Soil-smelling good for the curious gardener

Still looking for something to do outdoors that takes a few hours and yet has you relaxing by evening?

There’s some grand weather to be had out there and the cool, fresh air can add years to your life.

Need I say more?

I don’t remember an actual time of falling in love with the outdoors, but I know it was when I was a small girl. I retain early memories of musty woods, moss-covered rocks and the thrill of adventure while peeking from under a giant fern or looking at an octopus washed up on the beach.

My family lived in Cordova when I was in grade school. It’s a wonderful part of the world. The trees there are tall and mossy, standing atop great roots that rise above the ground. Some are quite exaggerated, creating hobbit-like play forts within. In these forts, smelling of woods and earth, my siblings and I took refuge and spent endless hours of joy.

Amongst less augmented roots, small gardens could be built and it was around one of these trees, in fact, that I built my first garden. With gathered rocks to close off the root openings, forest litter for soil and collected woods plants, I happily created a little garden. I think I was 9 or 10 years old — an innocent beginning.

I give my mother credit for my love of nature. It was she who included her children in yearly spruce cone collecting expeditions. Burlap bags in tow we would head into the woods, finding and nearly emptying cone cashes placed there generously by the resident squirrels. It was she who would take us on long beach-combing jaunts to investigate dead things along the ocean shore and living things in tide pools and mud flats. It was she who encouraged us to play outdoors and cajoled us to pick gallons of salmon berries for jellies and syrups.

Later, when we moved back to Palmer, I gained new memories; in particular, nuances of soil. The Matanuska Valley is filled with a great variety of soil and they all smell and feel different. While I don’t know them all by smell, I do know some. The distinctive smell of soil near the Butte, with its Knik Glacier silt and cottonwood compost has an almost herbal scent. It is loamy to the touch and fun to dig. Lazy Mountain soil, by contrast, smells acidic and musty with an overtone of alder litter and minerals. Digging it is more of an adventure and reminds me of early childhood smells in Cordovan woods. Springer Loop soil carries a clean, fresh, earthy odor, reflecting tens of thousands of years of glacial till and good drainage. This is the soil of the gods, an incredible gift to those who farm it and an even greater waste to those who build housing on it. It is pure pleasure to dig in. Along the banks of the Matanuska River near Sutton the soil takes on yet another smell. Here its silty texture falls through your fingers like aromatic sand hinting of willows, cottonwood and balsam.

This brings me, and you, back to an outing. If you’ve never tried soil smelling this is the perfect time of year to do so. The cool temperatures leave little to detract from the natural aroma of the earth. The outing will require a vehicle and a shovel. Choose at least three distinct locations around the valley, some distance from one another. At each location, find a spot that has not been greatly disturbed by man and dig a nice-sized hole. Put the soil in your bare hands and smell it. Mess about with it. Feel its texture and write down what you feel and smell. It’s a strange experiment but I think you’ll enjoy it. It’ll be a total departure from your usual garden related activities and once you’re past feeling odd about it you’ll warm to it, anxious to discover how the soil in the next location varies.

Why not make your last stop somewhere that you can build a bonfire and laugh about what you spent your afternoon doing? By then all those earthy smells will have gone to your head and you’ll need some time to contemplate your discoveries, and discuss who you must never, ever tell of the days activities. Then roast some junky hot dogs and gooey smores (with lots of chocolate) and call it a day.

Sally Koppenberg is a garden and food designer. She is the owner of Stonehill Gardens and The Red Beet, nursery & catering companies specializing in Alaska Grown foods, trees, shrubs, perennials and native plants. Contact her at stonehill@gci.net.