Yeah it’s kinda sandy/loamy I guess. Hard to describe for me anyway. Our part of Iowa is in the Loess Hills which were formed by wind deposits of fine silt like soil left behind when the glaciers melted.
It has its own unique set of pros & cons. it seems to drain well, yet holds moisture pretty well a few inches down. The problem is it forms a crust and it’s really hard for some things to break through.
In fact we had something like a 2" rain in a short time frame and it washed some things out including some beans. I replanted and only one of the replants broke through. Now two days ago we had 30 MPH winds at noon here. It snapped off 4 or 5 of my biggest beans and so like Forest Gump “…I was runnnnnning” to get some stakes and string around the row during the event so I didn’t suffer more casualties! Well I decided to replant some of the snapped off ones, as well as the ones that didn’t take after the flood!!! This time I covered them with starter soil to see if it makes a difference.
Yes those are beans on the right. I had 3 rows of beans last year and still have beans in the freezer and in jars (dilly beans) so this year I cut back to one row. Half are Jade 2, half are Strike. First year I’ve never had Blue Lake. That is a couple bell peppers you saw, and I have more bell and hot ones at the far end of that row.
The far left is a row of potatoes.
I don’t think I’d even grow the cherry toms if it weren’t for the grand kids. They eat them like candy. But yeah, they grow so quick and for as tall as they get the stem/trunk just never seem big enough to me. Not nearly as stout as the others in there.
Well thank you very much. I spaced most things wide enough to get the 17" tiller down the rows, which works for this early part of the season - not so much later on…
Then I use a scarfing hoe and just hoe every few days. what I can’t get with the hoe … it’s pull by hand time!
Things aren’t exactly pristine though, what’s not noticeable in the picture is a section in the row behind the Cilantro and white onions is carrots… er… grass. (I’ll put a picture up just to embarrass myself 
)
Memo to self: Don’t even attempt carrots in a garden row going forward… I just could never tell the difference between the grass and the carrots until it was too late. Next year I’m going to do a small raised bed for carrots and other stuff like Cilantro so I can control the soil medium and all.
So anyway, I have carrots in there but am afraid the if I go to weeding they’ll get uprooted. I’ve thrown in the towel on the carrots!
