How To Know What Type Of Garden Soil You Have

How do I know what type of garden soil I have?

It's really best to have the soil tested. But, if you want to do a simple test on your own, you can take a handful of soil and squeeze it together. If it breaks apart, crumbles nicely, it's usually a lone soil, which is high in organic matter. And that's an ideal soil for most plant growth. If you squeeze the soil and it holds together, almost like a clay pot would and sticks, it's very high in clay content. And that's good because it holds nutrients, however it's a poor soil for drainage. And we lose a lot of herbaceous perennials, particularly in poorly drained soils. If you take the soil, and you squeeze it together and it breaks apart, and it almost feels -- you can sometimes feel a coarseness to the texture of it. That's usually a sandy soil. Sandy soil is great for drainage, however it doesn't hold a lot of nutrients. And it's usually low in organic matter content.