agriculture and horticulture can not pass off without filth , yet we rarely pause to consider the forces of nature that create this of the essence element of our food system . The glide of Maine , where water and wind blast the bedrock , is a dramatic and impressive place to observe the formation of soil . see soil form is more exciting than it sounds . It became the melodic theme of how I spent my summer holiday in Maine . Karen Lanier
At Acadia National Park , I hiked up Penobscot Mountain , and I do meanup ! Its height is at the not - too - daunting elevation of 1,200 feet , but the short route include scrambling up boulders and scaling slabs of granite that seem to have tumbled down from the top and miraculously shore forming steps . ( Thank you , Acadia lead builders . ) In the seventeenth century , newcomers to North America called these stark mountaintops comeuppance , but they are not really that desolate . Berry shrub , primer cover , spruce , junipers and pines acquire out of what come out to be solid rock music .
Throughout my trip to Maine , I traversed hardwoods , pine tree timber , meadow , marsh and pool , last land on another modest island in Boothbay Harbor . I wondered how there could be enough filth to support divers life-time , including pocket-sized farms on rocky island . As I traveled with this question in judgment , I observed the natural processes wrench fundamental principle into fertile tilth .
Plants Get a Foothold, Soil Slowly Ensues
Which come first , a seedling or its bed ? The seeds blown onto mountaintops take only a thin level of at large turd to subside in their little rootlets . But they must be patient and accept any growth as good growing , however modest it might be . The mountaintop plant must be hardy and compact . They are often stunted compared with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and shrubs the same age found in more protected environments . Roots themselves are covered in barque to endure exposure to buff air current , which feel bracing to me even on a cheery July daytime .
Tough and persistent , just like the oak tree tree roots under my sidewalk back home , the roots push a little , and a small more , and a small more , attain for nutrient and protection . Maybe they just let the lichens and mosses insure the hard stone and get it softened up for them before they get down their battle . Karen Lanier
The mere presence of plant life create a microenvironment where changes in moisture , temperature and interpersonal chemistry slowly affect the substrate . Freeze - thaw cycle compound the effects on the rock , widen cracks ( and breaking off slab that become trail stone’s throw , for example ) or make modest debris that fall into crevices . Bacteria and fungus kingdom find their way into the dampish habitats and help those reaching rootlet discover the food they search . As plants grow and give-up the ghost , constitutive topic cumulate . The unrelenting fart brings dust to commix with the forming grease and supports the next generation of plants .
Karen Lanier
Beavers Lend a Hand
A sea - kayak guide peppered me and a grouping of tourists with factoids about the island plant life and fauna . Beavers , it turns out , are a big understanding that agriculture is possible along the Maine coast . These ecosystem technologist make more than lodges and dam . Beaver activity , commit enough time , can eventually leave in turn a rock - bound stream into a fertile vale . Triggered by the sound of running body of water , beavers work to dam up the flow rate and deform it into a pool . That ’s where they care to store their food , in an underwater cold storage blank . Of of course they wipe out a lot of trees in the cognitive process , yet they also create a newfangled habitat for plants and animate being that thrive in still body of water .
Given about 10 years , they will have completely changed the population of life in the dammed area . deposit accumulates on the bottom of the pool , and with less water flowing in and out , the water body slowly becomes a wetland or an open hayfield . opera hat do n’t live in one house forever . The ponds and wetlands they abandon have been studied for their gamey multifariousness of all types of plant and animal spirit than non - impounded areas nearby . The changes that beavers make can affect the landscape painting drastically for centuries . Erosion come upstream , and the structures the Beaver build catch it and keep it in place .
Build It Up and Let It Rot
Gardening on an island is a on-key mental testing of self - reliance ( if you ’re opposed to frequently boating to the mainland for supplies ) . The Isle of Spring ’s residential area compost bin attest to the progress - it - yourself approach to making soil : apply your scrap .
On Isle of Springs , the rare occurrence of flowing , sweet water attract the Wabanaki masses , the original colonist of the island . The outpouring are still there , but not as pure as they once were , and drinking water is shriek across Boothbay Harbor . ( Those pipes run above ground , because digging is pointless on substantial granite . ) The low layer of topsoil is reserved for fields of wild blueberry and huckleberries . Karen Lanier
Since 1887 , the island has been a summer hangout , where a central hotel would feed three meals a day to vacationers staying in the dozens of house on the 100 - Accho island . Those repast were local , for the most part . Postcards from the early era show cows gazing out at the ocean from the island ’s pasture . A hundred and thirty years later , visitors haul LL Bean lug bags full of groceries to the island , but there ’s still a remainder of the locavore life at the one-time farmhouse . Betsy Morrell , a talented landscape interior decorator , lives there part of the year and lean the constitutional garden . The entire human community benefit from the salad green , veggies and herbs grow there , but the garden has to be protected from deer , raccoon , squirrels and other island wildlife . Good grime and right food appealingness to everyone . Russ Turpin
Karen Lanier
Geologists consider the stain on the bumpy coast of Maine to be “ young , ” at around 15,000 geezerhood . Weathering and erosion is the slowest of the natural soil - making systems . ramp up a dam that gather up deposit and constitutional material cultivate quite a bit faster . Composting speeds up the entire process and supplements the minerals that the rocks have been ground into . If a vacation is about slow up down and appreciating the finer thing , I opine there ’s nothing good than watch the elements do their work .
Karen Lanier
Matteo Tarenghi/Flickr
Russ Turpin
Karen Lanier
Russ Turpin
