"The texture of a soil is its proportion of sand, silt and clay," said James Cassidy, a soils instructor at Oregon State University. "Texture determines all kinds of things like drainage, aeration ...

Before you dig a garden, it's important to figure out what type of soil you have and then select plants (and amend your soil) accordingly.

Silt is mineral particles somewhere in size between sand and clay. These particles carry a weak negative charge, which enables them to hold nutrients for plant use.

You can learn a lot about your soil by simply running it through your fingers. Healthy soil is the key to growing a beautiful and thriving garden. Building and nourishing the soil begins with getting ...

Imagine a triangle with clay at the top, sand in the lower left corner and silt in the lower right corner. If you had a soil of 100 percent clay, the top of the triangle would be highlighted.

Silt particles make a soil feel silky. The ideal soil is not one that is predominantly sand, silt, or clay, but one that has all these particles in amounts that let each express itself.

Adding composted cotton burrs, coarse sand or pea gravel, expanded shale or many of the other organic and inorganic products available will help provide drainage to clay soil.

Clay is a soil composed of very fine particles of sand and usually lacking in humus or decayed vegetable matter. STONE Pit Run/Bank Run gravel is found in natural deposits made up of large stones ...

An ideal soil is composed of about 45% minerals (gravel, sand, silt or clay), 25% water, 25% air and 2% to 5% organic matter. Nutrients come from the organic matter in the soil.