Soil

The Perfect Dirt

Although perfect dirt is a joy, struggling with imperfect soil is one of gardening’s greatest frustrations. Ideal dirt makes gardening easier. Plants grow better and maintenance is more straightforward.

What is the best soil? Perfect dirt is referred to as loam. Ideal earth should have a nice, crumbly feel with a chocolate color. Loam has a balanced texture with a correct amount of water and nutrients. After a rain, perfect soil will remain moist, not soggy. The drainage is good and it contains an ample supply of organic matter including healthy earthworms and other beneficial organisms.

Soil Types

Texture

The factor with one of the most major affects on the physical properties of dirt is the texture. The individual particle size of dirt’s construction signifies its texture. Loam is not actually one type of texture, but an appropriate balance of all three main kinds.

• Sand – Earth that is sandy has larger particles with more space between them. It drains the quickest, but needs more fertilizer. The overall sensations are light and dusty. It creates no clods and warms up the quickest in the spring.
• Silt – In between sand and clay is silt. With a medium particle size, it contains average levels of organic matter. Very dusty when dry, silt will rarely form clods. It also has a high erosion risk.
• Clay – With the smallest particle size, clay holds the most nutrients and moisture. This leads to poor drainage and reduced aeration. As a very heavy soil, clay compacts easily, is cement-like when dry, and very slow to warm up in the spring.

pH

The pH of your ground has a strong impact on the chemistry and nutrient content. Improper pH results in nutrients being completely locked out of the soil solution and unavailable to the plant roots. The ideal pH range is between 6 and 8. You can test your yard with litmus paper kits found at most garden centers. Discovering the best acidity will greatly affect the fertility of your garden.

The Layers

The soil in a typical garden is made up of five layers.

• Organic Top Layer – A thin layer of decomposing plant material. In a freshly plowed garden or new yard, this layer is mostly nonexistent.
• Topsoil – The best layer of soil, it is darker and full of nutrients.
• Subsoil – Lighter in color than the topsoil with less nutrients. Reserve water for plants is stored in this level.
• Parent Material – Rubble that has not been transitioned into true dirt.
• Bedrock – Solid rock, usually too deep down to be found in average yard digging.

You want your depth from the top layer to the bedrock to be as deep as possible. If you find an area of your garden where you hit bedrock quickly, it is extremely difficult to improve this depth. It is better to create a raised bed or leave that part of the yard for a shed or a low maintenance groundcover.

Ground Management

Basic management consists of making your ground as much like loam as possible and then maintaining it to keep the correct consistency.

The number one best method to achieving the perfect dirt is through adding organic matter. Proper composting and mulching, along with appropriate additives, will help create the desirable loam texture. Some areas will be more difficult than others and may ultimately need additional soil added or a raised bed. Selecting the appropriate types of plants for your garden’s inherent texture and type will also help.

Improving the pH is relatively easy and can affect your garden more dramatically than any other kind of treatment. Once you have begun to mix organic matter into your yard, working to improve the texture, the next step is pH. Start by testing to determine the exact pH reading. Different areas of your yard may have different numbers, so test a variety of regions. If you discover your soil is acidic, you will need to add lime and if it is alkaline, you will need to add sulfur.