dirt vrs soil

earth

Along time ago, back in Jurassic Period when I first began landscaping, a very wise man corrected me when I referred to soil as 'dirt'. His argument was that since soil, in his opinion, was a thing of such reverence and importance to mislabel it as dirt was, well, an insult. Not to mention that dirt is not soil and soil is not dirt.

So, if I find myself listening to someone on a gardening video puffing along hurling instructions and telling folks to cover with dirt I just cringe.
OK, you could argue, "Randi, you're a nitpicking old bag", and you'd be correct but I still will never call it dirt.

I guess this thought came to me today as I was calculating how many days before I'll be back at 'work' in the 'real greenhouses'...soon. And I suppose my biggest customer pet peeve is the LAZINESS of the public to even try to understand that the common name their granny called a dianthus in Oklahoma isn't necessarily the same employed by their other granny in Arkansas. So yeah, botanical names ARE important, especially to me, the slob trying to find the plant you're gassing on about. And boy, I wish you could see my expression when they ask me for a bag of dirt!