Soil Work: what’s it even mean
Join me as I try to explain my work to a family member 😄 through words and homemade gifs!
When I explain what I do to the uninitiated it’s hard to know where to start. I usually opt for something vague like “I work in soil restoration”. But today I want to tell you what I do as if you were someone in my family, who’s interested in and cares about me, but doesn’t have a clue about what I do.
In fact, I’m writing this with a specific person in mind: my cousin, Justin. We lost Justin a year ago. He was only 42 years old. For as long as I can remember Justin always made me feel seen. He always treated me as an equal and asked for my opinion on things… even when I was 8 years old. Justin saw what I was starting to work on with all this soil business and fan-girling over it on my social media 😆, but we never did get a chance for a deep dive. So, here it is. All the things I wish I could tell Justin.
*Settling in on a porch somewhere with a couple beers*
Justin: so, tell me about this soil stuff! What do you do?
Andie: Oh geez, I get so sweaty and excited talking about this stuff, where to begin!
The first thing you need to know is soil is the most magical natural resource of all time. And I mean magical. You wouldn’t know it by looking down at the ground but soil is f*ckng vibrant - just full of life.
Justin: why don’t people know that, why is this the first time I’m hearing about this?!
Andie: Right?! It’s crazy! I think it’s just kind of out of sight out of mind. And the part that we can see isn’t particularly interesting. The dirt underfoot doesn’t spark wonder like a starry sky or a coral reef or even an ant colony. That is, until you get it under a microscope… When you get a window into what’s happening on a microscopic level it’s like the rush you get looking at the galaxy through a telescope - endless possibilities, ever increasing curiosity ✨
Justin: dude. That’s so cool…
*moment of wonder settling over us*
Andie: yeah sometimes I can’t believe it’s my job to just marvel at it…
Justin: Yeah… Well, I mean… that’s not all you do, right? You like have clients n stuff - who are your clients?
Andie: of course, pardon my moment of romanticizing. My clients all have soil systems… obviously. But some are growing crops while others are maintaining turf for sports fields and others are more focused on ecological restoration and conservation.
Justin: That should keep things interesting! What do you do for them?
Andie: I look at samples of their soils or amendments, like compost, under the microscope and provide them feedback on the health of their soil from a biological perspective
Justin: hmm… what does that really mean? Like, what are you actually looking for in the samples?
Andie: So, I’m just identifying and counting microbes in a sample. I follow a specific protocol to quantify the different types of soil life. Which probably sounds super dry, ha! But I do this because there are characteristics of soil ecology that are strong indicators of whether a soil is functioning well or not. By that I mean, we can look at the populations of organisms and know whether the soil is…
cycling nutrients well to vegetation
capable of suppressing disease-causing organisms
and/or contributing to the building of soil structure
Andie: One of the biggest considerations in this work is regarding the successional group of a plant - do you know what ecological succession is?
Justin: uhhh I don’t know, is that like how plant communities build on each other?
Andie: yeah, pretty much! The textbook example of this is the natural progression of a landscape’s vegetation from a barren state to a very mature, stable, and biodiverse ecosystem. The process by which things like moss and lichens colonize an otherwise barren, rocky substrate and transform it to become a medium that can support plants like grasses and eventually bushes and trees is the process of ecological succession.
In a vacuum, over geological time (hundreds of years) an undisturbed landscape could become an abundant forest ecosystem. But in reality disturbance is really common, from natural processes and human activity like agriculture or development. So, “disturbance” is another important term in my work and refers to any actions we take that disrupt the microbiome and/or plant community.
Justin: I see, I think I mostly get that, so back to how succession relates to your work…
Andie: So, when you think about the plant progression throughout succession you can see there are certain types of plants that thrive in “early succession” conditions and a different set of plants that thrive in “mid succession” or “late succession”. We’ve understood this from an aboveground perspective for centuries, but what’s more recently becoming understood is how the belowground conditions change throughout these stages of succession.
Justin: huh… okay. So you’re saying the soil has similar stages of succession; the organisms in the soil change over geological time just like the plant communities do.
