A new series by Denbow

At Denbow, we know how important soil is.  Some people might suggest that soil is just dirt but we’ve learned that soil is incredibly complex while the success of any environmental infrastructure depends heavily upon it. Soil is the most important variable of any growing medium, whether farm, garden or landscape. In our new series, “Ask Tom,  we are going to take a careful look at soil. 

“Ask Tom” will be an interview series with Tom McConkey, a local soil and landscape specialist who has over 25 years of landscape and soil analysis under the mentorship of Dr. Bill Herman. Throughout the series, Tom will share his knowledge and experience about soil and help break down the different aspects of soil and the importance for both professionals and laymen.

We’ll ask Tom what he believes is the single most important aspect of soil.  With Tom’s help we’ll look at the quality of soil here in the lower mainland of BC. We live in a river delta, so should our soil be good everywhere? (Here’s a hint – it’s not and we’ll let you know why.)

Tom says, “Dirt is the stuff underneath your fingernails, whereas soil is an engineered composition of organic matter (sand, clay and organic matter) designed specifically for your project’s grow medium and geographic location.” As we dive into the different topics, please feel free to ask your questions in the comments or via email/web form. We would love to interact with you once we get things rolling. We want this series to be helpful to those in our geographic region.

Thanks for checking in!  We are looking forward to having conversations with Tom and understanding in more depth value of soil as it relates to sustainable development and the environment through urban development. We hope to cover a lot of ground…