The difference between dirt...and SOIL

This illustration helps us see the process of; rock, to dirt, to grass supporting soil, to soil that can support a plant as large as a tree.

A flood plain has little to no oxygen to begin with. There is nutrients in the form of composite rock there (just as our compact Idaho clay has), but to begin with, it's just dirt. Plant something in bare ground, with no vegetation, and you'll struggle to keep it alive. Why? Because the living organisms that function with plants are not there, or in too small a quantity.

Plant roots are a network that are seeking the micro-organisms often referred to as mycorrhiza (click for good photos and an explanation)  Good soil, is growing these organisms so there is a natural organic loop happening.

In the above illustration, weeds (tumble and move their seeds easily) will grow best in that first level of dirt after the flood plain (or burn or anything that created bare ground). This is their job, to get the process started from bare ground. Now, when we till the ground heavily, we moved our soil back down to the dirt level didn't we. See NO TILL link here.

What we really want is the end level that can grow any plant well. This happened in a process of organic matter breaking down, and millions of tiny organisms eating and moving that material into a form the plant can uptake. As described in other posts on this blog. We commonly call this compost, but we need to know how to work with this process to move dirt, into the form of soil.

That is what this blog is all about, how do we make dirt...living soil.