Spring is finally here, and the Tending Your Yard Garden is waking up — which means it’s time for early cleanup, soil assessment, and a quirky little project called Soil Your Undies. After months of cold and dormancy, early spring is the time to assess what made it through winter and start preparing for the growing season ahead.
Early Spring Cleanup: Getting the Garden Ready
Before any new planting begins, there’s plenty of work to do. The team from Gardens By The Yard, the professional landscapers who design and maintain the Tending Your Yard Garden, has been out in force this spring tackling the essential early-season tasks. That means clearing flattened grasses, cutting back perennials, pruning shrubs and trees before leaf-out, and checking on which plants survived the winter. It’s unglamorous work, but it sets the stage for everything that follows.
Early spring is also the ideal time to evaluate your soil — and that’s where things got a little unusual this year.
Soil Your Undies: A Surprisingly Effective Soil Health Test
On April 1st, the Gardens By The Yard crew could be seen burying cotton underpants in various locations throughout the garden. And no, this was not an April Fool’s prank — even though some of us roared with laughter.
The project is called Soil Your Undies, and it’s a technique farmers have used for generations to test soil health. The idea is simple: bury a pair of 100% cotton underwear in the ground, wait two months, then dig them up. The more decomposed the fabric, the healthier the soil.
Why Does Soil Your Undies Work?
Healthy soil is biologically alive — teeming with earthworms, bacteria, fungi, and insects that break down organic material. Cotton, being a natural fiber, disappears fast in that kind of thriving environment. If you dig up the underwear and find barely anything left, your soil ecosystem is in great shape. If the fabric is mostly intact, your soil may need some help building its biological activity.
This is one of the easiest and most affordable soil health tests you can do — no lab required.
How We’re Using the Results
So why does it matter? Different plants thrive in different soil conditions. Some love rich, biologically active soil, while others do better in leaner ground. By burying underpants in several areas of the garden, we can map out where conditions are strongest and use that information to make smarter planting decisions.
This project is part of our ongoing effort to educate gardeners and demonstrate successful, environmentally friendly practices. While the spring cleanup continues above ground, the buried underpants are quietly doing their work below.
In two months, we’ll unearth them, evaluate the rate of decomposition, and use that data to guide our planting choices. Stay tuned for the big reveal!
Try the Soil Your Undies Test in Your Own Garden
Curious about your own soil health? All you need is a pair of 100% cotton underwear (no synthetic blends), a shovel, and a willingness to get a few odd looks from the neighbors. Bury them about six inches deep, mark the spot, and wait two months. What you find when you dig them up might surprise you.
Want to see the Tending Your Yard Garden in person? Come visit us and explore what’s growing! Learn more at TendingYourYard.org.
The Tending Your Yard Garden is designed and maintained by Gardens By The Yard — a professional landscaping team dedicated to beautiful, environmentally responsible gardens.
