Hard clay soil is difficult to work with and it takes patience on the part of the property owner to improve their soil’s condition if they have clay soil. Ideally, soil should be crumbly, light and dark. Clay soil is heavy and it packs together tightly. Wet clay soil is thick and slow to drain. Many people plant alfalfa to condition and improve their soil. Alfalfa has been loved by farmers for years because alfalfa improves the soil in their fields and their growing animals love the taste.

Property owners are beginning to plant alfalfa because the plants long taproots can break up the hard, clay soil and improve growing conditions. Believe it or not, the roots of alfalfa are so strong they can even penetrate rocks! Another advantage of planting alfalfa is that it is virtually disease and pest free and it rarely needs watering. If you have a piece of property or a lot that is comprised of hard clay, plant alfalfa.

You can get a general idea of what type of soil you have just by looking at the types of weeds and plants that are growing in your lawn. For instance, creeping buttercups, chicory and dandelions love clay soil. Bindweed, sheep sorrel and goldenrod prefer sandy soils. Lamps quarters and chickweed love to root in loam soil. If you have hydrangea on your property you can easily find out what your soil’s pH levels are from the colors of the blooms. Pink blooms mean you have alkaline soil. Blue blooms means you have acidic soil.

People who are adding tea or coffee grounds to their soil are not exhibiting strange behavior. Mixing used tea or coffee grounds into soil is a natural deterrent to those critters that like to gnaw and feed on your plant’s leaves and roots. It is the caffeine in these products which are repelling the pests. So, if you use decaffeinated coffee and tea, do not waste your time saving the grounds for the garden. When adding tea and coffee grounds to your soil, keep in mind that too much of it can be toxic to the plants that are growing there. Just like in humans, a little caffeine goes a long way!

Long before plows were ever invented, earthworms were tunneling through soil. Earthworms are very beneficial to soil because their tunneling allows air and moisture to pass through the soil. This creates the ideal environment for plants to grow in. Earthworm tunnels hold water and air. The retained water is important for plants to stay hydrated. The air in tunnels helps bacteria break down the organic matter that is in the soil.

Another advantage to having earthworms in your garden is their excrement, or casings, helps to condition soil and it helps the fight against disease. To help increase the numbers of earthworms wiggling around in your garden soil you should add organic matter often. Earthworms love soils that are rich and moist. There are four types of earthworm you may come across when you are digging in your soil. They include:

• Nightcrawlers: Long, 8 to 10 inch worms that all fishermen love
• Garden Worms: Average size worms, 5 to 7 inches long, found in moist, damp soil
• Manure Worms: These guys love eating poop! They are about 4 to 5 inches long and live in soils that have been enriched with manure
• Red Worms: Small, 3 to 4 inch long worms that you often see on the sidewalk after a rain

If your lawn puddles up with water, you already know that your soil has poor drainage. However, some people have poor drainage going on under the surface and do not even know it. It is fairly easy to determine if your soil has poor drainage.

First, dig a few holes in various areas of your lawn. Dig the holes to a depth of two feet. Fill up the holes with water. If after 24 hours water is still in the holes, your lawn has poor drainage. Wet lawns are sometimes the result of natural drainage-ways being blocked or the natural drainage-ways do not have enough grade so they will drain.

When your home was built the site should have been graded so that rainwater flows away from the home. Many people inadvertently mess up the grade of their lawns when they plant trees, mound up flower beds, or even add something like a sidewalk. To fix these problems you will need to have a subsurface drain installed on your property. This is a trench that will collect standing water and give it an outlet away from your property.

Many people like to add fresh manure to their garden soil because manure is a good soil additive. Manure is organic and it helps to loosen up the soil and improve its structure and it is also cheap. The most important thing to keep in mind when working with fresh manure is it is powerful. Manure should be composted for a few months to rid it of excessive salts. If it is not, it can burn your plants.

To add freshly composted manure to your garden soil, mix it into the top 12 inches of soil. Dehydrated manure is available at your local home and garden center. This form of manure does not have as much nitrogen as fresh and aged manure and many gardeners prefer to ignore this form of manure. Manure should not be considered an all around complete fertilizer. It is low in phosphate, potash and nitrogen. Even though you can use manure to improve your garden soil’s condition, you will probably still need to use a prepared garden fertilizer.

