For Kids · The land and the sky · The ground under you
Oslo · Nordic & Baltic Boreal · shale 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
43%
of the ten-year median for this date · 1.5 m³/s against 3.4 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 26% more water by the end of the week.
Under your feet
About 541 million years old — from the age of the first forests, amphibians and reptiles.
All the kinds of rock, and how each one forms →
Cambrian phyllite · Cambrian
Precambrian-Phanerozoic sedimentary rocks · Proterozoic
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
Well below what most vegetables want. Phosphorus and molybdenum get locked away at this pH, and aluminium becomes soluble enough to hurt roots — so plants can sit in fed soil and still go hungry.
Happy here without a fight
Blueberries, cranberries, rhododendrons, azaleas, heathers, potatoes, conifers and most woodland ferns.
If you want the rest
Lime raises it, slowly — autumn is the time, and it takes a season to move. Test before and after rather than guessing; overshooting is harder to undo than undershooting.
Working it
Water runs straight through, so it dries fast and warms early — you can work it days after rain and sow ahead of heavier ground, but it needs watering and feeding more often because both wash out.