Gardening With Children

What’s Your Type? (Soil, That Is)

Give any child a bucket and trowel, in a garden, and they will inevitable dig deep into the soil. Add a watering can to this party and you have yourself a mud pie. Besides being fun, making mud pies can help you learn about soil. Soil is simple. There are 3 mineral ingredients: sand, silt, and clay. (A mineral is simply a rock that has worn down over time, and sand, silt and clay are just different sizes of rock remains.) These amounts determine the soil type. The best soil for gardening is a mixture of these three types and a healthy dollop of organic matter—that’s things like decomposed leaves and sticks--that crumbles when you squeeze a clump into a ball. But the best soil for mud pies is a sticky clump that flattens out in a firm, clumpy pancake, indicating a large amount of clay. What’s your soil made of? Let’s find out! You will need these items: a jar, soil, 1 T of dish soap, water, a ruler, marker, and tape. First, sink your shovel carefully into the soil. If you have gone deep enough, you’ll notice the different colored layers of soil. Topsoil will be the first layer you see, about 12-24 inches down (though if you live in a newer subdivision, it could be an inch or less). It is just under the grass and held together by their roots. For this exercise we are focusing on the soil just below the roots of your grass. Fill your jar up 1/3 of the way with your soil sample. Once collected, dump out soil, break up the bigger bits and remove rocks and twigs the best you can. Then, put the soil back in jar, fill the jar up with water, and add a 1 tablespoon of dish soap. Place a tight lid on the top of the jar and then shake the jar unit your heart is content. Find a quiet spot for your experiment to rest. label the new layer “Silt”. The finest layer of soil is the “Clay”. This layer will be on the top of the sand and silt layers and will take up to 48 hours to settle in place. Once all three layers are marked on your jar, take a ruler and measure the height of the soil sample. If you have about 40% sand, 40% silt and 20% clay, you have what many gardeners say is just about perfect soil! Congrats! If you live in Illinois, your sample may come close to this. In Missouri, soils will generally have a LOT more clay! Now that you’re done, pour out all the water and make a “delicious” mud pie! (Just kidding—don’t eat it!) Information and photo for this article was compiled by Valerie Scolarici.

After a minute or so you will notice a first layer forming at the bottom of the jar. Mark this layer with a strip of tape and label it “Sand”. After a few hours, revisit the experiment and

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