Spoiled Soil

I'm at Starbucks this morning and no, I don't drink coffee. The barista gives me a sympathetic smile as she hands over a hefty Hefty bag of spent coffee grounds. She too lives in the area and has clay in her backyard instead of real soil. Oh, the pain!

Since first setting foot on the property, I suspected that the soil was less superb (check out the picture of the garden), but I wanted to investigate. I didn't want to install a grey-water recovery system to enrich soil that was no good... So, I did a pretty straightforward test that you can all do at home:

 The Squeeze Test

In general, soils are classified as clay, sandy or loamy. Clay can be nutrient rich, but slow draining. Sand is quick draining, but has trouble retaining nutrients and moisture. Loam is generally considered to be ideal soil because it retains moisture and nutrients but doesn’t stay soggy. To determine your soil type, take a handful of moist soil from your garden, and give it a firm squeeze. Then, open your hand. One of three things will happen:

1. It will hold its shape, and when you give it a light poke, it crumbles. Lucky you—this means you have luxurious loam!
2. It will hold its shape, and, when poked, sits stubbornly in a ball shape in your hand. This means you have clay soil.
3. It will fall apart as soon as you open your hand. This means you have sandy soil.

Look at my impressive souvenir from the squeeze test. This is a ball of petrified clay - so I know I've got even more work ahead of me. If you can learn about your soil’s texture, composition, drainage, pH level and mineral density, you will avoid disappointing results that can occur when your soil is unsuitable to produce even the hardiest of weeds.

I also did a home soil test on 9 separate areas of the garden in order to map the nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and pH levels of the garden. Overall, there were little to no nutrients in the soil - probably because of the poor drainage of clay. Amazingly, the soil was slightly acidic - which many plants like.

Which is why I'm now at Starbucks picking up large soil particles (spent coffee) to introduce into this soil which has the finest clay particles this side of the Mississippi. Coffee grounds are also supposed to be great for growing roses - take note rosarians. So if you've got fine textured soil and would like to fix it for free, go to your local Starbucks and let them know when you'd like to pick up coffee grounds. One caveat: some Starbucks are better than others about follow through and not putting old filters into the mix... but hey, it's a free service.

My next adventure will involve increasing the nutrient levels of the garden. Get ready to enter the odiferous world of composting!