We have learned most of the techniques described on Green Mantle from Dr Elaine Ingham’s online courses. They aren’t cheap, and they aren’t easy (this stuff is complicated, yet Elaine makes is as accessible as possible!), but they are very comprehensive description of the cutting edge science applied to the real world.
If you’d like a (relatively) quick introduction to Elaine Ingham’s science and techniques, here is her hour and a half presentation at the Oxford Real Farming Conference in 2015.
An easier (and far cheaper!) introduction (recommended by Dr Ingham herself!) is this useful book which was updated in 2010:
Albert Howard worked in the early years of the 20th century and was developer of the Indore method, his methods were overtaken by chemical fertilisers in commercial use.
An Agricultural Testament is probably his best known work, on managing soil fertility, and composting, he is noted for the “Indore method” of composting. There are a lot of common streams between Howard’s approach and Ingham’s – the latter more analytical, the former more practical. Human labour was much cheaper in Howard’s time, you would need ot use machinery a lot more now but the principles are still the same.
For background information on using microscopes we used these two pages:
We’ll add more to this page as we discover more ourselves!