“It’s not dirt.”
What you grow plants in is not dirt. I admit that as a horticulturist and botanist, I get stuck on words—or rather, I get persnickety about them. I have known many a farmer to call soil, “ground,” and in other languages, it is often simply called “earth.” Call it whatever you wish, but to me, dirt is what I sweep off the floor.
Today, the desk lost. It was on my to-do list to work on Substack stuff, but it was too amazing outside. I wanted to follow where Spirit/Soul-keeping was leading me, so I traded the screen for the yard.
One of my favorite things about container gardening is the control it gives you. If your soil is hard as a rock and doesn’t drain—which is true for much of the Great Black Swamp area—containers ensure your plants have a good growing medium.
The Day of “Creation”
Today was the day I jokingly say I “create soil.” Of course, I am not the creator of the growing medium, but it is the day I basically refresh the existing mix to ensure healthy plants for the coming season without having to buy all new container mix.
What’s wild about this adventure is that it’s not only good for the plants; it’s amazing for the soul almost immediately.
The Truth
The single most important factor determining how well your plants do isn’t necessarily light or buying a good plant; it begins with the foundation. Soil. Or rather to confuse, soil-less mix. Yup, we use “soilless mix” in containers. It looks like soil, but it has zero sand, silt, or clay from the ground. It’s a sterilized mix of peat moss, coconut coir, perlite, and pine bark.
Want to read the rest and get the Step-by-step process I use for “soil creating/refreshing”?
This reflection is part of a larger exploration into how we can live more rhythmically and intentionally with the world around us. On this Earth Day, I invite you to step into the messiness of the soil with me.
Leave a Reply