Soil Testing Results!

Jar 1                                                                                      Jar  2                                                                       Jar 3                                                                             

Well, the results of my soil testing experiment are in and after much careful analysis I've discovered that I have dirt in a jar!  Ha!

Jar 1 is the native, unamended soil.  It settled quite clearly into three distinct layers: sand on the bottom, silt in the middle and clay on top.  I'm actually a little surprised at the amount of clay in there, I wouldn't have guessed we had that much clay in our soil.  It's about a 1:1 mix of clay and sand, though.  I wonder if that's why I was fooled?

Jar 2 is from the veggie garden and appears to just be a mess.  I really can't see any layers at all.  I've been adding finished compost (made of straw, horse and chicken manure, gardening waste and whatever kitchen scraps the chickens and ducks don't eat) to the veggie garden for two years.  So, maybe no layers is a good thing?  Maybe I should have paid more attention in that ecology class I took in college....

Jar 3 is from the horse's pasture.  The horses make many, many daily contributions to the soil out there.  There appears to be much less sand out there, but the other layers are just sort of muddled.  I don't know what that means.

I'll leave it to the experts to analyze.

Head on over to The Great Soil Experiment Meme hosted by Sweet Bean Gardening and check out what smarter people than me have to say about soil testing and their own results!