The Queen of Dirt
When a gardener takes a handful of earth from one of his beds, he holds a whole world in his hands.
— Marie Luise Kreuter
Soil is sometimes called ‘dirt’. The word dirt originally meant ‘excrement’; and indeed, fertile soil has a lot to do with excrements. Animal feces make an important addition to the compost; they are called manure. And the end product of the digestive process of earth worms makes the best humus.
However, dirt reminds us of uncleanliness, insignificance and humiliation. This negative association with the soil makes it difficult to appreciate its true value. The soil has been treated like dirt for decades, and that is the main reason why it’s disappearing. One should never underestimate the power of language! Perhaps we should call it ‘gold dust’.
If it contains fertile humus, then the soil is even more valuable than gold dust because it gives life to all other life forms on Earth. If it doesn’t contain any humus, then what’s left is only dust. But even then it is still precious.
Did you know that dead soil dust can be revived with the right care and nourishment?
The handful of living soil you see in the picture above probably contains more living creatures than the entire human population on Earth. Many of these creatures have not yet been ‘discovered’, because analysing humus is harder than one might think.
Soil microorganisms live in symbiosis with one another and with their environment. When a soil scientist takes a sample of soil to analyse it in the laboratory, many organisms will be dead by the time the sample arrives under the microscope. Why? Because sterile conditions in scientific laboratories are fatal for these creatures.
Until today nobody can explain exactly what humus is. We do know, however, what humus does. We know that it gives life, health, structure, balance, and nutrients to the soil, and that it prevents soil erosion by binding soil particles together. And yet, some soil scientists describe humus as a ‘very dead substance’. Perhaps they didn’t manage to find any surviving microorganisms in their soil samples.
By contrast, other soil scientists have suggested to classify soils as the ‘4th kingdom of nature’, in a league with mineral-, plant- and animal kingdoms. They view humus (or soil with a high humus content) as a living organism, i.e. not a substance at all. Yet they call it soil organic matter. That’s currently the official scientific term for humus.
It’s really not easy to get your head around this, and again, it’s the language which makes it difficult to grasp. Soil organic matter…, well, ‘matter’ sounds like material stuff. That’s not very helpful. Even with the word ‘organic’ slipped in, it doesn’t make you instantly think of a living organism. But at least it sounds better than dirt, and like something that matters.
Humus is a phenomenon of life. Even soil experts don’t yet fully know what it is, and how to explain it, partly because we don’t have the language to describe it, partly because our methods are not always suitable to observe it, and partly because its rhythm of life is very different from ours.
It takes a thousand years for 2 inches of humus to regenerate itself! This means, nature doesn’t live in human time.
If soil is a kingdom of nature, then humus must be its queen — the Queen of Dirt, if you like. She is a very ancient queen with many special powers, including the power of resurrection. If we want to understand the soil-queen and persuade her to serve us — as she has done for millions of years — then we must adjust to her rhythm and serve her.
First published on: https://thehumusproject.org/the-queen-of-dirt/
This article is also available in German, Portuguese and Dutch on https://thehumusproject.org/the-queen-of-dirt/
