Dallas County soil

As we move into January I have a checklist of things I need to get completed in order to be on schedule for my spring garden. I'm going to stick to the baby plants in the nursery this year. As much as I would love to plant everything from seed, I should probably tackle all the basics first.

One of the basics is knowing what type of soil your babies will be growing in. There are many resources for this information, but a good start is the County Agricultural Extension Office. I gave them a call and found out that most of Dallas lies on a fertile, black clay (as does my yard). For more detailed information she sent me to my local nursery.

Being that I live next to the lake, my local nursery informed me that the soil type, pH, etc. varies widely from block to block and that my best bet would be to send in a soil sample to Texas A&M University.

Their website (soiltesting.tamu.edu) gives very detailed information on how to take a soil sample and where to send it. Today I went digging and got the requisite sample. As stated in the directions, I need to air dry my soil sample since it was wet to the touch. I will drop it in the mail tomorrow.

Soil sample. Check.