We discussed in part 1 of this series the importance of location, sunlight and soil for your garden. In this part, we will focus on your soil. Your garden soil is a crucial element to successful gardening. Some garden books I have read have often done more to overwhelm me in this area than help me! There is a lot of chemistry and scientific stuff involved. You may be interested in that, but for the average gardener, we just want the basic facts and then get planting! Right!?
This can be a complex matter, but I will try to keep things simple here. Knowing your soil and a few simple things will help you greatly when planning your garden. Sometimes preparation is the longest but most important part. In the case of soil a little bit of preparation can go a long way in making or breaking your success as a gardener.
You probably already have a location planned and if so, take a look at what is already there. Is it barren? Full of weeds? Or supporting a lush healthy lawn or other plants? Chances are if the existing vegetation is thriving, your garden will thrive also. If it is not, and you still want that location, you may have to amend the soil to improve the condition of it. Doing this will usually cost more time and more money, but if you have no other location in your yard then this can still work for you. Don’t lose hope yet!
What Kind of Soil Do I Have?
The soil in you yard has three parts to it: clay, sand and silt. Ideally you want your soil to have an equal ratio of all three. This is called loam. The equal combination of all three provides ideal drainage for your plants.
Why do you need to know this? Knowing how much of each part you have will help determine what you need to amend your soil properly, as well as help you determine what kind of garden will work best for you.
Soil Drainage
How quickly or slowly your soil drains is an important factor for your garden. Once you have your location planned out, you will want to do a few things to make sure your soil is going to work for you. Before you go ahead and have your husband dig up the whole plot, dig up a small area ( he will appreciate it if you need to change your mind 
. When that soil is unearthed you can get a fairly good idea what kind of soil you have. One initial clue to good soil is if it is dark and you see earthworms. If you see earthworms, then it is a pretty strong indication that you have all of the beneficial microbes and bacteria that make for healthy soil and strong plants. The more worms you see the better! They aren’t gross, they are good!
The type of soil is directly related to how well your soil will drain. If you want scientifically accurate results, then bring some soil to your local county extension office to have it tested. If you want to keep it simple and basic (and free!) then perform this simple test:
Grab a handful of medium-dry soil and look at its texture. How does it feel? Sandy, like clay, or crumbly? Squeeze it into a ball, what happens? It should be one of these things:
1. When you open your hand it will hold its shape, and when you poke it with your finger tip, it crumbles. This is called loam, and this is the best soil you could ask for! It is usually dark in color also. Loam will generally look like this:
Photo from obtained from ThriftyFun.com
2. If it stays in a ball and doesn’t change, then you have clay. Clay soil is usually light in color, sometimes pink and difficult to dig through. You may notice this area is very compact and wet. Clay is nutrient rich, but slow draining. You will need to amend the soil to improve your drainage. Soil that drains too slow will cause you roots in your plant to become water logged and rot or mold. Clay will look like this:
Picture obtained from Thriftyfun.com
3. If it falls apart as soon as you open your hand, you have sandy soil. You probably already noticed lots of rocks in this area too. Sand drains too quickly and will not retain much needed moisture or nutrients. You may want to consider doing raised beds if you have this kind of soil. Sorry I couldn’t find a picture of this one!
Still Not Sure About Your Soil?
If the above test didn’t satisfy your curiosity, or you want to know more, here is another simple test that will help you determine what kind of soil you are dealing with. This is a great project for your children:
Take a glass jar with a lid and fill it 1/4 of the way with soil from your garden area and put in 1 cup of water. Try to remove all rocks, sticks, pebbles etc. Make sure you have some space at the top so it will mix well, put the lid on and shake it up for a minute or two. Let it sit for an hour or two and come back and check it. If you are like me, set a timer to go off or some type of reminder or you will completely forget and have to start over again.
Once it has sat, you will see rings where the different types of soil are settled indicated by rings in the jar. You may or may not have all of these components in your soil. This picture will give you an idea of what to look for.
Ideally you want your jar to have a some sand, then light colored clay, lots of dark colored soil in the middle (loam) and some floating at the top. If this is what you see, you have good soil and should not have to do anything the first year to amend it.
If your jar has a large amount of clay at the bottom you will need to be lighten it up with organic matter such as sphagnum peat moss to improve drainage. If there is a large amount of clay, you may want to consider doing raised beds which are just as productive and just as fun!
If your jar has lots of sand settled to the bottom, then your soil is too thin and will not hold water. This soil will need to be thickened with compost or manure and be mulched really good to hold in moisture. Sandy soil is also rocky, so it may make it difficult to rototill the area. Again, you can do raised beds which I will discuss more in depth later.
The Ph Factor
This is the last consideration in testing your soil. I hope you are staying with me on this!
Ph is the acidity level of you soil and will affect how your plants grow. Ph is measured on a scale of zero to fourteen. Zero is very acidic and fourteen is very alkaline. Most plants will grow in slightly acidic soil, which is 6.5-7.0 but some plants will require more or less depending on what it is. Knowing the PH can help you decide where to plant what and how to feed it to get the best results. Generally if your Ph is lower than five or it is higher than eight, plants won’t grow as well as they should. When you get your plants, usually there are planting instructions attached to it or located on the seed package. Don’t throw these out! These will usually tell you the Ph your plant likes to have.
Every home and garden center carries Ph test kits. These kits are inexpensive and worth doing to eliminate the guesswork in gardening. Generally they look something like this:
Conclusion
So we have gone through the basics of your soil, and after doing these tests you should have a pretty good idea of what kind of soil you have. Make sure you keep track of these results. Now would be a good time to start a garden notebook. Keeping good notes this year will prevent you from having to start over next year. Keep it simple, a notebook or 3 ring binder with loose leaf paper will do!
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