Let's Get a Better Understanding about Soils Workshop

May 29

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We were very fortunate to have Richard MacEwan travel from Central Victoria in March to present a very full day of information about soils.

It was a dense day as we were presented with the science of soil.

We learnt about the basic physical and chemical structure of soil, tools to enable us to assess the soils in our garden or paddock, what measurements may be helpful, and what we might think about as we plan the management of our soils.

A fascinating demonstration of manual manipulation of the soil into a ribbon to assess the basis structure of the soil to determine the approximate ratios of clay, sand, and silt, was the highlight of the site visit.

We are grateful for the effort Richard made preparing the presentation and for travelling to speak with us.

Richard has kindly made available his presentations in PDF form.

Soil 101

Richard was able to direct to us some very helpful resources

This website from the Victorian Department of Agriculture has the most accurate maps and information about the landforms and soils of the Mornington Peninsula

https://vro.agriculture.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/portregn.nsf/pages/port_soil_landforms_mornington_pen

This map has a list of soil pit sites on the Peninsula.
Many of the pits, unfortunately not all, have links with detailed soil analysis information.
(These pits are among the ones that do have linked data -ASSS4, ASSS6, MOP4, MOP7, MOP5, MOP6)

https://vro.agriculture.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/portregn.nsf/pages/port_soil_pits_westernport

Another publication with information about Peninsula soils and a little more detail about the particular soils shown on the landform mapping is this one from Common Ground