Soil Not Dirt

Soil not dirt.  One of the first lessons my not very jocular master gardening instructor taught us.  Of course it became a source of chronic joking among students and is pretty good for a chuckle among beginning gardeners everywhere.  So it came out of the bag of conversational tricks on my recent trip back to Chicago.

My daughter and I had walked a couple miles north and west of her own neighbourhood garden patch to help at another spot being transformed from empty lot to community garden plots, or allotments in British English.  Allotments and community gardens have in common that the land is not owned by the folks gardening it, and the land is set aside by folks who organise it specifically for folks to garden.  Because I think this is a wonderful idea and I have met and like the people behind it on a previous trip, I was delighted when my daughter said that they were looking for volunteers to help fill the beds in a newly created community garden, Ashlandia.

Because the garden plots are on a corner lot in a busy residential neighbourhood in Chicago, the soil had to be deposited on the street next to the raised beds waiting to be filled.  It gave an extra urgency to the project, but the collection of volunteers was good natured, and fortunately a few were sturdy as well as enthusiastic.

Now back on the different soil of north Scotland, my gardening soil adventure for today is to prepare the two bags of rotting leaves in  compost bags with the diluted comfrey juice provided by my gardening friend.  Soil needs structure as well as organic content and the leaf mould created from this mixture will enhance my own raised beds next year or the year after.  Soil can't be hurried.