It’s there to provide plants with support, nutrition and water: A healthy soil is the foundation for successful gardening. But that it is also the habitat for billions of organisms is something that not even the biologist Bärbel Oftring was aware of for many years. “To me, the ground was a matter of course, something I for a long time didn’t bother with. That, even though it is a fascinating, complex ecosystem that nourishes many animals – just that they aren’t so visible like a forest or meadow,” Oftring says. In an interview, Oftring – the author of a prize-winning book on sustainable soil i…