The Country Trust is the leading national education charity dedicated to connecting children with the land through hands-on farming and countryside experiences. This spring the Country Trust is launching its ‘Plant your Pants’ campaign to inspire everyone to learn more about soil. ‘Plant your Pants’ is a fun and fascinating way to discover what is living in the soil and why it is so important and critical to human existence. Jill Attenborough, CEO of the Country Trust, explains more.

It is easy to take the ground beneath our feet for granted. As Leonardo Da Vinci remarked 500 years ago, and it’s still true today, ‘We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot’. We all depend on soil. It has shaped our evolution and survival and yet, how many of us really know how it is formed, what life is sustained within it and how it is connected to our lives?

On the first day of spring, 20 March 2024, the Country Trust is inviting people everywhere to plant a pair of cotton underpants! Two months later, dig them up to discover how they have been degraded by the microbial activity in the soil. This is soil biodiversity in action. A healthy soil will break down cotton faster than soil with low microbial activity, ideally leaving behind only the elastic. Add your pant planting to our interactive map and be part of a nationwide experiment!

Why is soil important?

Soil is a slow-renewing resource. It takes 200-500 years to form one inch of topsoil, but due to modern farming practices and erosion it is degrading at an alarming rate. Soil is essential for food production providing around 95% of our food supply. It also serves as a vital carbon sink and, with the help of soil microbes, reduces carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, mitigating global warming.

What is soil?

The best way to find out is to experience it – why don’t you and your child get your hands into some soil today and experience its texture, colour, and smell? Soil consists of sand, silt, and clay particles which affect its texture, structure, and ‘clump’ formation. Put a handful of soil in a jam jar, half fill the jar with water, shake it up and then let it settle for 24 hours. Can you see the layers of the different particles? The more clay in the soil the easier it is to mould into shapes - if you can roll your soil into a long sausage you've got lots of clay! Scoop up some earth in your hands and smell it. A healthy soil has an earthy aroma, while unhealthy or waterlogged soil may smell metallic or sour. The soil colour reveals its mineral content, moisture levels, and the presence of organic material. When you’re out and about, look for different soil colours. Hunt for worms and other underground minibeasts. Use a magnifying glass or bug pot to see them up close – it’s what farmers do to check their soil health.

Microorganisms in the soil decompose organic matter, even your underpants! One teaspoon of topsoil contains about a billion microscopic cells and 10,000 species, including bacteria, fungi, nematodes, earthworms, slugs and snails – all critical for soil health and ecosystems.

This is where ‘Plant your Pants’ reveals the magic of soil. In planting the cotton material, you are adding organic matter to the soil, which is a feast for the millions of teeming organisms under our feet. Healthy soil, rich in microorganisms, decomposes the cotton pants faster than in an unhealthy soil, and tells you whether your soil needs some TLC.

What can we all do to improve soil health?

DO LESS

Consider the 'no-dig' gardening method, which minimises soil disturbance and helps preserve the soil’s structure and microbial content. When harvesting food, leave roots in the ground to enhance nutrients and aeration, creating an environment for thriving microorganisms.

KEEP IT COVERED

Try to keep soil covered with plants (as wide a variety as possible) or a mulch of compost or with ‘green manure’ crops such as mustard, fenugreek or clover. This will enrich soil, retain moisture, and help prevent erosion.

WATER WISELY

During the summer, monitor soil moisture levels. Use practices like deep watering to encourage deep root growth, drip irrigation for consistent water supply. Or watering early in the morning or late evening to reduce evaporation. Also consider your choice of plants depending on where you live – look for resilient plants that will withstand extremes of weather and opt for perennials wherever possible.

MAKE YOUR OWN

If you have room, making home compost using waste organic materials from the garden and kitchen (fallen leaves, wood chips, egg shells and discarded vegetable leaves) can be a brilliant and fascinating way to add nutrients back into the soil.

And finally

‘Plant your Pants’ is a fun and exciting way to introduce children to the wonders of soil science. It helps illuminate the connection between healthy soil, food, well-being, and the planet. So please dig out your drawers and be a ‘partici-pant’ this spring!

Find out more and register today at countrytrust.org.uk/plantyourpants where you’ll also find links to lots of online resources and information to inspire your budding soil scientists.

Plant your Pants Experiment!