{"id":6348,"date":"2026-02-25T15:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/?p=6348"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:58:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:58:59","slug":"getting-your-hands-dirty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/2026\/02\/25\/getting-your-hands-dirty\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Your Hands Dirty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">Knowledge of Soil Science (aka PEDOLOGY) is an important component in a landscape architect&#8217;s tool kit of technical skills. Understanding soil properties (texture, structure, pH, nutrients, drainage) helps landscape architects appraise the growing conditions on a project site, enabling them to select appropriate plant species, thereby preventing plant stress, disease and failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This week&#8217;s Appraising Landscapes session was held in our School&#8217;s science laboratory. Initially there was a rock identification practical followed by soil testing for texture and (acid) reaction (pH). The field texture test involved rolling a sample round in your hands to determine how gritty, sticky or soapy it felt (equating to sandy, clayey and silty soils). The pH test used a BDH kit which relies on an indicator dye that changes colour depending on the acidity or alkalinity of a soil solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Certain plants (eg lavendar) prefer free-draining conditions so a sandy loam is best for them. Some plants prefer acidic soils eg heathers so a peaty substrate is ideal. Each plant has its own preference and tolerance levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"392\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/159\/sites\/445\/2026\/02\/Image3-392x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6352\" style=\"width:750px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/159\/sites\/445\/2026\/02\/Image3-392x1024.jpg 392w, https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/159\/sites\/445\/2026\/02\/Image3-115x300.jpg 115w, https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/159\/sites\/445\/2026\/02\/Image3-768x2009.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/159\/sites\/445\/2026\/02\/Image3-783x2048.jpg 783w, https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/159\/sites\/445\/2026\/02\/Image3-scaled.jpg 979w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 392px) 100vw, 392px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Knowledge of Soil Science (aka PEDOLOGY) is an important component in a landscape architect&#8217;s tool kit of technical skills. Understanding soil properties (texture, structure, pH, nutrients, drainage) helps landscape architects [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":537,"featured_media":6351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tl"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/537"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6348"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6353,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6348\/revisions\/6353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.glos.ac.uk\/landscapearchitecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}