After a rainy period it is easy to determine if you have a good soil condition for planting. To determine if it is too moist to plant, all you need to do is the squeeze test. Get a handful of soil and squeeze it in the palm of your hand and wrap your fingers around it. Then open your hand. If you see the imprints of your fingers, your soil is still too wet for planting. If it crumbles up when you squeeze it and open your hand, your soil is in good condition for planting.

There are many trees that will grow in hard, clay soil. If your property is comprised of clay soil, it may be easier to just purchase trees that will grow in clay soil versus trying to amend the soil for improvement. Spot treating clay soil generally has no great benefit. Here is a list of trees that generally grow well in clay soil:

• Apples and Crabapples
• Aspen and Cottonwood
• Bur Oak and Eastern Pin Oak
• Common Honey Locust
• Elms
• European Larch and Tamarack
• Hawthorn
• Kentucky Coffee Tree
• Lindens
• Norway and Silver Maple
• Ohio Buckeye
• River Birch
• Swamp White Oak
• White, Black and Green Ash
• Willow

One of the most important things you can do when gathering soil for a soil analysis is to use a spoon or garden tool that is iron free. This will insure that if any trace amounts of iron show up in your soil analysis you will know it did not come from your tool. When you are taking a soil sample from your flower or vegetable garden soil, take soil that is from a depth of about four or five inches. If you are taking a sample from your lawn soil, you will need to get samples from a few different places in your lawn. Dig down about six inches in each spot and gather the soil samples. Mix these samples together and they will be a good representation of your lawn soil.

Garden soils love it when they have a layer of mulch placed on top of them. Mulching your garden soils keeps it healthy. To put it simply, mulch acts like a covering or a blanket over soil. It controls the growth of weeds, prevents soil erosion, keeps the garden soil’s temperature moderate and it also conserves the moisture in garden soil, which is very important.

There are many different types of mulch to choose from to place in gardens. Most home gardeners prefer organic mulches because they provide nutrients to the soil. These types of mulches include compost, leaves, wood chips, pine needles and other living materials. Inorganic mulches include rubber, marble, plastic, stones and other non-living material. Inorganic mulches that are used in gardens are generally used for aesthetic purposes only since they provide no nutrition to the soil.

If you have a gully going through your lawn, that is a sign of soil erosion! Other signs of soil erosion include having muddy water on your driveway or in your gutters, having exposed tree roots, bare spots on your lawn and even splashes on your home’s exterior walls.

To fix soil erosion you have to find out what is causing it. Having excessive water moving across your lawn is the most common cause of soil erosion. Sometimes the solution is very confusing because it may be due to runoff from a neighbor’s property. If this is the case, you will have to install something that will direct the water off of your property. The use of logs or pipes is common, as is bringing in a professional to do the job for you. If your soil erosion problem is due to the layout of your lawn’s surface, you may have to hire someone to regrade your lawn. Regrading the lawn will allow the water to run off naturally without having your soil erode.

If you have taken the time to mix soil and you have a good bunch left over after the growing season, how disheartening it would be for it to go to waste or get ruined. A good way to store leftover mixed soil is to place it in garbage cans or buckets that have tightly sealing lids. Store these containers in your garage or garden shed. Your soil will be nice and dry and ready for spring planting. You can even mix your soil up during the cold season and store it away until you need it. This will save much time when the busy gardening season does arrive.

Potting soil and potting mixes look similar but they are very different. Potting soil is what it says, it is soil. Even thought they look like they do, potting mixes do not have soil in them. They generally are a mixture of sand, pine bark, leaf mold, peat most and other organic materials. Some potting mixes will contain a starter fertilizer. Potting mixes are sterile and light, unlike soil which can be very heavy.

For indoor and container planting, most people prefer to use a potting mix. Potting mixes cut down on the bugs and pests that like to infiltrate soil. Potting mixes are also lighter and easier to manage for indoor planting. If you use potting mixes it is important to keep in mind that they contain no nutrients. You will need to fertilize any plants that you planted with a potting mix. Potting soil can be used for outdoor container planting and in the garden.