Watch this short interview about the importance of soil microbes in soil health and plant growth:
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Welcome to Giving Soil, an initiative dedicated to soil restoration through community contribution. Giving Soil is a collaborative approach to restoring agricultural and natural ecosystems through dedicated community members learning how to cultivate a functional soil microbiome in especially designed worm farms (Worm Flow), to be shared with participating food and fibre producers and natural areas managers. The main goal of Giving Soil is to transition as many farms and other managed landscapes as possible from chemical into biologically managed systems, removing the use of artificial fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides as well as tillage. The Giving Soil initiative offers community members a meaningful, active and practical way to contribute to clean, nutritious, abundant local food and fibre production, and soil and ecosystem restoration, while providing education and services focused on the wonderful world of soil microorganisms and their superpowers in food production and Earth regeneration.
Use your food scraps and other organic material to cultivate worms in a flow through worm farm system
Have your castings microscopy tested by the Giving Soil lab to ensure all the beneficial microbes are present
Donate your mature vermicompost (worm castings) to participating producers to help them restore their soil so they no longer need to reply on synthetic fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides
Enjoy nutritious, chemical free foods which you’ve contributed to producing
The benefits
Proactively contribute to the regenerative agricultural revolution
Divert methane producing food waste from landfill
Help to remove chemicals from our foods and ecosystems
Contribute to chemical free biological food and fibre production
Restore soils with microbial life to
sequesters carbon from the atmosphere
increase soil moisture holding capacity
build soil structure preventing erosion and loss of topsoil
prevent plant diseases and pest infestations
increase nutritional value of food
ensure plant resilience in chaotic climate conditions
My name is Sandra Tuszynska (think two shins (in a) car). I am an agricultural scientist who specialises in soil microbiology with a focus on soil fungi (mycology). My research has focused on biodegradation of pesticides in cotton field soil at Sydney University, followed by PhD research on the effects of heavy metals on the cellular biology of root symbiotic (mycorrhizal) fungi at the University of NSW. I then studied the regulation of phosphate, carbohydrate and heavy metal uptake and transfer in mycorrhizal fungi at Rutgers University of New Jersey.
More recently I have become fascinated with the microorganisms comprising the soil food web and how these key players ensure plant nutrition and immunity, soil structure, water retention and carbon sequestration among other benefits. As a result I have completed the certified lab program with Dr. Elaine Ingham’s
One of my greatest passions is science communication, devoting much of my time on community education about the importance of fungi in ecosystems and soil biodiversity in soil restoration. The services I provide include community and school education including seminars and workshops, helping gardeners, food producers and land managers to improve their soils and grow chemical free foods, and bush regenerators to restore habitats. I also lead citizen science engagements like the
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