Best Soils for Gardening

Vegetables need rich, friable and crumbly soils, called loams. These types of soil should be dark brown in color and have a clean earthy smell not stale or sour. It shouldn’t be too clay or too sandy. Clay and sandy soils can be partially changed to substitute for a rich loam by adding organic matter. Organic matter will help hold more moisture in sandy soils but in clay soils it helps to break up the hard clods and encourages worms. Drainage is important because roots cannot develop, live, and function without a constant supply of oxygen. Even though adding organic matter you may improve soil fertility, manures and plant residues are not balanced fertilizers, and soils require additional fertilizer. There are 16 plant-food elements necessary for the growth of green plants. These elements are: carbon (C), hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), sulfur (S), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mb), boron (B) and chlorine (Cl). In the absence of any one of these essential elements, a plant fails to complete its life cycle.