Week 5: Place

Soil

I currently reside in a state that professes to be a garden, and yet its state soil is called “Downer Soil.” As in “what a downer we keep polluting all of our amazingly productive soil.” My friend and I built raised garden beds this summer in her backyard because her soil sample report came back from the lab stating “do not grow edibles in this soil.” It was contaminated with lead.
The profile of “Downer” doesn’t speak to its assumed agriculture productivity. Sand is mentioned 5 times in four lines. Brown loamy sand. Grayish brown sandy loam. Gravelly sandy loam. Yellowish brown sand and course sand. Yet with irrigation this soil is known to yield “high-value vegetable and fruit crops.”

I am in love with the idea that each state has a designated state soil. Here are the state soils of states I’ve lived in. Hazeleton, Jory, Mivida. I love how they each sound like the name of a knight that used to tromp around with King Arthur. I dub thee sir Hazeleton, sir Jory, and Sir Mivida. May you go forth and do battle with poorly drained landscapes. Poor Downer doesn’t quite fit with the pack though. He must have been the knight that never knew the cool music to listen to and always smelled slightly of old ketchup. And smiled sadly but politely when the other knights said things like “I’d love to hang out with you on Friday Downer, but seriously I’m infested with pin worm. My tomatoes are dying like nobody’s business.”