It is obvious as you look out the window of your car while driving on 395 that the Eastern Sierra is highly variable in its soils due to differences in altitude, geology, and availability of water. In many areas of the world, vast tracts exist of similar soils, but here you can find different soils on each side of the highway!
Key things to learn about your soil before gardening are:
- Typical soil pH - usually about 7 here.
- Salinity issues - not widespread but there are spots like Chalfant
- Soil texture - usually sandy loam or loamy sand
- Presence of an undesirable layer like clay or salt - not common in garden locations
This document has information to determine your soil's texture "by feel" using your hands. You'll need a little water and a paper towel. Soil Texture Feel Test (PDF).
Most soils where people actually garden in our area are either soils formed in a meadow, or are young soils without much structure formed in an arid region. Both tend to be sandy soils, however the meadow soils are loams. Most garden soils are fairly pH neutral, but there are important exceptions! The majority of our garden soils are fairly good to garden in, but require compost to meet their full potential.
If you are interested in testing your soil pH, don't buy one of those little meters with a single prong. They are not really measuring pH. Real pH meters have a little glass ball at the end. Inexpensive meters are about $40. Litmus papers will be accurate enough. Most of our soils are about pH 7. Unless you're having problems with nutrient deficiencies like iron, it's probably not worth the hassle of testing. (Exception, if you live in Chalfant, Laws, or east of the Owens River and are starting a new garden, you should definitely test. Contact us and we can help arrange that.) Here is a fact sheet on adjusting soil pH in California.
Resources
The local Farm Advisor has written up a few soil fact sheets for local communities. These are a good place to start.
One of the best tools to learn about your soil is UC Davis' soil web map service: https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/
Try this: Go to the "Menu," select "Zoom to location" and type your address. Click on the spot you want to see information for. One or many soils will show up under "Map Unit Composition." Click on the one with the biggest percentage. For example in Bishop you would choose "Dehy." from there you will see an illustration of your soil. Clicking on "Description" will give you more information, but everything you need is shown alread. Click around and see what you find!
This page (about 1/2 way down) has information on diagnosing soil problems that may exist on your site.