What Is Good Garden Loam?

When soil requirements are specified for various kinds of gardening needs, reference is frequently made to “good soil,” “ordinary garden loam,” “good garden soil,” or “good garden loam soil.”

For example, a pot soil mixture for fuchsias calls for two parts “good garden loam.” Exactly what kind of soil is meant? What is “good garden loam soil?”

dark crumbly garden loam soilPin

We might say the soil type raises a good crop of lettuce, beans, beets, carrots, or other vegetables. Or that produces fine zinnias, undemanding cosmos, or marigold blossoms.

But that isn’t definite enough.

Loamy Soils Are Built Over Time

When you examine a handful of “good garden loam.” The Loamy soil color is dark, mellow, and crumbly in texture, soft and moist to the touch like peat moss.

All the soil components have been long in the making, full of organic matter. Countless ages ago, the sun, the wind, the air, and the water started disintegrating the earth’s rocky crust.

Lichens and mosses got a foothold in the crumbly fragments in the crevices of the rocks… lived, died, and decayed.

As centuries passed, soil formation continued. More rock crumbled to make mineral particles of soil, and more plant and animal residue mixed with it, the organic material part.

It became a living thing teeming with minute organisms such as helpful bacteria. Forest soils were found to be different from grassland soils, and swampland soils differed from dryland soils.

Part of this was because of the very nature of the plant life above it (which in time was added to the soil), and part was because of the size and kind of rock fragments.

Related: Garden Soil vs. Potting Soil – What Is the Difference?

Soils Get a Number Grade

Soil scientists use many terms to designate or classify the various kinds of soil. These soils contain very fine clay particle sizes of disintegrated rock. It is known as heavy, cold soil and is slow to warm up in the spring.

It can hold much water, which is an asset during dry seasons as roots get the supply of moisture for a long time. However, this is harmful during wet years.

A baked crust forms on top if one does not cultivate such soil after each rain. When worked while too wet, hard brick-like lumps form

Sandy soils are called light, warm soils, although they are heavier than clay soils by the actual weight. They contain gritty rock particles much larger than those found in clay.

Sandy soil is easy to work with. They warm up quickly in the spring.

This is important for not only can a gardener start garden activities sooner, but the helpful bacteria commence work sooner, and plant food is made available earlier.

A disadvantage is that sandy soil is not retentive of water moisture. Water not only pours through it as easily as a sieve, but it also takes much of the plant food with it.

The combination of clay soil and sandy soil makes loamy soils. If the clay is predominant, it is known as clay loam.

If there are more sand particles than clay, it is known as sandy loam topsoil. The most desirable soil contains approximately equal amounts.

“Good garden loam soil” must be porous enough to provide good drainage and permit air to enter, yet be spongy enough to retain an ample supply of moisture.

Before buying soils, loam compost, organic compost, mulch, peat, soil amendment, or any gardening material, always check the company behind it. Reputable companies stand by their products and usually give excellent results.

Conditions must be favorable for the growth of helpful soil bacteria. Humus is added to loam to provide these things. Its value can hardly be overestimated.

Related: Banana Peel and Egg Shell Fertilizer?

Humus is Natural

The technical composition of a good loam soil includes sand, silt, and clay ratio of:

  • 52% sand
  • 28%-50% silt
  • 7%-27% clay

But even if loam consists of sand silt, clay, and silt soil, it does not mean you can create one by merely combining them. The process should involve the addition of organic matter every year.

Humus is decomposed plants and animal waste. This organic matter occurs naturally in forests and grasslands where leaves, twigs, grasses, weeds, plants, green manure, and other material accumulate and gradually decay.

A little is added each year, and a similar amount is used each year, making organic soil rich with nutrients.

All garden refuse except diseased plants, all leaves, and other material should not be discarded but piled and allowed to decay thoroughly.

Well rotted manure, which serves as good fertilizers and soil added in layers to such piles of refuse and kept moist, will hasten the process.

When all is well decayed, spread a layer (the thicker, the better) of this humus over the vegetable garden and borders and mix it well with the topsoil.

Loam (a mixture of clay soil and sandy soil) combined with plenty of humus makes ‘“good garden loam soils.”

Clay + sandy soil = loam
Clay + sandy soil + humus = good garden loam

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