Sorry to run on and on and on in a thread about radishes!
But that's been simmering for a while and I just had to get it out while it was making my fingers itch.
I don't think there is very much there new to many people, but I wanted to say it all in one place. Its like a hierarchy of needs. For humans, that would be first air, then water, then food, then things like shelter and safety and companionship. It doesn't help to have food and a fine house if you have no air or water (yet air and water pollution seem to attract less interest than "House Hunters" and the food channel).
What leaves me in awe of soil is the way that so many different species and families co-operate without managers or planning meetings or congressional hearings. Roots need fungi need roots need soil structure needs worms need organic matter comes form plants that need all of the above. "Inter-dependent" doesn't say it strongly enough. They thrive together. It's really awesome.
They cooperate like that over every part of the planet that isn't pure rock, ice, concrete or poisoned with caustic. Even most human toxins will eventually be broken down by SOME microbe, and the party bootstraps itself from sterile grit to praie or forest. How cool is that?
And I can join in the fun with my compost heap and wheelbarrow and drainage ditch. Almost all I have to do is kickstart the mechanical structure, then add compost.
It's like Ben Franklin said about beer: "Beer is proof positive that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
Soil and plants are proof that God and/or evolution are awesome.
