You can help save our soil! Everyone can. If everyone works together, the soil can be protected so it continues to be a vital part of our environment and food web.
EAT LOCAL!
When you hear people say they are “eating local,” what does that mean? Are they munching on street signs? No! “Eating local” means buying food from stores and restaurants that get their meat and eggs and fruit and vegetables from nearby farms.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Why should soil be saved or conserved?
Almost all local farms are small. Commercial farms are large and produce a lot of food. They often use chemicals and farming practices that harm the soil. Remember what you learned about animals that are kept in small spaces on commercial farms? It’s unhealthy for the animals and the soil. Small farms are less likely to practice the kind of farming that damages the soil.
Small, local farms are more likely to use growing techniques that promote healthy soil. When you buy from local farmers, you help keep local families in business. And you help keep the soil happy!
COMPOSTING
Another way to help the soil is to recycle food scraps by composting them. Potato peels, orange peels, egg shells, and apple cores are all food scraps. What about the leftover peas that you leave on your plate?
Everyone throws away some food. How much food does your family throw away each day? Imagine how much food is thrown away every day in the whole country!
Composting is a way of recycling organic material such as leaves, food scraps, and grass clippings. Through weeks and months the organic material breaks down into humus that can be added to the soil.
The organic material has nutrients in it. Farmers and other people with gardens mix the humus into the soil to enrich it and return nutrients back into the ground.
We can take care of the soil by not using it as much. But how can we do this if we are trying to grow more and more food around the world? Scientists are trying to help soil by thinking of ways to grow plants without using soil at all!
Hydroponics is one way. Plants are grown in something other than soil, such as gravel, wood fibers, or even sand. The nutrients that plants usually get from the soil still have to be delivered. Sometimes those nutrients are sprayed right on the plant’s roots.
Another way of growing plants without soil is with aeroponiocs. That’s when plants are suspended in the air without any kind of growing material at all. Then, nutrients and water are both sprayed on their root systems.
WORDS to KNOW
hydroponics: a method of growing plants in a material other than soil.
aeroponics: a method of growing plants without any soil or substitute material.
Using hydroponics and aeroponics, the farm of the future might look very different.
Even people who aren’t farmers or scientists can make a difference. Here are some things you can do to help save the soil.
Do you have a garden? Pull the weeds up by hand so your parents won’t have to use harmful chemicals to kill them.
Shop for organic produce from local farmers at the grocery store or at a farmer’s market near you.
Be sure your family doesn’t pour leftover or used chemicals or oil onto the soil. These contaminants can ruin the soil, seep into the water supply, or run off into other bodies of water and harm the environment.
Help your neighborhood plant a community garden. This reduces how much you have to buy from stores.
Make a simple window garden to grow small plants to eat, such as herbs or lettuce.
By working together, we can save a precious natural resource and make our own lives healthier. Save the soil!
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
It’s time to consider and discuss the Essential Question: Why should soil be saved or conserved?
COMPOST CONTAINER
If you want to compost food scraps, you need a good container. CAUTION: Ask an adult to cut the bottle for you.
SUPPLIES
clear 2-liter bottle
knife or scissors
soil
water
food scraps
leaves
tape
1 Rinse out the bottle and screw the cap on very tight. Remove any labels. Have an adult cut the bottle about a third of the way down, but not all the way around the whole bottle. You will want the bottle to flip open.
2 Flip the bottle open and place a layer of soil on the bottom of the bottle. Use the water to moisten the soil, but don’t get it soaking wet. Add a thin layer of natural food scraps, such as fruit and vegetable scraps. Add a little layer of leaves and more soil. Keep alternating layers until the bottle is almost full. Flip the bottle closed and tape it shut.
3 Set your bottle in a sunny place. If you notice little beads of water on the top of the bottle, open the bottle cap to let it dry out a little. If the contents of the bottle look dry, sprinkle a little water on them.
4 Once a day, roll the bottle to mix it up. After about a month, check on the contents of your bottle. If everything looks dark brown and crumbly, it’s ready for the garden!
TRY THIS! Create a larger bin outside and compost your food scraps every day. Toss in some soil now and then and mix it with a shovel. Remember, meat should never go into a compost pile and you need to enclose it to keep animals out.
PIZZA GARDEN
Gardening and growing food is fun on its own, but creating a pizza garden is even more fun! You can grow herbs such as Greek oregano, sweet basil, Italian parsley, and rosemary, as well as Georgia sweet onions, Roma tomatoes, and bell peppers.
When you create a garden that has everything you need to make a pizza, you’re helping the soil by paying attention and caring for that spot in your yard. Plus, you’re not buying pizza that has ingredients from a commercial farm. It also tastes fresher and better!
