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