Viewing post #459641 by newbiemomgardener

RickCorey said:>> too much, too soon.

You're right! I just can't shut up once I start typing. It's a character flaw. "Doing" will make everything clearer than "reading", even if you do lose a few more plants the first year.

>> The consistency of the soil where you can or can not stick your finger right away, this is when it isn't wet right?

Mostly right, or it doesn't matter too much.

This would be MUCH easier if we could both take a handful of the same soil, and say "see how that crumbles easily?" or "that nasty stuff is clay, but not the WORST clay I ever saw". Once you have some "happy" beds of your own, you'll know right away when some other soil doesn't come up to the same standard.

Or a neighbor will point with pride to her pampered loam in a raised bed, and roll her eyes at unimproved soil and

To me, the hardest gardening thing to learn by reading is what the heck people mean when they talk about starting seedlings in mix that is "damp but not moist" or "moist but not soggy". For me it took a few years to figure out "NO, I am STILL overwatering those darn seeds!!!"

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Moisture makes the most difference to clay and soil with lots of clay. Clay will be very very hard when dry. If you spend enough time to get clay to accept some moisture, it will become soft, gooey, and sticky. Still pretty difficult to stick a finger into it, until it gets SO wet that it's make like pudding.

Being wet won't make "good" loamy soil much harder or softer. You'll always be able to push a finger deep into great soil, dry or wet.

(If it feels muddy or gooey, it is holding too much water, probably has more clay than is really ideal, and would be improved by better drainage: like more organic matter and more coarse sand.)

Sand is funny. Dry sand is like flour: your whole foot will sink into it easily, like dry sand at the beach. Wet sand is more 'glued together", like sand right at the water's edge - firm enough to walk on. But you can still push a finger into it if you push.

You know it is sand if the water drains right out, fast.

i agree with you, i wish we were neighbors so i can see in person everything that you were describing.. But i thank you very much.. you are very generous in imparting as much information as you can ..