The Answer Lies in the soil

Soil and Life – neglect it at our peril

For me soil is right up the top there, a micron or two behind air and water. But whilst without these two gifts we cannot survive today, soil is the basis of long term survival. In fact it is demonstrably the true foundation of civilisation. That is­ fertile, accessible, living soil.

We neglect it at our peril. Within historical memory (i.e. written records) Syria was a forest kingdom[1], Iraq the birthplace of agriculture[2] and Libya the bread­basket of the Roman Empire.[3]

I expect anyone reading this will be familiar with the essential components of soil:

●      Mineral fraction (sand, silt, clay)
●      Humus
●      Air and water
●      Adequate soil structure to admit and retain these 

But the most important constituent, the one that resists erosion and minimises workload the most, the one which makes nutrition most available to plants and animals alike, is the life in the soil itself.

Does your Tree have Roots?

For many years now we have started Permaculture Design Courses with a light­hearted ‘entrance exam’, part of which is to ask people to draw a tree ­ not as a contest in drawing skills or species accuracy, but looking for one thing only. Does their tree have roots? Once folks get this they become much more aware of the earth beneath our feet. The fact that so much of what we depend on is not (in ordinary circumstances) visible to us.

The life in the soil may be millions of individual organisms in a single handful. Animal and plant life in a constant process of exchange. Plant and tree roots provide the most astonishing marketplace, where bacteria, other roots, nematodes, earthworms etc. mingle in the jelly like rhizosphere doing what they do best. Green leaved plants ensure energy supply by producing sugars through photosynthesis which they may swap for nitrogen (the building blocks of life) from air in the soil harvested by (for example) leguminous plants.

We all know legumes produce nitrogen don’t we? No? Of course they don’t! It is bacteria staying in the little root nodule hotels they produce who do that job. And hugely significant are the largest living organisms yet found on planet earth. Blue whales?! No, fungi. Not mushrooms, which are only their fruiting bodies, but mycelium, vast underground networks of whitish thread like material (largest yet discovered: thirty-five hectares­ which would be a lot of blue whales).[4]