Soil Structure for Home Gardeners
There are three Elements of Healthy Soil;
- Soil structure –
- Nutrients –
- Biology –
In this post we discuss the element of soil structure.
Soil Structure definition: soil structure is the arrangement of solid soil particles (mineral and organic matter), grouped together in aggregates depending on the shape, size, strength, and extent of adhesion to another.
The perfect soil structure is provided with a 40-40-20 percent mix of sand, silt and clay. This is what is known as loam and gives the soil a granular structure. Soil with a granular structure has a number of advantages as outlined here;
- holds water and nutrients well
- good drainage
- good aeration
- good plant root system development
- soil is easy to work
- soil warms up quickly in spring
- good biological activity in the soil
- soil resists erosion and compaction
The best garden soils to host nutrients has an additional 5% to 10% humus, or rotted organic material. Having the additional organic matter (like leaf mould, compost, or well-rotted manure) to the soil improves the soil texture or structure, allows for retaining more water, and makes host of available nutrients to plants.
Clay, sandy and silty soils rarely have an ideal structure. They can be improved, however, by working in amendments