Amazing Soil

An Introduction to Amazing Soil

There is absolutely nothing like soil. Its rich smell—sent north on the breeze on a late-winter day when deep in our souls we’re longing for the joys of the sun on our skin and the unmitigated smiles of peace that come unbidden while sitting on our garden paths surrounded by a profusion of growth—is the truest harbinger of spring, and its redolence marks the wayposts of the garden year—the tilling, the planting, the hoeing and weeding, the harvest, the cleanup. 

Beyond the Surface

Yet, I constantly encounter folks who care deeply about plants and gardening but who focus only on that which is above the soil’s surface. I’ve seen tree planters, for example, cut all of the roots off of a batch of trees before merrily placing them in the ground, oblivious to the fact their removal of those roots had already killed the trees. And, while they’d never do anything to that extreme, I’ve seen most gardeners with only a very vague sense of the world beyond the soil’s surface, often thinking their plants’ roots aren’t much bigger than the comparatively little sprigs left broken off from the rest of their massive systems when pulled up in the fall. It makes sense. This world is largely hidden from us. To combat the lack of knowledge and wisdom of the underground world of our plants, let’s again look to the expert gardeners who know this world so well as to almost take it for granted.

Green-Thumbed Wisdom and Vision

When thinking of the green-thumbed gardeners of the world, there are a myriad of reasons they have astounding success. They see the whole world of their gardens differently than others, and they have a plethora of skills emanating from their unique perspectives on all aspects of gardening. All of these chapters and website sections contain such lessons. Their views of soil, however, are where green-thumbed gardeners truly see the world in their gardens differently than others.

This chapter/website section and the next contain green-thumbed gardeners’ biggest and most powerful secrets and their tools for working with this one area we can truly alter to benefit our plants to such a dramatic degree as to almost be creating a whole new world. The good news again, though, is that the secrets and skills are all easy to learn. In fact, most of them you probably already know to some degree or on some level but just may not have filled in all the gaps. Yet, it’s the pieces unknown—and an understanding of the united whole—that can take your gardening to the highest levels.

Even the most experienced gardeners among us, however, will likely be surprised and edified by the carefully detailed diagrams showing the full extent of our plants’ root systems. Understanding the true depth and breadth of our plants’ roots is the key to it all. It’s then we understand the true causes of our plants’ successes and failures and genuinely come to appreciate our role in improving our soil in a much deeper way. Creating deep, rich, loose soil—and preserving it through a creative garden layout—is how we truly blossom as gardeners.