It turns out all plants need dirt. For their roots to absorb nutrition they need dirt. The beginning of the food chain begins in the dirt.
Turns out that the first dirt maker for the first plants was fungi. The mushroom people. They ate hot rocks which was about the only thing there was above the shore line back then and turned them into dirt. The only life on earth was in the water for the first 3 billion years until the plants started creeping out onto land. They could only do that because the fungi were there first, making dirt with their little mycelium creepers. True story.
I like making dirt too. It’s fascinating. What ingredients to throw in there, how much water to add, how to ‘cook’ it so it’s yummy dark earth. What is going on down there in the dark underground microbial halls of the earthy underworld? I don’t know but the expression of that dirt, also called Mother Nature, is flowers, grass, tomatoes, arugula, sweet corn, etc. Also mushrooms. There are mushrooms all over in my side yard right now. They look like white stones. Never seen them before. The signs of healthy dirt.
There are 3 places of dirt making here at ranchito de rohn, well 4 really if you count all the leaf mulching going on beneath the leaves lying in piles and furrows under the trees or against the fence. Make that 5, the bog filter produces a fine, black, muddy, silty goop that I scoop out and add to the dirt machine.
The dirt machine is a rectangular box, about 8 feet by 4 feet, made out of plywood shelving that used to hold my books back when I was in the book business. Anyways it’s reinforced on the sides so it won’t bend or bow with all the dirt being made inside by those industrious little microbes. I also threw a mouldering piece of 2x4 in there and buried it to inject some fungi. See what they can do. Fungi can be pronounced ‘fun guy’ or ‘ fun ji’. Your choice.
Moldy leaves, bog filter goop (basically fish poop and stuff), and dirt from various generous places around the ranchito (usually under the leaf mulch) are all mixed together in the dirt machine. It decomposes and melts and molds and mixes and does Lord knows what all. White Tail the cat thinks it’s a giant kitty litter. Oh well.
The dirt, when it’s ready, goes into the planting boxes or pots or gets sprinkled on the yard and in the wild places. When is the dirt ready? Ah, the mysterious mysteries of dirt.
Dirt is full of life. Micro-organisms including the above mentioned mushroom mycelium, bacteria, algae, protozoa and nematodes (tiny worms) are what make dirt alive. They’re all doing something in the great underground orchestra. It’s estimated that there are 1 billion individual microscopic cells and 10,000 different species in one teaspoon of topsoil. The mycelium of course is breaking down rotten wood and connecting to the tree roots for it’s sustenance. Everybody is doing something according to their lifestyle. Just because I don’t know exactly what it is doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it.
Today I’ve been harvesting dirt from the groovy nook back in the back 40 of this property. The ‘back 40’, that’s a term the farmers used to use referring to the wild forest in the back of their lot or atleast an undeveloped parcel of land.
It’s a copse if not a forest. Trees grow there and and there are ponds nearby. There’s a lovely bench for sitting on when communing with nature in the groovy nook. For a little kid it would be a forest.
Anyways I put bricks down there to create a sort of a floor and a place. But nobody goes there and now the trees have scrunched up the bricks and started growing over them, gluing them into place. I’m digging them out so the trees have room to grow and harvesting all the dirt that has formed there in the process : ) All different stages of dirt here, tiny rootlets, mulchy leaf mulch, regular dirt. Dig it out and throw it in the dirt machine! says I.
The compost barrel makes dirt too The kitchen scraps go in the top and get mixed up with leaves and grass from my lawn. They decompose slowly into the loveliest sweet smelling dark dirt. Just open the bottom hatch and shovel it out when it’s ready. It takes about 9 months to get well digested soil or dirt as I call it.
Last but not least is the leaf scrum. A 5 foot high pile of leaves and dirt, some coffee grounds. It grows during the year as I rake up leaves and dump them on there and it slowly shrinks as the microbe people eat it down from underneath. When I need some soil or even half digested leaf mulch, I scrape off the top and scoop it up.
Of course all this is to grow something, which I’m still not very good at yet.
Need more dirt. I truly believe if I can make my own dirt from my own ranchito then it will survive the ravages of our hot summers and one day will bring forth bounteous crops. Even corn (my goal). It’s all about the dirt.
Hey we’re all made of dirt, some water, a little fire, alot of air.
One day when my day is done I will leave behind my legacy - dirt.
I chose Miss Monique for her zestful, youthful music / various tracks
great set !! thanks Miss Monique
making dirt