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For those who enjoy gardening with plants, shrubs, flowers or vegetables, the one of most important aspect is the quality of your soil. 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.
Soil can be broken down into some relatively straightforward kinds, which, as a beginner in the garden or as someone who’s keen to understand the differences and how these affect plant growth, these should be understood.
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. In order to make clay soil easier to work with, sand could be added to loosen it up. Clay soils that have good drainage are heavy in nutrients, and plants will do very well.
Sand heavy soils are often much thinner and grittier than clay soils, draining well and offering less nutrients for plants 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.
Avoiding chalky soil is sound advice for gardeners because these soils make for poor quality. Chalk soil can contain a lot of stones and it’s often found to be the cause of yellowing leaves as water drains away too quickly and essential nutrients are blocked.
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.
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