It is easy to imagine that the soil, like much else, is in a deep sleep throughout winter. The notion of a slumbering earth under a blanket of snow is a pleasing image, but it is a fairy tale, for the soil no more sleeps that the rest of the garden. The soil food web, the network of microbes, bacteria, fungi, algae, arthropods, gastropods, earthworms and the rest, is very much in the business of keeping going, but can only do so with active plant growth.
Much like the rest of the year, the soil really doesn't
