Landscaping in Mississauga – soil type tests

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Properly preparing your garden soil before you start to plan will save you endless hours and considerable expense in trying to make up for deficiencies later on.  There is a lot you can do to improve the overall quality of your soil, and starting with good soils will also greatly broaden your plant choices.

To find out what type of soil you have in your garden, and determine what you need to improve before planting, start with four basic tests:

  1. check how well the soil drains after a heavy rain or after you have doused it with water from a hose or bucket – for the well balanced soil it should take about one hour for the water to drain: if it takes less – your soil is too sandy; if it takes much longer – your soil is to heavy with clay
  2. for the second test turn over some soil with a spade and see if you can find earthworms in it – consider yourself lucky if your soil contains a lot of these wonderful creatures with digestive systems and enzymes that chemically alter soil components in plants favour, and whose burrowing activities significantly improve soils drainage and aeration; if you cannot find any worms, this means that you need to  improve your soil to attract them.
  3. additionally you can do a test discussed in our previous blog entry

Landscaping Mississauga – knowing the soil type

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Plants grow in a variety of soils from Yukon tundra to Wasaga beaches; most individual plants, however, do well only in particular types of soil.  Thus, a crucial first step in designing a low maintenance garden is to evaluate your soil and the kinds of plants that grow best in it.

Sand and clay represent two extreme soil conditions. Clay soil consists of tiny particles packed together so tightly that water has difficulty seeping through.  Dense and heavy clay tends to block the spread of roots and may ultimately suffocate them; yet, the clay soil is usually loaded with nutrients because they have little opportunity to wash away.

Sandy soil contains large, loose-fitting particles that constantly shift. It has many air pocket for water to drain through and ample room for roots to spread.

Although you can find plants suitable for clay or sandy soil, you can greatly expand your selection by improving the soil with organic matter.  Your goal should be to create soil that drains within an hour after heavy rain, crumbles fairly easily in your hand, and is full of nutrients.  You can also buy a soil-testing kit from your local garden centre or hardware store and test your soil for acidity (pH scale) and key nutrients, such as nitrogen (for leaf and stem growth), phosphorus ( for root development and seeds formation) and potassium (that enhances plants vigor and resistance to diseases.  The majority of plants in the Greater Toronto Area will flourish in soils with pH ranging between 6 and 7, which is mildly acid to neutral.

Follow the steps below to test your soil:

soil type testing step 1.Step 1:

To get a representative sample of soil, mix trowefuls of soil from different parts of the garden together and put a small amount of soil in the kit’s test tube.

 

soil type 2Step 2:

Add the required amount of indicator fluid to the collected soil; gently shake the tube, and wait for the content to settle.

 

soil type 3Step 3:

Compare the tube to the test kit’s colour chart.  The more expensive your kit is the more accurate information on your soil conditions will you be able to derive.

 

soil type 4Step 4:

If your soil’s pH is too low, add lime to raise the level; on the other hand, to lower teh pH level, work powdered sulfur or wood ashes into the soil.  See the next week’s blog entry for details how to improve the soil condition.