Discover Your Soil Texture
You can easily get a rough idea of your soil texture by performing the following simple test.
Take a small handful of your garden soil, moisten and knead it to break up the small clumps
(it should be the consistency of moist putty), and squeeze it into a ball. With the ball between your thumb and forefinger, gently push the soil upward with your thumb, squeezing out a ribbon of soil (be sure the soil ribbon is oriented straight up).
• If you are unable to form a ribbon of soil, your soil is at least 50% sand and has little clay.
• If your soil makes a medium ribbon (1”-2” long) before breaking,
your soil is roughly 25% clay.
• If the soil ribbon is 2”-3½” long before breaking, you have about 40% clay in your soil.
• If the soil ribbon is longer than 3½”, then your soil is made up of at least 50% clay.
Modified from Gardening for Dummies, Mike MacCaskey et al, 2nd Ed, 1999, Wiley Publishing, Inc, Indianapolis, IN