Andie: Yes! And so what’s generally happening on a global scale is we’re constantly disturbing our soils and essentially causing the soil microbiome to exist in an early succession stage, all while trying to plant and grow mid to late successional plants…
Justin: oooooh! Shit! So is that why we’re always having to throw fertilizer and stuff at farms and gardens and lawns? Because the microbiome isn’t matching the plants’ needs given its stage of ecological succession?
Andie: Yeah pretty much, but get this… most of the fertilizers and herbicides and stuff we use to manage land is a disturbance in itself, like it kills life in the soil, so it’s guaranteeing that we’ll keep this imbalance between what the soil ecosystem is capable of and what the plant ecosystem needs, meaning we’ll have to just keep buying stuff to fill in the gap.
Justin: dude. I’m questioning everything I’ve ever done to my lawn right now…
Andie: I know. It’s not your fault man.
Andie: Anyway, I’m basically trying to help people understand these principles of soil ecology and how they relate to plant health and ultimately people’s bottom line. And I use the microscope to evaluate how disturbed a soil system is and whether or not it’s showing signs of improvement as restoration efforts are taking place.
Justin: What's an example of a restoration effort, obviously stopping the harmful chemicals and stuff, right?
Andie: Yeah, I mean it can be a delicate balance of tapering off these inputs while replacing them with biological amendments to start re-inoculating the land with the microbial partners the plants need - the partners they evolved with over millions of years.
Justin: I see. And what does inoculation look like? That sounds like something that happens in a lab.
Andie: Oh sure, lots of inoculatin’ happens in labs, but this inoculation is happening in the field. The best inoculant isn’t going to be something you buy off a shelf. I mean, that stuff can help in the process, but ideally we want to be inoculating land with compost that was made with ingredients that came from the same region/climate conditions as the land it’s going to be used on. This is because there are microbes living on the surfaces of existing roots, leaves, stems, manure and other inputs, so when we use local materials we know the organisms in that material can survive the conditions of our particular area - like our Texas heat or your California droughts.
I’m currently practicing this as well - the art and science of making compost that’s capable of restoring landscapes.
Andie: A lot of land stewards could make such compost themselves! I mean think about it, they have a lot of the materials and equipment they’d need to make it on site. So long as they can afford the labor to care for the compost they could save so much money on inputs. Even if they purchased compost/inoculant from a reputable producer they’d reduce input costs significantly, both immediately and in mind boggling amounts of long-term savings.
Justin: I can imagine! So, inoculation is a matter of spreading compost? Sounds like that’d be a lot of compost for these farms that are hundreds and hundreds of acres.
Andie: Yeah it definitely is. But if these large-scale producers can spread fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides across that land they can just as easily spread compost. It’s typically applied as a liquid by the way. A relatively small amount of solid compost can be used to make a much greater volume of inoculum in the form of a liquid.
Justin: oh neat, are compost facilities doing this, like is that a good place to start if you can’t make your own compost?
Andie: oof. I’m going to point you to a compost article I wrote on that, ha! In short, you don’t just want to buy compost from anywhere, and you definitely want to get it looked at under a microscope before using it on any land.
Justin: yeah, considering everything you just explained about the soil ecology being linked to plant health it sounds kinda crazy now to not look at what’s living in soil or amendments.
Man, I’m proud of you cuz. This is so cool, I’m so glad you’re doin’ this.
Andie: Welp, the feeling is mutual. You may never know how much you’ve inspired me with your pursuit of writing. Witnessing you make time for your passion has had a real impact on me. I love and respect you, cuz.
*all the hugs*
Justin: Thanks for sharing with me. I’m sure I’ll have more questions for you later. For now, should we get these lazy bums ready to go to the beach for a bonfire?
Andie: Let’s dooo it!
I hope this was as interesting for you as it was cathartic for me. If this work interests you, there are clear paths to transition your career into soil work. I’d be happy to talk with you about that!
With love from the soil to the cosmos,
Andie | Rhizos LLC
PS: If you’re in the Austin area, I’m hosting a free soil biology event Friday, September 2nd - here’s the link for more details.