Earth Day 2017
Archive for year: 2017
Soil Series – Who is this Tom?
Soil Series – Who is this Tom? segment #2023
“Dirt is the stuff underneath your fingernails, whereas soil is an engineered composition of organic matter (sand, clay and organic matter) designed specifically for your project’s grow media and geographic location.”
– Tom McConkey
So who is this Tom McConkey?
Before we start talking about “soil”, we want to introduce our specialist. Denbow is pleased to be offering this series of interviews with one of our valued partners, Tom McConkey. Tom is highly skilled in landscape and our local soil and has been in the field for over two decades. Some of his specialty areas include Green Roofs, Urban Agriculture, Bio-Swales, Storm Water Management, Sustainable Turf Grass Practices.
Tom attended Carelton University and earned a degree to become an English teacher but as fate would have it, Tom decided to take a position at a local landscape company instead.
Early on there he got involved in the company’s compost practices. Tom became very interested in not only selling the compost, but understanding the composting process.
At the time, composting was a new aspect of the landscape industry so Tom was given the freedom to get to really “dig in,” so to speak.
During his early years, Tom was able cultivate his knowledge and skills while being mentored by Dr. Bill Herman of Pacific Soil Analysis. Dr. Herman is a soil specialist who instructed Tom in both the composting process and more importantly, the beneficial use of organic matter as it pertains to the British Columbia Lower Mainland network.
Denbow hopes this interview series with expert, Tom McConkey serves Landscape architects, city managers and landscapers as well as the average joe gardener in understanding the complexity of engineered soil and how it can assist their projects.
A New Soil Series Called “Ask Tom”
“Ask Tom”
A new series by Denbow
At Denbow, we know how important soil is. Some people might suggest that soil is just dirt but we’ve learned that soil is incredibly complex while the success of any environmental infrastructure depends heavily upon it. Soil is the most important variable of any growing medium, whether farm, garden or landscape. In our new series, “Ask Tom, we are going to take a careful look at soil. 
“Ask Tom” will be an interview series with Tom McConkey, a local soil and landscape specialist who has over 25 years of landscape and soil analysis under the mentorship of Dr. Bill Herman. Throughout the series, Tom will share his knowledge and experience about soil and help break down the different aspects of soil and the importance for both professionals and laymen.
We’ll ask Tom what he believes is the single most important aspect of soil. With Tom’s help we’ll look at the quality of soil here in the lower mainland of BC. We live in a river delta, so should our soil be good everywhere? (Here’s a hint – it’s not and we’ll let you know why.)
Tom says, “Dirt is the stuff underneath your fingernails, whereas soil is an engineered composition of organic matter (sand, clay and organic matter) designed specifically for your project’s grow medium and geographic location.” As we dive into the different topics, please feel free to ask your questions in the comments or via email/web form. We would love to interact with you once we get things rolling. We want this series to be helpful to those in our geographic region.
Thanks for checking in! We are looking forward to having conversations with Tom and understanding in more depth value of soil as it relates to sustainable development and the environment through urban development. We hope to cover a lot of ground…
