GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Understanding the texture of your garden soil is crucial for successful planting and gardening. Soil texture affects water retention, drainage, aeration, and nutrient ...

MADISON, WI, October 14, 2008 -- The ability to estimate soil texture-by-feel is an important skill that students and registered soil scientists should learn. Many soil properties depend largely on ...

Have you ever watered your garden and noticed the water takes a long time to drain or percolate through the soil? You might want to investigate your soil texture. Anthony Simerlink is a University of ...

If your garden soil turns into a brick when it’s dry or a swamp when it’s wet, the plants aren’t being dramatic—the soil is.

It’s a simple equation: If you want to grow better plants, you first need to understand the soil. “The texture of a soil is its proportion of sand, silt and clay,” said James Cassidy, a soils ...

Soils come in many different colors, described by hue, value, and chroma (Munsell color system). Using the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) online Web Soil Survey (WSS) to discover the ...

Gardeners know a simple truth: the better the soil, the larger the harvest, the brighter the flowers, and the easier the ...

Water evaporates from plant leaves through minuscule holes called stomata. At a global scale, this process — called transpiration — is a key component of the terrestrial water cycle. When soil is ...

Salts are compounds formed when positively charged cations such as sodium (Na⁺), calcium (Ca²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺) and potassium (K⁺) combine with negatively ...

A soil test should be performed before adding amendments willy-nilly. For example, Epsom salt for roses must be added with care.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Soil is soil, right? In some years, the dirt in your garden yields decent tomatoes and pretty marigolds while in other years nothing much grows. (Maybe ...