Four Ways to Celebrate World Soil Day
World Soil Day is December 5th! To celebrate, we want to share four actionable ways residents can care for the ground that holds and nourishes our canopy ecosystem. In urban areas like Nashville, TN, the majority of the soil is contained in the yards and gardens of residential properties, which means that homeowners can make real impacts in local environmental management by paying attention to their yard’s soil conditions.
What Is World Soil Day?
World Soil Day is a global celebration of the life-giving nature of soil, essential for plants, wildlife, agriculture, and human communities everywhere. The day also serves to remind us of the importance of good soil management to build—and not deplete—this precious natural resource, which provides various ecosystem services, including:
Water management and storage
Carbon sequestration
Nutritional and structural foundation for plants of all kinds (which produce their own range of climate-regulating ecosystem services)
Take Action for Your Soil
For World Soil Day this year, consider devoting some time to the ground in one of these four ways to care for the soil:
Check the soil profile
Plan a home composting system
Learn more about soil
Plant a tree
1. Check the Soil Profile
By fall, soil nutrients will have been drawn down from the spring and summer growing seasons, so early winter is a good time to check on nutrient levels and texture, and to add any necessary soil amendments for next year. You can use an at-home soil profile test, or send a soil sample for analysis to the University of Tennessee Extension Office.
2. Plan a Home Composting System
A home composting system helps keep food and yard waste in a productive cycle that can be directed towards your yard’s ecological health. Compost heaps, compost bins, and even vermiculture setups (where worms are used in compost bins) are all options to capture your residential green clippings and kitchen scraps and turn them into compost for your lawn and garden.
If you can’t compost, consider using a curbside compost pickup to direct green waste away from landfills.
3. Learn More About Soil
Good information is an important gardening tool, and World Soil Day can be an opportunity to learn more about soil and better appreciate its qualities. Soil is a complex structure and ecosystem, made of a constant churn of both inorganic materials and organic matter. There are several types of soil and many types of wildlife that keep topsoil fertile. Check out our articles on the different types of soil and the organic qualities of soil to dig deeper into these topics!
Then, seek out a good book, documentary, podcast, or even a local gardening group to learn more about the qualities and foundational importance of soil. And of course, you can always go outside and take a handful of soil to examine it yourself! Every location has specific and unique soil qualities.
4. Plant a Tree
Plants and soil have a mutually beneficial relationship that ensures each other’s presence. Soil benefits trees by:
Providing structure for roots to grip into, holding trees in place
Storing nutrients, water, and oxygen
Creating habitat for soil communities, making nutrients available for trees to absorb
In turn, trees contribute to soil maintenance in various ways:
Providing organic matter for decomposition
Generating infrastructure that holds soil in place (via roots), reducing erosion from wind and water
Creating habitat for wildlife decomposers above and below ground
Fall and winter are the best times to plant trees, so if you have an open space in your yard, consider a new arboreal addition! Browse the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps’ tree sale for a range of locally sourced, hardy trees.
Help us care for Nashville’s trees by signing up to volunteer. Nashvillians can also donate to NTCC: donate a tree for us to plant, or make a financial contribution to support our mission to promote, preserve, protect, and plant the canopy.
For regular updates on local tree news and care tips, subscribe to our newsletter, and check out our Linktree for more ways to connect.