Getting to the Nitty Gritty About Soil
While you may feel tempted to jump right into the fun parts of creating your ideal outdoor space— like picking out plants and planning their placement. However, it is important to understand the foundation of your backyard ecosystem before you do anything. While soil may not be exciting, you will thank yourself in the long run for investing time, energy, and research into your soil. But where to start? Like with most problem solving, you have to know what you’re working with first before you can come up with a plan or solution. So, what kind of soil do you have?
3 Main Basic Types of Soil Found in South Carolina:
Sandy
While sandy soil is fairly easy to identify, you might not really understand how it can affect the way the ecosystem of your lawn functions. If you are having trouble identifying sandy soil, a good indicator is that sandy soil tends to feel gritty and will not form a ball if you try to squeeze it in your hand. This type of soil is great to maintain good drainage however, this means it does not hold water or nutrients very well.
The best kinds of things to grow in sandy soil:
Root Vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and parsnips
Lettuce
Strawberries
Corn
Squash
Avoid:
Cabbage
Broccoli
Peas
Clay-Based
Clay-based soil is also very common in South Carolina and the Midlands specifically. Have you ever seen a construction site with a lot of that really bright orange-red dirt? More than likely, that is clay. Clay soil is more dense than sandy soil and tends to get a sticky consistency when wet. Clay holds water and nutrients VERY well, but the downside of that is that is does not drain well. If you have a heavily clay-based soil, you probably have issues with your yard flooding or holding puddles long after the rain has stopped.
The best kinds of things to grow in clay-based soil:
Summer crop vegetables
Fruit trees
Ornamental trees
Perennials
Aster
Bergamot
Avoid:
Carrots
Parsnips
Soft berries
Loamy
The last general type of soil material commonly found in the Midlands is loamy soil. Loamy soils is a kind of mix of sand, clay, and organic matter. Loamy soil has the best of both worlds— draining like sand but holding nutrients like clay—but the real MVP of loamy soil is the organic matter. The organic matter is what really helps keep plants healthy because it supplies balanced nutrients to them, fights off diseases and pests, stores water and nutrients, and traps and breaks down pesticides and toxic runoff.
The best kinds of things to grow in loamy soil:
Climbers
Vegetables
Berries
Root Crops
Avoid:
Tomatoes, after the seedling stage
Green Beans
Late-growing cabbage and brassicas
Cacti