By LandLab Resident Artist Jake Beckman
Spring is just around the corner and with its arrival comes the fragrant, earthy smells of thawing soil. As my residency investigating the myriad aspects of soil formation at the Schuylkill Center enters its final phases, I ‘m finding myself reflecting on the terranean dramas that will begin unfolding in earnest as the temperatures rise.
The rock cliffs on the southern border of the property will shed their icy tentacles, exposing to sun and rain new fissures pried apart during the winter months. After a long winter of freezing and thawing, boulders will have transitioned one tiny step closer to becoming rocks, rocks to becoming pebbles, pebbles to sand, and so on as the mechanical and chemical processes of weathering slowly and gradually make the minerals of solid rock accessible to plant and animal alike. The mechanical weathering of the relatively soft mica schist so prevalent in the area will be particularly in evidence as its glittery particles catch the light in the rivulets of spring snowmelt.
Likewise, spring is a time for the beginning of a much different drama- one that involves the long-awaited fruiting of vast underground networks of fungal organisms. These decomposers have been hard at work throughout the year digesting all manner of otherwise hard-to-digest soil components (cellulose, lignin, even rock!). In one of nature’s amazing instances of cooperation, the fungi and nearby plant roots exchange their metabolic by-products in specialized structures call mycorrhizae. This exchange provides fungi with sugars they need to continue growing and enter the next phase of their life-cycle: fruiting. If we’re observant and in the right place at the right time, we can often witness this step in the cycle through the emergence of mushrooms, toadstools, bracket fungi, and the like. Spring is the beginning of this phase for these organisms and is such an exciting time to bear witness to life re-emerging into view!
If you’ve never given much thought to soil (or even if you have and love all of its complexity!), please join us at the Schuylkill Center for a fun evening of soil related speakers, vendors, wine and dessert. I’ll be speaking more about my residency project and the various sources of inspiration (artistic and otherwise) that have influenced my process. Others speakers will flesh out the science of soil, fungal interaction and the role soil plays in food production. It would be great to see you there. In the meantime, go give a big welcome to spring and hug some dirt!
