Experimenting with Soil

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   One of the best FREE curriculum I have found for gardening is Nutrients4life.  After watching video #2 Properties Of Soil we were inspired to do our own soil testing to find where would be the best spot for our garden in the spring. 

     We started by choosing the top 5 spots on our property we were thought a garden would do well. After going over the 5 things a plant needs (soil, water, air, sun, room to grow), she dug holes as far down as she could go, putting a bit of the soil in a recycled plastic bottle. We went on to the next spot until all 5 bottles were filled. Next she added water to the bottles and shook them up. We guestimated which ones we thought would make the best garden. Then we let the bottles settle over night. We looked at the results and made observations at the contents of each bottle. Unfortunately, we discovered the best soil in on our property is in the worst spot! The front yard had the best mix of soil, sand and organic material. However, there is limited space for a large garden and daddy had already said he did not want to step over a bunch of plants and have to weed eat around them. Then we discovered the most optimal location with the best sun, water source and space has very clay like soil and would not make a very good garden. In the end, decided out by the creek would be our best location because it had good soil, air, sun and plenty of room to grow! We would just have to get another hose to extend the reach of the water source. Here are the photos of my daughter collecting the soil samples.

 First we needed a funnel to help get the soil into our recycled water bottles.

 She dug up soil from the first area and put it into a bottle.

 Soil sample #1 complete!

  A few more areas and a few more samples and we were finished! 

TaDa!

Our completed soil samples after they had set overnight!

I bet you can tell which one has the greatest soil in it! 

Love this idea?

 Visit https://www.nutrientsforlife.org/ 

for FREE downloadable curriculum, videos and lesson plans 

for elementary students all the way to highschool! 

Want to just see the video that inspired us? 

     Disclaimer- I am in no way affiliated with Nutrients4life.org and I was not paid or asked to advertise for them. This is just our account of how we were inspired to do our own science experiment! However, I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.