Backyard living 101: What kind of soil do I have?

August 17, 10:10 AMBackyard Living ExaminerJane Gates

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Backyard Living 101: What kind of soil do I have?

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If you want to grow a successful garden, you need to know what kind of soil you have. Different plants do well in different soils so if you are having a hard time growing a plant even though you are giving it the right amount of light and water, it may be because it is not growing in the soil it needs.

Most soils can be amended and given more of whatever is missing to make it ideal for growing plants. The best way to have a successful garden is to tailor your plants to the kind of soil you already have. This is one reason that it is usually easier to grow native gardens since you are using plants naturally adapted to your native growing medium without the extra labor and expense of having to modify the soil.

Most soils are a combination of soil types that pretty much fit into three basic drainage categories:

• Clay is a fine particle soil that dries very hard and turns sticky when wet. Clay soil tends to bind tightly and drain poorly.

• Sandy or rocky soil is made of large particles that drain quickly and lose nutrients easily.

• Loam is composed of silt or humus, sand and clay in roughly equal parts and is a rich, medium-draining soil.

Other things to keep in mind are how acid or alkaline your soil is – also know as your soil’s pH. Most acid soil has evolved with a lot of organic matter breaking down and composting into it. Forests and bogs are often filled with acid soils and there are plants that need high acid to grow well. Heather, blueberries and azaleas are examples of acid-loving plants.

Alkaline soils are formed with little organic matter and are usually heavy on minerals from the wearing away of rocks and calcium. Plants like many cacti and barberries are examples of alkaline lovers.

The hydrangea or 'Snowball Bush' is famous as a litmus test for soils as it usually blooms pink in base (alkaline) soils and turns bright blue in acid soils.

You can have a soil test done to find out what kind of soil you have by sending samples to your local agricultural department. You can also buy inexpensive soil testing kits that will help check things like pH. By squeezing a handful of moist soil you can get an idea of how it holds together. If it forms a tight ball, it is likely to have a lot of clay. Moist soil squeezed in the palm of your hand that crumbles apart is probably mostly sand. And if the soil loosely holds a shape, it is likely to be more loam.

Armed with the knowledge of your soil type, you can choose your plants wisely. Planting the right plants in the right soil is likely to make your garden thrive with the minimum of effort.