Soil
A conversation with Alina from PlantAge, Anuscheh from Flamingo e.V. and anstiftung, Matze from Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv, Miren from the project BodenschätzeN and Laura. The audio is only accessible in German.
Soil forms the basis for the life of plants, animals and humans. Even though it may not look like it at first glance, the soil beneath our feet is teeming with insects, fungi and bacteria—two hands ful of fertile soil, for example, are home to seven million organisms! These soil organisms are meticulously involved in decomposing organic materials such as plant waste and transforming them into fresh soil, so that new plants can grow from it. Which plants grow on a soil, depends entirely on its composition: Depending on whether the soil has been built on before, or which plants have grown on it before, or whether it consists more of sand or clay, its nutrient composition as well as its ability to filter and store water determines which plants feel comfortable on the soil and which do not. Matze from Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv and Miren from BodenschätzeN told us more about the soil of the New St. Jacobi Cemetery.
Matze:
It is a special feature of the St. Jacobi Cemetery that we are here on a clay lens. This was created by the ice age. Different substrates have been shifted by the glaciers and in most places in Brandenburg it is simply sand. Here, however, there is clay underneath due to the ice age, which was pushed together by the glaciers and washed away by melted water. Clay holds water much better than sand, so the ground of the cemetery is a bit wetter.
What would you say the soil is like in the Prinzessinengarten?
Super!
And what's the reason for that?
There hasn't been any building here for who knows when. The cemetery has been there for about 150 years—that means there is no building, there are no remnants of a building, there is no other industrial use or anything that endangers the soil through oil or any other inputs.
The fact that the soil has not been built on is so important because it has not been sealed. Soil sealing occurs, for example, when roads or houses are built that cover the soil air- and water-tight. This causes the soil fauna to perish and even if the soil sealing is no longer there, plants grow much worse than before.
At the New St. Jacobi Cemetery, humans have not changed the soil by building on it, but Matze from Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv told us another special thing about cemetery soils:
Matze:
In soil science, the soils in cemeteries are called necrosol—necros for death. This is a very special type of soil, characterized above all by a thick A-horizon, which means that the top layer, the humus layer, is much thicker here than on natural areas. This is not because the people who were buried here became humus and thus increased the humus content of the soil—according to the Berlin cemetery regulations, burials are to be made at a depth of at least 1.80 m and that means it has nothing to do with humus formation in the topsoil, but rather the grave maintenance. In the past, it was common that the flowerbeds of the graves were replanted three times a year. Each time the plants are replanted, they are placed with a potted root ball with substrate in the bottom. When the beds are cleared, mainly the plants are plucked off but the potting substrate, which nowadays is 95% peat, stays in the soil, rots and forms this humus layer, which is extremely pronounced here.
It's so different. The same plant can grow in different soil and will look completely different—a stinging nettle in compacted soil that is low in nutrients compared to soil that is high in nitrogen.
The more nutrient-poor a habitat, the lower the species diversity. This is because on nutrient-rich soils the generalists prevail, the plants that are extremely competitive, and on very poor soils specialists can persist that can cope with more difficult soil conditions.
So we can summarize that there are different types of soil with different components that vary depending on the use of the soil and its environment and decide how and which plants grow on the soil. Many processes happen in the soil that we cannot see with our naked eye. Did you know, for example, that trees and fungi form an underground network with their roots, through which they exchange nutrients and even communicate? For instance, fungi connect several trees across kilometers and enable the trees to warn each other of pests, for example.
Another very important process in the soil is the decomposition and transformation of organic matter into fresh soil. Because growing also involves decay, for example when the leaves turn yellow and fall from the tree in autumn. Miren from BodenschätzeN is involved in composting and has set up compost heaps in Prinzessinnengarten. There she collects plant waste, which is regularly shifted from one heap to another so that the plant remains do not become moldy and get enough oxygen. Then lots of little soil creatures start eating the plant waste and excreting it as new soil. One of these soil organisms is the springtail.
Miren:
This is one of the oldest insects. Unknown, although it plays such an important role. It looks really cute, so elongated, and its body is divided into four parts: two antennae, six legs—it is an insect—and two eyes. It's a proto-insect and if you know it, you'll find it everywhere. Whenever there is foliage or grass or the remains of plants, you will see little dots and they are very important for decomposing organic matter. If you take a leaf from this pile, from the lower layers where it's a bit more moist and you pull out a leaf, there are all these white dots and you can maybe still tell if it's a lime or a maple or something if you compare it with another leaf that was further up, where it wasn't so moist, where there weren't so many springtails, then the first leaf has become so much thinner and you can imagine how they work. From the surface they eat their way through until the leaf is thinner and thinner until we have leaves that look like parchment—that look so beautiful. They've been eaten by little organisms.
Actually, that's the metabolism of organisms. That means, the animals, macro- or micro-organisms, fungi or algae metabolize, that is, they have an exchange, so they take some substances and they give some substances back. The temperature rises and what makes the temperature rise is biological activity. We throw everything together, we water, so there is also nitrogen and the organisms start to multiply. That's their metabolism—as we produce heat, they produce heat and that makes the temperature rise.
Maybe you just walked past several beds. Here, gardeners grow vegetables and herbs that are then processed in the café or at home. On the open gardening days you can also come and garden here. The beds over there belong to PlantAge, an association that grows bio-vegan vegetables—that means they don't use biodynamic fertilizers. And back here is the medicinal herb garden of Flamingo e.V., where women plant healing herbs together. Alina from PlantAge and Anuscheh from Flamingo e.V., told us what gardening means to them.
Anuscheh:
A lot goes on in a garden through other sensory organs—which means observing and sensing.
To see how things develop that you sowed yourself, that is something very special.
Then there is also this feeling of: Ok, I have just worked and planted a whole bed here, something is growing here and it also needs water—so there is a connection that forms: coming back and watering and seeing how the plants are doing.
It brings you down a bit anyway, when you have a bit more peace and quiet and can watch the birds—such beautiful moments that come about by chance: you see a squirrel or a woodpecker somewhere. You don't have that otherwise.
With gardening, there's another kind of connection. For example, I know it's really hot now and the plants were watered on Sunday—today is Tuesday—and they'll be watered again tomorrow. But part of me is already thinking, “ahh, maybe I should go back today and water them?” It's such a bond, a mutual care. And other community gatherings don't necessarily have that, like gardening. You also feel needed and responsible. Especially when we talk about people who have experienced trauma, war and violence—which is a topic for Flamingo—this self-empowerment, to be responsible for oneself and to see, ok, but I am also needed and I can also produce my own things. It is also a cycle—who teaches what to whom—knowledge is exchanged—that was very important to us. It is not this paternalistic “we have such and such herbs” but rather “please plant what you think will have a positive effect”.
In any case, our wish was to give women access to alternative medicine—which is totally closed if you don't belong to the privileged group. Because we also wanted to reactivate the knowledge that many women bring with them from their countries of origin, from their ancestors—for example, what did your grandmother take when she had a bad headache? So we collected a lot of stories and that's why we decided to use herbs. Mint, rosemary, for babies and toddlers fennel for stomach aches, sage for sore throats, camomile, thyme—these are the medicinal herbs we decided on.