Soil and ageing

Most old gardening books have a section on soil. Gardeners know they must know the soil, what grows best, what not to bother with, how to keep it healthy. 

I'd be willing to bet that knowledge of the soil was once far more widespread among people relying on being able to eat what they grow. 

In the FAQs of the British Society of Soil Science is the humbling fact that soil is responsible for 90% of what we eat. 

As a late contribution to World Soil Day, the title poem from my recent collection, A Friable Earth (Arc Publications 2019), came from thinking about looking after the earth, the old Sussex words for mud, and ageing.