Your taste in landscaping might run to flowers, vegetables or lush green lawns, but if you don’t take time to identify your soil type, your gardening results could be less than optimal. Soil types in San Antonio will vary by location. Additions can improve it, but first you need to know just what you have.
Clay Soil
If your soil turns hard and cracks in dry weather, what you’ve got is clay. This type of soil drains poorly. When not sun baked into brick-like solidity, it can quickly morph into a pit of mud. Its dense composition can dry, drown or suffocate plant roots, but it does hold nutrients in place.
If you can’t identify this type of soil by sight alone, add some water to a handful and roll it between your hands. You’ll find that clay soil will retain its shape quite well.
Sandy Soil
In contrast to the clay variety, sandy soil will never turn hard. In fact, most of it isn’t hard enough. Its sieve-like structure allows water to run through quickly, washing out necessary nutrients and starving thirsty plants of needed moisture.
Sandy soil will feel gritty to the touch, and no amount of pressure will induce it to hold a shape for long. Although the addition of organic material can vastly improve its texture, you can count on having to add it often.
Silty Soil
It surpasses clay at draining water and outrivals sand at holding nutrients, but silt lacks sufficient humus content to hold itself together. Silty soil, a common feature of flood plains, tends to blow up into dust storms when dry and wash away quickly when wet. It can make good farmland, but any organic matter it might contain tends to break down rapidly.
Although silt will turn to dust when dry, the addition of water will impart to its flour-like consistency an almost soapy texture.
Loamy Soil
The choice of farmers and landscaping experts alike, loam contains the optimal proportions of sand, silt and clay to facilitate the retention of water, air and vital nutrients. Although it may not be as malleable as sand, it will never harden into brick or blow away like silt. When considering lawn care improvements in your San Antonio garden, loam is the soil to emulate.
Upgrading Your Less-than-Perfect Soil
If your soil type is less than ideal, the right organic matter can make everything right again. Your lawn care specialist at ABC Home & Commercial Services in San Antonio knows how to turn your inadequate soil into loam, so give him a call today. You’ll be glad you did, and your lawn will thank you tomorrow.