'Soil your undies' to test the quality of your soil

The Soil Conservation Council of Canada is encouraging people to bury their underwearin the garden.

This comes as part of national soil conservation week andthe Soil Your Undies Campaign.

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The campaign is based on a scientifically recognized test that was developed by one of the council's member organizations in Ontario.

They found that by burying undyed100 per centcotton underwearfor two months, farmers and gardenerswill get a good indication of how much organic matter exists in their soil.

Bury your briefs

Kier Miller, director of the council in Eastern Canada, attributesthe idea for the Soil Your Undies campaign to the Ontario group.

He saysthat national soil conservation week is usually "a boring, quiet affair," and the council wanted to change that.

"We're trying to create awareness in the general public," he says.

"That's the ultimate goal, is to bring awareness to soil conservation."

'Just like a steak'

According to Miller, a grain and oilseed farmer,earthworms and microscopic organismsmake up the biological life in soil.

If there is a good amount of organic matterin the earth,after the underwear is underground for two monthsall that should be left is the waistband.

If they come out intact it means the soil doesn't have much life.

"The cotton itself is an organic material," he says."So it's just like a steak to them."

Increasing organic matter

If the soil is lacking in biological life, Miller saysit is usually because of overuse.

He suggested planting cover crops for the protection and enrichment of the soil.

"When a plant grows in the soil we see the top part of it," he says.

"There's roots underground and that is organic matter, so that organic matter is food for whatever biological life that is in the soil."

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