How can you really know your soil is alive, biologically active, and not sterile? Well, the answer is brief. Yes, really! Soil your undies, that is, bury a pair of your 100% cotton undies in an area of your garden or cropland where you are curious about its biological activity and wait about 60 days to see what happens and if the undies decompose through time due to the microbial life in the soil.

Elizabeth Mullins Baldwin and Meagan Dyer of Virginia Cooperative Extension's (VCE) Page County Office share with Jeff Ishee and Mary Sketch Bryant how they first learned about the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service's ‘Soil Your Undies Challenge’ and how they have incorporated the demonstration into their ongoing soil health educational programming efforts with farmers, gardeners, 4-H youth, school children, and anyone who is interested in enhancing soil life through core soil health-building principles.

To learn more about the "Soil Your Undies' demonstration and the overall educational programming of Virginia Cooperative Extension in Page County, Virginia, and the surrounding area, please visit https://page.ext.vt.edu/

Learn more about the Virginia Soil Health Coalition, pledge your support for soil health, and ways you might celebrate National Soil Health Day at https://www.virginiasoilhealth.org/ and https://www.4thesoil.org

4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.

Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.

To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today’s program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.