SUPPLIES
sunny spot in your yard with healthy soil
edging, such as wood scraps or rocks, to divide your garden
compost
seedlings of herbs, onions, tomatoes, and bell peppers
water
1 Plan your garden layout. If you have room, make a circular garden that looks like a pizza!
2 Using the edging, section your garden into parts, one for each plant you’ll be growing.
3 If you have compost, mix it with the soil to give your garden the healthiest start.
4 Plant the seedlings. Use the chart on the following page to figure out how much space you should leave between plants.
5 Water your garden regularly and keep an eye out for anything that’s growing that isn’t one of your seedlings. These are probably weeds. You can just pluck them out with your hands—no chemicals necessary!
6 When your tomatoes and bell peppers get taller, ask an adult to help you make a cage to keep them from falling over.
7 When your harvest is ready, pick your produce and have a pizza party!
THINK ABOUT IT: What other meals can you think of that you can grow most of the ingredients for? How about some vegetarian meals?
COMMUNITY GARDEN
You might want a garden, but don’t have any room to grow one. Maybe other people in your community want one, too! If you plan a community garden, you provide a fun activity for your community and also help the soil. You’ll need an adult to help you with this.
SUPPLIES
a way to contact your community members, such as an online message board or bulletin board
paper
1 Find out if enough people want to participate. Use the community contact list, or put up a flyer in your library or other community board. Ask if anyone is interested, and have them contact an adult who’s helping you out.
Ask everyone:
•Are they interested in a community vegetable or flower garden?
•Will they be able to volunteer their time, tools, and supplies?
2 Try to get a local business to sponsor you. Create a flyer and ask an adult to give it to local businesses. Sponsors sometimes donate land near their business, or they may contribute tools or other supplies. Some businesses that might be interested are health food stores, churches, schools, senior citizen groups, or food coops.
3 When you have the space and some interested community members, choose a name for your garden.
4 To prepare the site, get everyone together to pitch in and clear the area. You may want to plant bushes, flowers, or put up a little fence so other people will be aware it’s a community space.
5 If everyone is going to have their own plot, decide how you’re going to section the garden up and label the areas. Otherwise, everyone can be responsible for the whole thing together. Also, decide if everyone’s going to bring their own tools when they take a turn working the garden or if you’re going to lock everything up in one place and give everyone a key.
6 Consider putting up a rain-proof bulletin board so everyone can easily communicate with everyone else. Even just a sturdy stick with paper inside a sheet protector taped shut will work. With an adult’s permission, you can create an online group so everyone can communicate that way, too.
TRY THIS! Plan a community dinner made from produce grown in the community garden!
You can watch a short video about what it’s like to be a part of a community garden.
KEYWORD PROMPTS
Brighton Hove community garden video 
SOIL-FREE GARDEN
What else can plants grow in besides soil? With this experiment, you might discover the new way to feed the planet!
SUPPLIES
several containers for plants, such as paper cups or small pots
materials other than soil to grow plants in, such as sand, fine gravel, bits of sponge, torn up fabric, or cotton
bean or pea seedlings, about an inch tall
small sticks
water
ruler
science journal and pencil
1 Put one type of material in each of your containers.
2 Gently loosen all the seedlings except one from where they’re planted. Carefully rinse off any compost or soil from their roots. Keep the one plant in its original container with the compost or soil it was grown in. This will let you compare all the other materials to the original.
3 Plant one seedling in each container, being careful to tuck them in so they’re supported by the material. You may need to prop the plant up with a pencil or small stick.
4 Gently water each plant, and place all your plants in the same spot. This will ensure that they all get the same amount of sunlight and warmth.
5 Start a scientific method worksheet in your science journal. Make a chart with a row for each type of material you used. Across the top, put the dates on which you measure each plant’s growth. What do you think will happen in each pot?
6 Using the ruler, measure each plant and write the measurement down on your paper. Every couple of days, come back and measure each plant and write down the measurement. If any of the growing substances are dry, add a little water.
7 After a couple weeks, look at your results. Which plants grew best? Which didn’t grow at all? Is there any difference in the way they look? Is one more yellow or maybe larger than the others? What can you tell about whether the materials you chose would make good substitutes for soil? How can you give your plants nutrients without soil and without chemicals?
THINK ABOUT IT: What does this activity show you about the challenges of growing food without soil? What is hard about it? What works really well? Do you think wel’l ever grow the majority of our food without soil?
SOIL MAD LIB
Use the parts of speech and as many glossary words as you can to fill in the blanks and complete this silly story!
noun: a person, place, or thing.
plural noun: more than one person, place, or thing.
adjective: a word that describes a noun.
verb: an action word.
adverb: a word that describes a verb. Many adverbs end in -ly.
SUPPLIES
glossary of this book
pencil
Party Pooper!
