It is December, the green season ends and summer is beginning to heat up in the fields.

It's time to prepare the soil and in Costa Rica, we know various types of soil including clay, jungle and mountain soils. Let’s start with clay.

Clay is chock full of the nutrients and micro-nutrients plants all need. It has the ‘big three’, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium plus sulfur, calcium, and magnesium. It also has the necessary trace elements (micro-nutrients) for plant growth: iron, chloride, zinc, copper, molybdenum, manganese and boron.

Sadly, all of these are clumped up in solid masses that most roots can’t penetrate. Enter the leaf-cutter ant.

Yes, we all dislike the leaf cutter, but they do us a favor by bringing clay to the surface one tiny ant mouthful at a time. Shovel it up really fast and mix it with other soils, 20% clay and the rest “other,” and you have a soil that will hold water and fertilize plants at the same time.

And what is “other?” Usually, it is jungle or hillside soil which is very poor in nutrients. Our rains here flush nutrients right out of sandy and silty soil, something people who try to farm jungle soils quickly find out. “Look at those big trees,” they think, “the soil must be perfect!”

When their crops die, they find out that it was the trees that kept the soil fertile. They sent roots deep into the soil, even penetrating the clay. They dropped leaves constantly, keeping the O layer of soil refreshed and they provided both shade and protection from rain and wind. When you look at jungle or hillside soil, remember that it is going to need a little something extra if you want things to grow.