The bad news: Farmers and gardeners can be one of the worst enemies of microorganisms.

"Huh?" you may ask. "How can that be?"

If you eat a big piece of candy, don't you usually want more? You want more candy even though you know eating lots of candy every day can harm your teeth (if you don't brush them) or can throw your weight off balance (if you don't stay active and you stop eating vegetables and fruits and other good-for-you foods). The same thing happens to people that work the land (sort of). Some farmers and gardeners want to grow more and more food-so they start using synthetic chemicals and pesticides to have more food to sell in the market. They do this despite the fact that this can hurt the soil. They use man-made fertilizers to temporarily add nutrients to soil. They spray plants with chemical pesticides to kill off harmful insects. But fertilizers and pesticidescontain substances that can kill microorganisms. Killing microorganisms means removing nutrients from the soil and upsetting nature's recycling process. Using unnatural farming or gardening methods is one reason our soil gets weak and sick and loses its balance.

Test your soil detective IQ with this fun quiz.