Your potting soil’s important minerals
Look up the word “vermiculite” in Henry Beard and Roy McKie’s hilarious “A Gardener’s Dictionary” and you’ll see it defined as an “obscure order of nuns devoted to gardening.” In fact (as opposed to in fun), it is a silicate material similar to mica that is sometimes found in the potting mixes gardeners use to start seeds in spring. The word, from Latin, means “breeds worms.” I think I can explain that. When my sisters
