Why Soil is so important

Soil is just as important as the air we breathe and the water we drink. Without the soil trees and plants could not grow, fungi could not survive and we would not be able to grow any food.

So what exactly is soil?
Soil is created from dead plants, animals and different types of minerals. This creates a rich soil for feeding plants and in turn us. There are different types of clay and some plants favour each one or a mixture of them.

Most fruits and vegetables like a loamy/ clay soil because it has a lot of minerals that it can use as food. Plants like cacti like sandy soils, they are used to it as there native desert homes usually have a lot of sand.

Soil is a very important home for creatures that live underground like ants, worms and moles. Earthworms are very special because along with the fungi they have the job of recycling the autumn leaves and other matter into rich nutrients for the nearby plants.

The Earth works in layers and right at the top is the topsoil, topsoil is very important because it stores the most nutrients that the plants need. Most plants roots won't go much further than the topsoil because that is where most of the food is. Topsoil can easily be blown away by the wind and rain, this is a big problem because our green friends depend on it.

When soil is worked too much it gets too hard this leads to compaction. When a soil is compacted water runs off it when it rains. This is bad because we rely on the soil to absorb   the water and when the soil cannot take it up it leads to flooding. This is a good reason to grow your own fruits and vegetables because farming causes a lot of damage to our soils.

What can we do to help?
If you have a garden do not leave bare soil you can avoid this by

The Soil Test -To find out what type of soil you have in your plant pots or garden follow the next couple of steps

Find some soil and Put some water in the palm of one of your hands

With the other hand pick up some soil and put it into the wet hand,make a ball by rolling the soil together

If the soil is gritty falls apart you have a sandy soil

If the some of the soil comes apart but the rest stays in a ball it is a loam soil

If the soil is sticky and stays in a ball you have a clay soil