26 September 2009

Soil Sample

Take a look at this.

IMG_0609

A handful of soil.  But what exactly is soil?  Well, soil contains these things:

IMG_0612  water

IMG_0615   air

IMG_0616 organic matter

(that means things that were once living, like dead leaves)

IMG_0617 minerals

(minerals are things like stone or sand, that come from the ground)

But not all soil is the same; not all soil contains the same amount of water or air, or the same amount or kind of organic matter or minerals.

And some soil is better for growing things than other soil.

Which brings me to today’s ‘mission’.  We would work in a ‘team’ to see if we could find samples of at least 4 different types of soil in and around the garden.

  • We should be able to find sandy soil, that is a bit like the sand in our sandpit; dry and grainy and pale in colour.
  • We should be able to find dark sticky clay.
  • We should be able to find stony soil.
  • We should be able to find rich, dark, sweet-smelling, crumbly, ‘perfect-for-growing-plants’ soil.

With trowels…..

IMG_0614 

and containers at the ready, off we set.  Pretty soon we discovered dry, grainy, pale sandy soil under the trees…..

IMG_0619

and stony soil nearby.

IMG_0620

There was dark sticky clay…..

IMG_0618

at the edges of the flowerbeds; and underneath the pretty flowers…..

IMG_0623  

and the juicy peppers…..

IMG_0625

we found find rich, dark, sweet-smelling, crumbly, ‘perfect-for-growing-plants’ soil.

At least 4 different types of soil in all.

IMG_0624 

I wonder: Can you tell which is which?

No comments: