The World Beneath Our Feet (the hidden life of soil)

The World Beneath Our Feet is a book to appreciate the world around us, and instead of looking up, it’s time to look down instead!

The ground beneath our feet hums with a staggering abundance of winding roots, interconnecting fungal networks, wriggling creatures and mind-blowing microbial life.

This glittering ecosystem is the single most biodiverse habitat on the planet. Half of all species exist underfoot, and just a handful of soil can contain an entire world! Without soil, there would be no life as we know it.

In this book, soil ecologist Frank Ashwood scratches the surface, and takes us on an eye-opening safari through this precious ecosystem. From ancient forests of New Zealand to vast black soil deposits in China.

Each layer of the pedosphere is a world of its own, each more alien as we travel deeper in to the earth.

To protect worms, practice no-dig gardening. The creature on the cover is a mole, which you can humanely deter on organic lawns (or simply leave them be and use the earth as topsoil!