Clays Garden Centre

You probably hear gardeners sandy soil or clay soil when deciding what type of soil your plants will in. Have you ever wondered why there are so many different soils and what is the difference? Although it may seem rather complicated, it is fairly simple and once you understand the basics, you can make and amend the soil for your containers based on the plants you grow. It's like following a recipe for a cake mix, but easier, you do not have to cook!

All soil is composed of broken rocks and humus decaying animal and vegetable matter, called or compost. Over millions of years, the rocks of the planet's surface collapsed and wear due to the action of wind, water, heat and cold. The bulk of the hard rock used to form the sand.

Sand

The seabed under our seas and seashore around our shores are great masses of pure sand. If our soil was just sand, it would be very unproductive, just think of the great desert where almost nothing grows. It is thanks to the millions of life forms both large and very small die and decompose over time, as the soil becomes rich in foods that allow plants to grow and prosper.

So when we speak of sandy soils, there is more talk of sand as a sort of filling, mixed with humus or compost decomposition of matter that often includes animal waste as well. Therefore the price gardeners well rotted horse manure and so he dug in their soil, enrich it. The sand helps prevent the soil becomes compact and allows air and water to drain into the soil, which is required by plants and the myriad of small insects and microorganisms that live there.

Silt

These are small particles of quartz feldspar rocks and worn that are larger than sand, but heavier than the clay in water. Think of rock dust.

Limestone

Another type of stone to wear, is in the soil with lime. This soil consists of particles worn limestone, which in turn is composed of the skeletons and shells of houses, such as snails and crabs, who lived and died over millions of years. These creatures made of particles of lime water, they lived in their shells that form the protection of big creatures. You can always see what is happening in coral reefs. When they die, their skeletons are hard coatings on the river and the sea bottom, then with time the great masses of shells were crushed and pressed by geological events give us limestone.

Some of the old shells can still be seen in the limestone. Marble is another crystalline form of this particular kind of rock, such as chalk. One way to test if a rock is limestone is to drop it on a bit of acid, like vinegar. This will react with the lime and making bubbles. Therefore, it can be used to balance the soil that is acid-

Clay

Now, when a stone is worn by the elements, the so-called "mechanical" action, but there is another type of soil called clay. It is formed when a rock is attacked by a heated gas, carbonic acid, a form of carbon dioxide that all living beings exhale. This is not a mechanical or wear of the rock, but a chemical where the rock is eroded. Sand and silt are only worn boulders into small pieces, like a broken piece of sugar. It is the same thing he started as a, but becomes smaller. Clay is the result of a chemical change, you start with a kind of rock, but end up with something different. Clay soils are also sometimes refereed to as the land of mud because the water they contain. Compacted becomes impermeable to water and clay was used to line ponds village.

Peat

Peat is unfounded, but Rock is a form of compost or soil. It forms in the marshy areas.