Today is World Soil Day

In December 2013, the 68th UN General Assembly declared the 5th of December as World Soil Day. And we’re right on the cusp of 2015, International Year of Soils.

As gardeners, we know how critical healthy soil is to our garden. But that’s just the beginning. From the Global Soil Partnership website:

Soil is the basis for food, feed, fuel and fibre production and for services to ecosystems and human wellbeing. It is the reservoir for at least a quarter of global biodiversity, and therefore requires the same attention as above-ground biodiversity.

There’s a great deal more to discover: clean water, drought resilience, carbon sequestration. It’s an exiting topic. Each and every one of us who tends a plot of land can effect a change and make a difference in the future of the planet depending on how we care for soil.

I realize most folks are counting down the 12 days of Christmas with lords a leaping, ladies dancing, and geese a’laying, etc. But for the next week Pacific Horticulture will celebrate Seven Days of Soil Security.

That’s worth at least a Golden Ring or two!