About 50 years ago I was taught that it takes about 100 years for the natural processes of nature to create an inch of topsoil. I was also taught that most of the soils in the upper Midwest owe their development to the grinding action of glaciers thousands of years ago. I have been surrounded by fertile soils my entire life. As a youth, most of my experiences with soils and growing plants was in my parents’ garden.
Each fall my dad would plow the garden. In the spring he would disk the soil and plant his root crops first. Dad always planted the potatoes and onions as early as the ground was dry enough to work. My mom would always plant the lettuce, radishes, carrots, and peas about the same time. Several weeks later mom would plant the beans, beets, more lettuce and her trademark dill plants. Once the warmth of May was firmly in place, dad would plant tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupes, cucumbers, watermelon, and squash.
50 years ago, our farm dog made sure that we never had any rabbits or squirrels molesting our garden. But alas, loose dogs on a farm are indeed a thing of the past. I have read many times on Facebook, and personally witnessed, what measures many people must go through to purchase and prepare soil for their gardens and raised beds. My city friends spend vast amounts of money trying to replicate our natural soil to grow productive gardens. The battles they endure against marauding wildlife and inhospitable soils are never ending.
Recently my wife went to the store to buy several bags of potting soil for her flowerpots. I was shocked; I have never had to buy soil. It was always readily available. Doing some quick math for the roughly $8.00 per cubic foot she paid for her potting mix I now realize how valuable farmland is. If I estimate 12” of topsoil over an acre of land can be sold wholesale for only $2 per cubic foot, it means I would make a lot more money selling the dirt off my farm versus farming it. That comes to $87,120 per acre, or roughly the same amount of money I would make if I farmed it for about 1200 years more. Wait a minute, that is about the same length of time it takes to create 12” of topsoil.
Of course, I am oversimplifying the complex natural process to create soil. I am also omitting the ice age that scoured our landscape with massive glaciers centuries in the making. There have been articles written recently about farmland sales that topped $25,000 per acre. My math for the value of topsoil in the retail world makes that look like a bargain.
Was there anything special about the soils in my family’s garden? It was the virgin soils that nature created. Looking back now I realize how valuable it really was. Perhaps its real value wasn’t in dollars but the food and nutrition it provided. A bulldozer, backhoe, or belly scraper can, in only a few hours, destroy fertile topsoil that took our planet thousands of years to develop.
But I could make a lot of money, too. I wonder what I would eat with all that money from selling my dirt in the next 1200 years while nature replenishes it. I guess I could buy a lot of Soylent Green with $87,120.
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