Welcome to The Good Earth forum of the Get Wild! blog! I’m Andrea and I’ve lived in Cornwall on Snake Mountain Rd since 2016.
I never spent much time thinking about dirt until I really had the time to indulge in gardening. I’d dabbled before in growing some veg and flowers, sure.
But the UVM Extension Master Composter and Master Gardener programs, and the independent Vermont Master Naturalist program, made me sit up (or rather dig down) and take notice.
OLD ME:
Dirt = Soil + H20 = Mud
Sand = Stuff at the beach + H20 = Castles
Clay + Wheel = Mug
NEW ME: OMG!
Soil has HISTORY! Tectonic plates + volcanoes + pressure = bedrock + glacier activity/time + water + wind = particles of sand and loam and clay
Soil has STRUCTURE! Particles + Pores + Water + Air
Soil is ALIVE! Microbes + mycorrhizae + decaying plants + invertebrates + garbage scraps = Humus (1 m! ie: not the dipping kind!)
I’ve gained a deep appreciation for the ground beneath our feet. And as the Native Peoples knew, it’s as alive as you or me and deserves attention and respect.
In this, The Good Earth Get Wild! Forum, I hope to continue to broaden what I know and share it with you – and learn from you in return!
The possibilities are endless:
Soil/(pH + Na:K:P) + Air + Water + Sun^chloroplasts + Seeds = (Flowers + Grasses + Trees)*(Pollinators+Wind) = Veggies + Fruit + Grains = FOOD
Or in just plain talk, The Good Earth forum will cover lots of topics – from kitchen scraps to
compost, from getting the most out of your garden to exploring the forest floor, from cursing at clay as it cakes up on our shoes making them heavier and heavier…oh, sorry! – from the great properties of clay to what plants thrive in it. And as a gardener and land steward there’ll be lots of insects (good and bad) and fungi (unsung heroes) and native plants vs. invasives … and comparing the size of your tomatoes to mine.
As the geologists, farmers, hydrologists, and the like among you have already figured out, I’m no expert on soil. Or gardening. Or math. But I do have an intense curiosity about the world around me and am trying to learn all I can to treat this Good Earth of ours better than we have been. I hope you join in the conversation, the learning, the debating, (the gardening competition?), and the fun!
Please let me know what you’d like to talk in this about in this forum in a comment to this post!!
I would like to know about earthworms. Most are okay, but some are bad? If i find them when I am digging in my vegetable garden beds, should I celebrate or chuck them into the yard? And, what a bout pill bugs in my compost? They do a tremendous amount of breaking down scraps...but are they eating my compost too?