Have I Got the Dirt

Pardon my weeds. I'm being soil-ly tested.

When I blogged about Tim Wheeler's free Irrigation Workshop last week (sponsored by Pasadena Water and Power), I mentioned I'd learned how to test my soil type. Some of you asked how it's done. It's called the jar test. Let's play along.

In the first photo, we put two cups of dirt into a common jar.

Well--it's kind of a nice jar, but if yours is common don't worry.

The next thing we do is fill the jar most of the way with water. Then we shake it all up. Shake it real good. Don't be shy, you gotta mix that dirt and water like it's a mud margarita.

Then leave it. Yes. Just leave it alone for a whole 24 hours. I said so, don't mess with it. Let the dirt settle. It's not an actual margarita.

What's supposedly going to happen is your dirt's going to stratify into three layers. That's what they told me, anyway. It's going to layer itself according to particle size. The biggest particles, sand, will form the bottom layer. The middle layer will be silt (medium-sized particles). On top will be your lightest particles, or clay. When you see what percentages you have of each of these soil types, you can compare your soil to a soil triangle and figure out your soil type.

What do you think? How many layers do you see? Is that sand on the bottom or silt? Is that silt on the top? Clay? What kind of soil have I got in my back yard?