Ordinary garden soil is a miracle of life. Take a handful of the soil in your garden and sift through it. Notice its color and texture. Smell it. (OK, don't if you don't want to.) Let it trickle through your fingers. That soil, along with sun and water, makes it possible to grow all the plants you see around you. But it is also the result of all the plants that have died. Soil is the past and the future. It's full of life.

Soil is made up of solid particles – sand, bits of gravel, shell, decomposed rock materials – air, water, humus, or decayed organic matter, and a gazillion microbes and other organisms. All of these are necessary for plant growth.

Solid particles determine some of the chemistry of your soil as well as its texture. If these are largish – like sand – then your soil will be porous and drain quickly. If they are very small, like clay, your soil will be sticky and drain slowly. If your soil was formed from a rock base that's low in one or another chemicals, you may need to supplement it with those – or to plant species that are adapted to your area.

Soil needs air pockets for roots; also, roots take up oxygen in order to breathe, and they give off carbon dioxide (plant leaves, as you likely know, take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.) Water also moves through these pores, so your drainage depends on getting some air into the soil. Air pockets result from better textured soil.

'Decomposers' are all the forms of life that inhabit soil – bacteria, fungi, algae, nematodes, protozoa as well as worms and even larger animals like moles. They help to make the soil productive. They process dead matter and make nutrients available to plants. When leaves fall, roots die, grass clippings remain, or plants freeze and wither, these organisms go to work to decompose the dead matter and release its nutrients.

Humus is the decomposed organic matter that provides the nutrients for your plants. It also adds texture (tilth). Humus is the soil component you can most fruitfully fiddle. By adding organic matter to your soil – compost mostly – you can increase its nutritional value and improve its texture.

There are several ways to do this:

Composting: If you possibly can, become a composter. I know that in some rural areas compost can attract unwanted animals, but a good compost bin can help you to keep them out. You can buy compost bins at most of the online retailers of garden supplies, ranging in cost from under $20 (for a wire enclosure that you could probably build yourself for less) to over $300 (for one that practically scrapes the dishes for you). You can compost fruit and vegetable scraps and peels, coffee grounds and coffee filters, tea bags, egg shells, bread, dryer lint (!), paper napkins and towels (if you haven't used them with chemicals), plant trimmings, grass, dead plants, fallen leaves, dried grass, straw or hay. You can use manure from vegetarian animals, but it's best not to compost the poop of carnivores. Also, don't add meat products, including dairy, oils, pet poop, or diseased plants. Dump your leavings into the compost bin, add some dried leaves if you have some (and who doesn't right now), a couple of handfuls of soil (to get some of those great microbes into the action) and mix the new material with a pitchfork or a special compost-turning tool. Cover it and let it cook. Some compost bins let you harvest fresh compost bit by bit; some want you to wait till the whole batch is done. Then you can spread your delicious compost on your vegetable or flower garden – fall's a perfect time to add compost – and either leave it as top-dressing or work it in to the soil. Add compost around the base of trees and shrubs to help feed them too. Visit view link for more detailed help.

Fallen leaves: Spread your fallen leaves in the vegetable and flower gardens this fall, and over the winter they'll start to decompose and add organic matter to your soil. If you have perennials, it's not a bad idea to leave them standing in the garden so they attract and hold leaves blown in by wind.

Grass clippings: Mow high, use a sharp mower, and just leave the mown grass right on the lawn. It will decompose quickly and add nutrients to the soil.
Buy compost: You can add compost from the garden center, but be a bit cautious. The main types of compost sold are mushroom compost, leaf compost, pine fines, composted manure, and then the stuff they just put in a bag and call compost. Good compost should have been tested and its nutrient level listed. It helps if you know what your soil is like now in terms of acidity and nutrients. You can get your soil tested at your farm extension service in most states. Do an internet search for soil testing with your state or city name, and you'll find resources.

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