All the best practice building in the world won’t make a home durable, comfortable or safe if the soil beneath it is unstable. Poor quality soil is a real issue for builders today. If not recognized and addressed, shifting or expansive soils, or soils rich in clay, can lead to structural compromises within the home.

Hydroponics uses water-soluble nutrients to feed the plants right at the source. This leads to fast growth and the ability to grow without soil. PROS: Grow without soil, grow indoors or outdoors, the fastest growth of any gardening method, all nutrients are 100% plant available.

The Fastest Growing Plants for Science Experiments

• Cress. Cress has long been a science project staple as it can be grown in varying conditions and can germinate practically overnight.
• Herbs.
• Mushrooms.
• Beans.
• Vegetables.
• Grass.
• Bulbs.

You can choose from a large variety of fast growing plants: among them are beans, sunflowers, cress and mustard. Choosing one of these plants will ensure a fast germination and growth that is perfect for a science project.

The crumble: Is your soil crumbly like a good coffee cake or dry, hard and cracked? The soil should be crumbly. If it’s dry and cracked, water will run off and not absorb into the soil like it should. Also, not enough water will make it to the root system and allow the roots to grow down in all that hard soil.

An often asked question is, “How long does it take to form an inch of topsoil?” This question has many different answers but most soil scientists agree that it takes at least 100 years and it varies depending on climate, vegetation, and other factors.

Soil engineers test the composition of the soil in order to determine if it is strong soil or weak soil. Strong soil is soil that does not expand or contract excessively in regards to moisture, and it has a good density, which means it won’t greatly compact or settle after construction is complete.

Stripping topsoil may help to reduce fertility of soils as well as removing seeds that are found in topsoil. Both of these outcomes may aid the establishment of shrubland plants.

Topsoil removal is a severe disturbance treatment that exposes bare soil, reduces organic matter and affects soil properties and microbial communities (Buisson et al., 2006; Geissen et al., 2013) .

The effects of soil erosion go beyond the loss of fertile land. It has led to increased pollution and sedimentation in streams and rivers, clogging these waterways and causing declines in fish and other species. And degraded lands are also often less able to hold onto water, which can worsen flooding.