how do I know what soil type I have?

bit of a thick question I am sure but to me it is just brown (I am a COMPLETE beginner here sorry)

so how do I know what sort of soil it is? it doesn't seem claylike, just sort of brown and crumblyish, soil like really

 

1. Dig a hole = about a foot wide and deep. Pour a couple of buckets of water into it. How quickly does the water drain away?

Quickly = free draining soil, possibly sandy. Slow = dense subsoil and/or clay soil, might need drains adding. Clay will stick to your boots in Winter / after rain too.

2. Take a handful and squeeze it hard. Does it retain its shape (clay) or just trickle through your fingers (sand), or crumble (that's Loam - full marks for that!)

Are there a lot of stones? They are a nuisence for growing Carrots and Parsnips.

3. Acid / Alkaline. Do people grow Rhododendrons near you? Are Hydrangeas Blue, rather than Pink? If so its acid, otherwise probably alkaline. You can get a testing kit for a more accurate analysis.

4. When you bug the hole did you find half-a-brick, or any other indication that builders have just buried their junk? That's soil-from-hell - and you need to get all the rubbish out.

5. Improving the soil. Add "humus" - Farm Yard Manure (well rotted), Mushroom compost, spent hops etc. and/or your own home-made-compost from your own compost heap

 

fantastic Kristen thank you.

I will give that a go at the weekend. the hydrangeas seem to be a pinky blue mix I think if I remember right.

at a guess it is sandy crumbly. there are quite a lot of stones in it in some parts but the actual flowerbeds aren't bad. I don't think there has been any building work other than our conservatory last year since it was built in the 1930s and there were no houses here before these so hopefully we won't have lots of rubble. I think the soil does need some compost on it though, especially if I am trying to give it a new lease of life, it looks a bit old and tired really.

compost heap is a good point actually - I want to build a little one down the bottom of the garden, we don't currently have one but my parents always had a really impressive one which was fantastic so I ought to add that to my list.

 

Check if your council is doing special offers on compost bins - e.g. the Dalek type. Most were a year or two back, I think that now most are NOT - but yours might be :thumb:

 

Some really good info from kristen there, when I was studying garden science (pretty basic in the grand scheme of things) a few years back now, there is a scale of soil types from very sandy to heavy clay (obviosuly!) and the test was called 'the spit and rub test'... I'll let you imagine what that involved :WINK1:

- Luke -[hr]
keinnaf, I would certainly recommend having a compost heap, we sifted ours out last week and got some lovely stuff out of it... very rewarding.

I too have sandy soil... good for carrots... bad for water retention! 'humus' will help, as kristen has already mentioned!

 

Hi Kiennaf,

Looking at the areas Geology, you seem to be on Eocene sands, so its more than likely to be an acid soil. If it is then on the uncultivated local land, I would expect to see gorse & silver birch trees.

 

thanks Lukenotts and Ziggy.

I never thought about looking at the local geology - embarrassing really considering I have a degree in it!

my husband has just informed me there is a compost bin at the bottom of the garden which looks like it hasn't been touched for a while so he will investigate at the weekend.

I love silver birch trees, hmm

 

Sorry, I meant to put a link in last post to Southampton uni's geology pages,

http://www.soton.ac.uk/~imw/bourne.htm

Have a look around the rest of the site, just click on the pics to enlarge, not just geol but history of the area too, I love it.

I'll see if I can find the page about our Tsunami & post that under a new thread on Non Gardening Chat.

 

I hate to condract those those more knowledgeable than me, but I wouldn't count on geology records to tell you the soil conditions. I have a little plot of land in the countryside. I planted some apple trees there. Within a few yards I went through peat, then heavy nasty clay, then sandy loamy stuff. All within about 20 yards.

I also set about doing a pH map of the place by taking readings at approx 10 yard squares. I found patches that were acid at pH 5.5 (not much grows in that bit) and patches that were alkaline at about pH 8, and various readings in between, with the bulk of it being around 6.5 to 7. All this was in one small part. The grass and wild flowers in the other section are completely different, thus suggesting that again for the sake of a few yards the soil type is different again.

The local records have it as former heath land, so in theory it should be peat all over I guess, but I guess it depends as much on how the land has weathered, and what previous occupants have done with it.

 

Too right Dave,

I was only going for a general overview of the area, a bit of remote sensing

Never be worried about contradicting, thats what Gardeners do (and anglers )

The PH could vary enormously from one patch to another, especially with a 1930s house that would have built with lime mortar, the mortar would have been knocked up on site so there is probably an area that is really limey.

The thatcher down the road from where I used to live dug his garden right out & found a big circular white patch. It was where they had mixed the lime to build his house.

I love putting old lime mortar into the veg patch as not only does it raise the ph, it has sand which helps the drainage and it means i'm not sending a usefull material to landfill

 

thanks - we did a fieldtrip to Dorset from my uni (Oxford Brookes) but I can't remember much of it. will have a look at the southampton stuff.

I can see why soils would vary in a small area though because they are affected by so many factors. this gardening lark is complicated