Clear, Amend, Loosen Soil
Clear, Amend, Loosen Soil
Supplies Needed:
Shovel, compost optional: gloves
Steps:
Gather your supplies. (paper, colored pencils or colored markers, crayons or paint)
If you do not have an area to garden, then you can just watch the video or practice digging and breaking up dirt in your backyard or the garden beds in the Arroyo garden next to school. Look over the your location to determine how much weeding and digging will be necessary. It may help to pre-water the area (but don’t make mud) so the soil can be worked.
Remove any dead plants and anything you no longer want in your garden bed.
Loosen the soil by digging and breaking up the soil.
Add soil/compost into the garden beds.
Mix and dig up the soil.
Remember to clean up the tools and return them to the proper place.
Supplies Needed: Hands or shovels
Optional Supplies: Clear jar and water
Steps:
Look for a place to dig.
Dig into the soil.
Break up the soil with your hands.
Think about these questions: Are there any creatures in the soil? Are there rocks or other objects in the soil? How does it feel (soft, dry, wet, cool,...) What is the importance of soil? Etc.
If you are interested in additional information, then see below the read aloud for the general roles of soil and soil profile.
Remember to wash hands and any tools you may have used.
Soils serve as media for growth of all kinds of plants.
Soils modify the atmosphere by emitting and absorbing gases (carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and the like) and dust.
Soils provide habitat for animals that live in the soil (such as groundhogs and mice) to organisms (such as bacteria and fungi), that account for most of the living things on Earth.
Soils absorb, hold, release, alter, and purify most of the water in terrestrial systems.
Soils process recycled nutrients, including carbon, so that living things can use them over and over again.
Soils serve as engineering media for construction of foundations, roadbeds, dams and buildings, and preserve or destroy artifacts of human endeavors.
Soils act as a living filter to clean water before it moves into an aquifer.
There are different types of soil, each with its own set of characteristics. The different layers in soil are:
humus or organic - Mostly organic matter such as decomposing leaves.
clay - retains moisture and made up of very fine mineral particles and not much organic material.
sand and silt particles – missing in some soils but often found in older soils and forest soils.
B – Rock - Bottom of all the soil layers