Here are the simple steps to make a Soil Ribbon: 1. If you run a tillage tool 4” deep, dig down under that to about 5” deep. 2. Collect some soil in your hand and attempt to ball it up. 3.

Let's reuse the example from the Dec. 19 column -- a mixture of 60 percent sand, 20 percent clay and 20 percent silt. On the clay axis, which is the left side of the chart, find the 20 percent mark.

If the soil is too gritty to hold a shape, it's ­sandy. If the ­ribbon breaks after reaching a length of 1 to 2 inches, your soil is loamy, or evenly proportioned with sand, silt, and clay. That ...