Are you finding plants wilting in the garden even though you’re watering, pruning, and doing everything right? Or are you looking to work with different types of soil but you’re not sure which is best?
Soil is the basis of plant life and the right type of soil can be the difference between your garden flourishing and failing. Check out our guide to the different types of soil here.
4 Types of Soil
Soil can be classified into four categories. Each soil has its own characteristics, benefits, and uses. However, you should always look to enhance your soil with organic matter, fertilizer, manure, and compost.
1. Sandy Soil
This type of soil is dry, light, and gritty and does not hold water well. Most sandy soil is acidic and lacks a lot of nutrients. Because this soil drains water quickly, in the hot summer months it warms up and dries out quickly.
This is one of the best types of soils to grow vegetables because of the good drainage and because it warms up quickly. However, it doesn’t retain nutrients so you will need to add nutrients throughout the growing season. Adding compost or manure, for example, is an excellent way to enhance sandy soil.
2. Silt Soil
Silt soil is packed with nutrients as it originates from river sediments. It’s one of the best types of soil for gardening as a lot of plants flourish in silt. The particles are medium-sized and therefore retain water quite well but drainage can become a problem.
An issue with silt soil is that it is easily compacted. This becomes a problem with a downpour of rain that can wash it away or if it is continuously walked on. Adding organic matter to create larger clumps of soil can resolve this issue.
3. Clay Soil
This can be a difficult soil for inexperienced gardeners. It’s very heavy and holds a lot of nutrients which is good. However, it also holds a high amount of water and drains very slowly.
This means that it remains very moist and wet in winter and dries out and cracks in summer. Clay soil is useful for growing crops such as wheat but needs to be amended with organic matter.
4. Loam Soil
This is a mixture of the three previous different types of soil: sand, silt, and clay. The combination works to create a fertile, rich soil that offsets the negative characteristics of the three soils on their own. There is always a dominant component that can make this type of soil a sandy loam or clay loam.
This is absolutely one of the best types of soil for plants and gardening and experienced gardeners and beginners alike will love working with it. The mixture of particles holds a lot of nutrients and has excellent drainage – the perfect condition for growing.
The soil is often referred to as ‘agricultural soil’ because of the perfect balance of properties.
Identifying and Improving Your Soil
The first step is identifying the different types of soil you have in your garden. Then you can work to optimize and enhance it. Do you need to make the soil less compact because it’s too silty or add more nutrients because the sandiness doesn’t hold much?
Check out our shop for amazing soil amendment products to turn your soil into a nutrient-rich and fertile field for growing plants.
