Well, I became an interested in soil
science when I was a young boy about 11 years
old when my family moved into a new tract of homes
in Southern California.
And before we did any landscaping
at all in that place, my dad brought in
and put on, especially where the garden was, about a foot or so
of composted cow manure in the yard.
And I remember thinking as a young boy
at that time, wow, that's a lot of cow poop
that we're putting in our garden.
But my dad said to me, he said, you watch.
Over the next few months, that's going to be the very best thing
we could have done for our soil.
And he was right.
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My name is Grant Cardon, and I'm an Associate Professor
of Soil Science and the Extension Soil Specialist
in the Plants, Soils, and Climate Department
at Utah State University.
I remember going back in that garden area a few months later
and realizing that it had gone from this dusty, chalky,
undeveloped material at the surface
to this rich, brown, fertile, productive garden area.
Supported all kinds of plants from sweet corn
to table grapes, bell peppers, spinach.
You name it, we had it in the garden.
And I remember at that time becoming
quite intrigued with how the soil worked together to form
this life-sustaining medium.
On a golf course, for instance, in a situation like this,
you're interested in managing both water and nutrient
to keep a vibrant landscape going
while preventing excess water and nutrient from getting
into surface or ground waters or resulting in extra expense that
is unnecessary in the management of that system.
Well, all of these things are things
that I research as a professor at the University
and that I teach others in my extension role or my University
outreach role as a public educator in settings
like master gardener classes and county crop
schools and agricultural horticultural workshops
or training government agency personnel
across the entire state of Utah, in the Western United States,
and internationally in places like China and Lebanon.
Well, since I was a little boy in that backyard garden and all
through my career, I've devoted my life
to understanding how the organic matter and mineral
matter at the Earth's surface work
together to form this living, breathing skin of the Earth.
Join me in my soil science world sometime,
and I'll guarantee you'll be surprised and fascinated
by this stuff called soil.
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