Thoughts on Soil

Though we all walk across soil, we don’t always realize that we’re walking on top of an entire intricate world.  We usually don’t think about what’s going on down there under our feet.  After all, to many of us it’s just dirt.  But just take a moment to ponder the fact that a single teaspoon of healthy soil contains about a BILLION individual microbes, all busy at work cycling nutrients to plants, absorbing carbon, decomposing organic compounds, creating soil structure to hold water, preventing disease, cleaning water, and taking care of the myriad other functions that we ask of the soil.  Nature figured it out a long time ago.

The key word is ‘healthy’ soil.  Unfortunately most of our urban and developed soils are far from healthy. The soil often looks dry, cracked and crusted, or wet and slimy, weedy and obviously compacted.  The soil biology is usually completely out of balance or is virtually missing, caused by the cumulative effect of years of chemical use, compaction by machinery, and depletion of organic matter. The costs of maintaining such a landscape are high in terms of both actual maintenance costs and in the loss of the ecosystem services we depend on.

When I first ventured into the field of Landscape Architecture after years in Sustainable Agriculture, I was surprised to learn that sustainable soil management practices were not commonly prescribed or even known in the landscape design and installation business. Unfortunately it’s still rare to find landscape architects, designers or contractors who are aware of the importance of evaluating and improving the soil, though programs such as the Sustainable Sites Initiative and Bay-Friendly are increasing awareness. Even when specifications are provided that call for organic soil amendments and other sustainable practices, they are often ignored during the landscape installation.  Ongoing maintenance practices are also a huge issue.  Efforts to balance the soil are useless if the landscape is subsequently maintained in a non-sustainable way.

In the conventional landscape approach the soil is regarded as a semi inert medium that needs the addition of chemical fertilizers in order for the plants to grow. How ridiculous is this?! Does anyone need to fertilize a forest or a prairie with chemicals (or anything)? The actual LIFE in the soil is ignored. As a result the planting specifications usually call for conventional soil tests and chemical inputs, and that’s about it, with the mistaken idea that it's the chemical balance of the soil that matters most.

  

People have been brainwashed by the chemical industry into thinking that the only way plants will grow is if we pump chemicals into the soil (the plant world’s equivalent to fast food), and that we have to protect the plants from pests by using more chemicals. The only way to maintain such a landscape is with continued chemical and fuel inputs. This is both costly and polluting, and has many consequences to our health and well-being. A healthy, well balanced landscape will actually save money, conserve water and resources, reduce maintenance and waste, and add to the health of our environment overall. The key is in healing and balancing the soil, moving from conventional chemical landscaping practices towards a natural and regenerative approach.

Post by Suzanne Schrift