This month we welcomed once again Margery Winters from Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton, CT. Margery did a Power Point presentation on “Soil – It’s Not Just Dirt.”
Margery is the Assistant Director and instructor at Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton where she is delighted to be able to share her passion for earth science and nature with students of all ages. She manages the Nature Center’s native plant gardens and is an advocate for the role of natives in our designed landscapes. She is a Master Landscape Design Consultant.
Rarely discussed by gardeners, soil is the foundation of the garden. Each teaspoon of healthy soil is alive with millions of creatures, many working to keep our plants healthy. We learned why we should care about this intriguing ecosystem.
Always an interesting speaker, Margery, kept us absorbed in her presentation. We learned all about the different types of soils, the connections between soils and plants and how organic matter makes healthy soil.
Some of the interesting facts that we learned
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- SOIL
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- How organic matter makes the soil more fertile
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- The breakdown of what’s under the grass
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- The insects and fungi that keep soil healthy
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- The bacteria and actinobacteria in our soil
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- There is very little soil covered land that can sustain plant growth