Soil update

So, this is cool. I have been after a book about soil but hadn't yet determined upon which to get. previously, I'd bought my Dad George Monbiot's Regenesis for his birthday or for Fathers' Day and when I saw him last he lent it to me. He had found it fascinating and convincing, though, sadly, it has not prevented him eating meat.

When i started reading the book, I realised that the reason I have a hand lens and the reason I started getting interested in soil is because I heard an interview with Monbiot talking about the book.

He says that there's more diversity in a spoonful of soil than (soil excluded!) in the Amazon or any other place we praise for biodiversity. Well, in a spoonful of healthy soil. He says that worms increase soil productivity by a quarter. They create the conditions for microbes and bacteria.

This is great!

Sadly, the soil in my plots is not great.

We have put a deer barrier around one scraped and one unscraped quadrat at each location.

To be honest, I doubt the deer will want to get in.

There were no worms at all in the 20x20x10 holes I dug at both locations. The soil is rather strongly acidic - which makes sense as there have been firs dropping their needles on the land for years. But it was so strongly acidic that I tested it twice.

On the right is a control, with rain water - neutral. On the left, the acid responses from soil at the Reserve.

In contrast, in a whole the same size in my garden, I found 13 worms 9three different species, as far as I could tell) and a neutral soil.

While the soil at the Reserve is silty clay, my soil is a nice rich loam.

My garden soil is on the right; soil from the two quadrat sites is on the left.

So far so... discouraging.