Learning about Loam

In one HEAL lesson, our second grade students learned about the three types of soil--clay, sand, and loam--and that we want good quality loam soil, with lots of living material from compost, in order to grow huge, healthy vegetables and fruits in our raised garden beds. That is, regretfully, not the current state of our beds, especially since March, when we had heavy, soaking rains for 28 out of 31 days.

The next week, while re-digging and amending our hardened garden beds, we decided to add coconut coir. In each class, we discussed the sustainability of coconut coir compared to peat moss, that it is a by-product of the coconut industry (and therefore re-used instead of being thrown away), and that it is "crumbly, not sticky" and will therefore help keep the high concentration of clay soil in our beds from creating a hard, quick-drying mass that the plant roots will not thrive in. Then, to demonstrate the water-carrying capacity of this soil amendment, I grabbed a softball-sized lump of the well-soaked coir, and asked the students how we want soil to handle water.

"Like a sponge, keeping the roots moist but not soaked," they replied. Such good learners! I asked them to watch while I squeezed the coir over our soil bed. Nearly three cups of water streamed down into the garden beds. "WHOA!" they exclaimed.

"So, do you think this will help our plants grow in the garden?" I asked.

"YEAH!" was the emphatic reply. They were excited to add in the new organic matter and, with much gusto, finished preparing the beds for the next week's planting. I was just as excited to see they are getting hands-on garden experience to go with our (also hands-on) classroom lessons.