What's Your Soil IQ?
An Educational Quiz That Will Turn Your Thumb Green!
Get the dirt on dirt! It might not be the most glamorous part of our gardens, but our soil is the foundation that everything beautiful and useful grows upon! The gardeners that are really worth their salt know that not all soil is created the same, but every gardener can have great soil IQ by learning about soil types and how to fix them to get that ideal mix that you need for a healthy garden. How much do you know about the important stuff in your ground and containers?
Get the dirt on dirt! It might not be the most glamorous part of our gardens, but our soil is the foundation that everything beautiful and useful grows upon! The gardeners that are really worth their salt know that not all soil is created the same, but every gardener can have great soil IQ by learning about soil types and how to fix them to get that ideal mix that you need for a healthy garden. How much do you know about the important stuff in your ground and containers?
What is NOT an important part of soil?
The important building blocks for soil are Air, Water, and Organic materials like compost or peat moss. Sand does little except reduce your soil’s air and water holding capacity.
Sand
Air
Water
Organic materials
What is a good way to test your soil to see what type it is?
We won’t hold you back from testing your soil with all your senses, but we can’t recommend that tasting your dirt is very healthy. You can test and see what type of soil you have by looking at it, as well as squeezing it into a ball in your fist and then seeing how it keeps its structure or falls apart Sandy soil will fall apart quickly, while clay soil will remain balled up.
Taste it
Squeeze it into a ball and see how it falls apart
Smell it
You don’t need to test it; all dirt is the same
Which of these is not a type of soil?
Types of soil are normally classified by what they are made of, not what grows in them. While you could have moss in your soil, that’s not your soil type.
Clay
Loamy
Peaty
Mossy
Which is not a difference between Clay and Sandy soil?
Sandy soil is perfect for some plants. Just because it’s a different type of soil doesn’t mean that it can’t grow anything. It just needs extra fertilizer and soil amendments.
Clay soil retains more water
Sandy soil has excellent drainage
Clay soil compacts a lot
Sandy soil can’t grow anything
Why are amendments used in soils?
Amendments are the perfect way to take all of the advantages of your natural soil and fix it up to be perfect for the types of plants that you want to grow. It is a great investment of effort to make a great foundation for your garden to build off of.
Gardeners like the extra work so it’s a great make-work project
It can help address the weaknesses of your natural soil
Plants can only grow in absolutely perfect loamy soil
Garden centers like selling you useless things to spend your money on
For a sandy soil, you could consider adding any of these except:
Your sandy soil will already have lots of space in it for air pockets, but adding organic material or shredded bark can help to add to your soil in areas that it is lacking.
Gravel for better air pockets in the soil
Shredded bark for better water retention
Organic matter such as compost or peat moss to boost nutrition content
What is one main reason that gardens fail?
Freak weather events might impact your garden, but they’re pretty rare! One of the most common reasons for a garden to struggle is building on a foundation of poor soil.
Gardeners didn’t buy the right brand-name products
Gardeners spent too much time outside enjoying their gardens
Poor soil conditions
Freak weather events
What can you do if your soil isn’t the perfect type?
There’s no need to stress over poor soil, mixing in some amendments to fill in the quality of your soil is all you need to do to fix it!
Cry over it
Use soil amendments to fix it
Completely replace all of your soil with bagged potting soil
Move to a new house with better soil
You got {number correct}/{number of questions} correct answers
You might need a bit of help telling your dirts from your soils, but that’s ok! We’re here to help you, especially if you’re a little lost
You got {number correct}/{number of questions} correct answers
You know your basics but might not be a walking soil encyclopedia yet. Your garden is ready to go with a good foundation and you’re ready to learn along the way!
You got {number correct}/{number of questions} correct answers
You’re a soil genius! You’ve got the difference between sandy and silty and loamy figured out blindfolded and your garden is full of healthy soil nutrients for your plants to enjoy.