Gardening Soil and Their Many Types
Soil type is one of the most important parts of gardening, especially if you love your plants, vegetables and blooming floral displays. Soil is never straightforward due to its changeable properties from one place to another, and this being the case, gardeners have to be selective about what they choose to grow.
New gardeners and people wanting to learn the key types of differing soil could do well to remember the basic descriptions of soil.
The first kind of soil we’re talking about here is clay soil. Clay soils are called so because they are heavy in clay content, which makes them heavy, sticky and often wetter than other soils. Clay soils are prone to poor drainage because of the lack of air and therefore become waterlogged easily. Loosening up clay soil can be achieved by the addition of sand, otherwise it can be hard to work. Well drained clay soil will make vegetation grow superbly due to the remarkable levels of plant nutrients in clay compounds.
Sandy soil is the exact opposite of clay soil being well draining and lower in plant nutrients. Sandy soil with a good organic matter content should be able to hold enough moisture and nutrients to make it very successful as a growing medium.
Finally, chalky soil is a gardener’s nightmare and if possible it should be avoided if you’re a keen gardener. Soil with a high alkaline chalk content usually contains many stones that often lead to dry soil and it also doesn’t let plants get the nutrients they need.
The main kinds of soil then to look out for are listed here, but you can get others like silty and peaty. Most can be used by the gardener, however chalky soils require so much additional input such as fertilizers and organic matter that they can seem pointless to work.