For Kids · The land and the sky · The ground under you
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes · Continental Europe · river deposits country
Try it
Drag the spade down, or tap Dig deeper, through the leaves, the living topsoil and the subsoil, all the way to the bedrock that is really down there.
About 0 cm down
The grass
the top of the ground
Under the grass is a whole hidden world. Drag the spade down — or press Dig deeper — to find out what is down there.
Layer 0 of 5
It takes hundreds of years to make one centimetre of topsoil. The depths are typical — every place is different — and the ruler is squashed at the bottom so the rock fits on the screen.
Say it like this
Go outside: Dig a small hole in the garden and count how many worms live in one shovelful — then put them all back and fill it in.
The river right now
57%
of the ten-year median for this date · 207.9 m³/s against 367.1 normally
lowRunning low for the date. Water is clear and fish are spooky, so lighter line and a longer cast earn their keep. Wading is easy; the fish noticing you is the problem. It is rising — about 37% more water by the end of the week.
Under your feet
About 11,700 years old — from the ice ages and since — the most recent chapter.
All the kinds of rock, and how each one forms →
clay [5.0%..50.0%]; gravel [5.0%..50.0%]; sand [50.0%..95.0%] · Holocene
Cenozoic sedimentary rocks · Neogene
Upper Gneiss Unit (Massif Central) · Neoproterozoic
Bedrock and soil figures are modelled from national geological surveys and global soil mapping, at a resolution of a few hundred metres — right for the shape of a district, not for a particular garden. River discharge is modelled, not gauged. For anything that matters, dig a hole and look.
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Try it
Drag the spade down, or tap Dig deeper, through the leaves, the living topsoil and the subsoil, all the way to the bedrock that is really down there.
About 0 cm down
The grass
the top of the ground
Under the grass is a whole hidden world. Drag the spade down — or press Dig deeper — to find out what is down there.
Layer 0 of 5
It takes hundreds of years to make one centimetre of topsoil. The depths are typical — every place is different — and the ruler is squashed at the bottom so the rock fits on the screen.
Say it like this
Go outside: Dig a small hole in the garden and count how many worms live in one shovelful — then put them all back and fill it in.
The soil it made
What that means
The sweet spot for a vegetable garden. Nearly every nutrient is at its most available somewhere in this band, which is why it is the number every soil guide tells you to aim at.
Happy here without a fight
Almost everything: tomatoes, beans, squash, lettuce, apples, most perennials and most lawn grasses.
If you want the rest
Nothing needed. Compost keeps it here; heavy lime would push it past useful.
Working it
A balance of sand, silt and clay — the texture that holds enough water to matter and still drains, which is why loam is the one everybody wants.