Getting Down and Dirty

Dirt, most of the time we think of it as that brown stuff on the ground that gets on our clothes and messes up our houses... but it is so much more. In fact, dirt is actually the name given to a substance that has limitless formations and compositions. In order to simplify its study, scientists have created  12 Soil Orders ranging from soil in the presence of permafrost to dirt consisting of volcanic ash. Although Ultisols is the order under which Georgia's famous red-clay dirt falls, in lab when we out to the garden we likely observed Histosols. Histosols is an ideal soil type for growing plants and bodes well for the garden as it is rich in organic material. Hopefully lead content in the soil will one day be considered safe so that the agriculture can take full advantage of this soil.