, there has been a tendency to forget the one thing that we cannot easily replace – soil.

It is said that the lifespan of 16 per cent of our soils is less than 100 years. And it takes 1,000 years to create! But by taking action now, we can start to correct the trend.

Mother Nature is a fantastic corrector of Man’s influence, and by careful biodiversity and conservation practices, we can perhaps start to reverse the damage.

Sarah Norton is a retired rural dweller living near Shrewsbury