The "Dirt" on the Church's Dirt

--I wrote this for my church's newsletter and thought I'd share it with you at home and in internet land.  Please note it we still have not reached the "last frost date" yet in Massachusetts--


The “Dirt” on the Church’s Dirt

Church member Kim rakes the newly tilled soil 

After preparing a garden bed here at the church and our community garden plot in Watertown, I’d like to share some insights on dirt, dust and soil from Lent. I also learned some theology in Soil and Sacrament by Fred Bahnsen, which really highlighted how we are connected to the Earth. Soil is the basis for all life. It provides a medium for plant growth for our food. Even the stones and wood in our houses, and really everything we own comes from the Earth. If we ever needed a reason to take care of it: all we have is made from it. I’d recommend the book to anyone curious about food or faith or soil.

Our connection with soil, the Earth and food starts at the very beginning when God created Adam-[Hebrew for “Red”] from the Adamah “red soil” and the very first thing he tells Adam is to “Till the earth and keep it” On page 8 Bahnsen puts it:

"The garden is our oldest metaphor. In Genesis God creates the first Adam from the Adamah, and tells him to “till and keep” it, the fertile soil on which all life depends. Human from humus. That’s our first etymological clue as to the inextricable bond we share with the soil. Our ecological problems are a result of having forgotten who we are—soil people, inspired by the breath of God. “Earth’s hallowed mould,” as Milton referred to Adam in Paradise Lost. Or in Saint Augustine’s phrase, terra animata—animated earth.  The command to care for soil is our first divinely appointed vocation, yet in our zeal to produce cheap, abundant food we have shunned it; we have tilled the adamah but we have not kept it."

I used to think the Lenten image of coming from dust and dirt was depressing, “all we are is dust in the wind.” But when you think about it, beautiful mountains are made of the same dust as us. Volcanoes,
birds, venus fly-traps—all from dust. We YAVs often remember shooting stars are made from the same dust! We are dirty and mortal, but for some reason, we are the dust filled with the breath of life, the
breath of God.

I felt it timely to read this while planning to build some raised beds in front of the church. The original garden plan was to build raised beds and add all new soil. But when we realized our wood was pressure treated with “cronized copper azole” which the internet says may contaminate the soil and make edible plants toxic. We looked for alternatives.

In a conversation with the expert, Farmer Dave Dumaresq, the idea came up to just test the soil in the yard for about $20 and add whatever nutrients were needed for probably another $20. After all, almost any farmer will tell you, “soil is your most important crop”. After looking further into costs it would be around $100 to buy wood and entirely new soil so we decided to work with the existing soil to save money. April 5 during the church work day, I mailed in a soil sample to UMass Amherst Extension. Look for the results on a bulletin board soon. Basically the lead levels were safe, so we could plant edibles, but it hadn’t been tilled or kept in years. It was very deficient in the macronutrients; particularly phosphorus, also lacking nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and manganese.

UMass and Farmer Dave gave recommendations on what to add, so I spent $15.09 to add dolomitic lime to raise the pH and some fertilizer to add the nutrients. I chose a chicken-manure based fertilizer because of the high phosphorus content. Chickens are fed more phosphorus than they need, so their poop is very high in phosphorus and in large chicken houses, the phosphorus is so concentrated it can cause problems in the water table as it leaches into the soil. So sourcing manure for phosphorus on our yard, is helping to reduce the strain on the groundwater below a chicken house somewhere—but it doesn’t solve all the problems. And it gets back to the “to dust things return” idea.

In just 2 hours with 4 people, a few tools, and $35 spent on a soil test and amendments we prepared the garden bed on Monday the 14th, and the Manna Monday kids planted seeds and bulbs in it on the 21st.

 Watching Sally, Arielle, and Kim help me dig up the soil, the kids dropping in seeds, and 6-yr old Adelchi Grassini hi-five me with dirty hands on Manna Monday, I felt we were honoring God’s first vocation to Adam, to “Till the Earth and keep it.”

Take a look at the garden when you get the chance. If the rabbits don’t eat everything, we may have some fresh veggies and herbs from our little piece of Earth, Adamah, for coffee hours this year.