![]() What’s good about sandy soil & what’s bad about it? It is always hard to know which kind of soil you have without doing a soil test, but your local county extension service will help you in doing a basic soil test to let you know what particular type of clay soil you have. Is this bad? Well it all depends on your soil and what you are trying to grow, sandy soils are best for plants that like to have their roots dry out quickly, but it can also be adjusted to support plants that do not. This simply means that water moves quickly through the soil and air replaces it quickly.īefore we go into too much detail, a sandy soil will replace water with air more quickly, and this is why sandy soils dry out faster than clay soils. As you can imagine there is a lot more air space between the rounded sandy soil particles and this larger amount of air under the soil surface is what gives your soil the characteristic of being well-drained. If you imagine a jar filled with poker chips, this is more how a clay soil would appear when magnified. ![]() If you imagine a glass jar filled with ping pong balls, this is what a truly sandy soil looks like under magnification. What does it mean that you have sandy soil? A sandy soil is composed of many irregular to rounded tiny grains of sand, as opposed to the many tiny plate-like soil particles that make up a clay soil. If you have clay soils, click here to read about working with clay soils. They may require more water, more fertilizer and more amending, but they are much easier to work with and many plants prefer this type of soil. Sandy soils offer both benefits and disadvantages when compared to clay soils. So the question is: how, exactly do you learn to love sandy soil? Read on to learn more about what sandy soil is, why you should be glad you have it and how you can make it even better.įirst, things first, how do you know you have sandy soil? Does water quickly drain through your soil with puddles a rarity even after hard rains? Is it difficult to squeeze the soil into a ball? It these things are true then you probably have sandy soil. Trust me, you can love your clay or sandy soil, it just takes a bit of knowledge and a bit of elbow grease. If you have clay or sandy soils it will take a bit more input from you before you love your soil. If you have silt or loam soils you are sitting pretty, gardening will be easy and you will love your soil. The basic categories are clay, silt, loam and sand with constant variation within each of these classes. The Dirt on Dirt - Sand will teach you about sandy soils, why you should love them, and how to make them even better. ![]() ![]() Sandy soil is often cursed by gardeners but sand can be a wonderful thing. ![]()
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