I got berate at the lumberyard the other day . I love our local lumberyard ; the people who sour there are cool , everything ’s easy to find , and they have a huge section known as the “ Away Station ” where you’re able to screen through all kinds of previously owned timber , tile , article of furniture , window , prick … you get the musical theme . When I have an excuse to go there , I get the warm fuzzies all over , so I ’m usually on my best behavior when I draw in in , knowing I ’m in for a darn good clock time .
On this finicky Clarence Day , I needed to replenish my garden beds , plant my new tree diagram ( Quince ! Pomegranate ! A four - graft cherry Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ! Woohoo ! ) , and backfill a piffling retaining rampart so I can make my walkway look purty . Those trivial 2 - three-dimensional - foot bags of planting intermixture were n’t travel to cut it , so I pulled in next to where they keep the gravel , compost and so on , and waved down one of my favored yard guys . “ Hi ! ” I tell , mirthfully . “ I need some dirt ! ”
He stopped in his course and give me a dismayed feeling . Uh - oh . What had I done ? Was I supposed to go inside and put in an order ? Had I broken lumberyard protocol ? Had he been promoted to upper direction and no longer drove the tractor ?
Nope . He put his hand on his hips and looked at me loftily . “ What you want , ” he aver . “ Issoil . ”
dirt , grime , what ’s the diff ? Semantics . But I was willing to act along . The lumberyard crew is a lofty and righteous tribe . “ OK , ” I said . “ Soil . A M , please . ”
I ’d promise to fulfil friends at the local pub where my guy Danny works , so , truck of dirt , I entail , grime , and all , I stopped in . One of the regulars , the town steward , Rudy , greet me with a cheery , “ What ’s up ? ”
“ Meeting friend . Had to come into town to get a load of dirt . ”
Suddenly there was the same eerie secrecy that I ’d experienced before . “ You meansoil ? ” he said .
OK , was it just me ? What was the big trade ? I had to inquire .
It turn out , if you are creating a landfill , it ’s dirt you want . But to grow stuff , it ’s got ta be soil . Dirt is basically dead or displaced dirt : All the adorable , decayingorganic matterhas gone missing . worm wo n’t live in it , and plant life wo n’t grow in it . If you overtask your soil , you ’ll eventually end up with dirt . The good news is , you may re-introduce organic matter and bring the ecosystem back to life . Hurray for decay ! So now I ’m fully mindful of the difference of opinion between dirt and soil . And I can’twaitfor someone to tell me they ’re channelize to the lumberyard for a truckload of dirt . I ’m practice grow just one eyebrow , so that I can extradite the right facial expression when I say , condescendingly , “ You meansoil ? ”
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