• Knowing your soil is essential to maintain a healthy garden.Dougal Waters/Digital Vision/Getty Images
  
  Michigan, which rests between two of the Great Lakes, is rich with many types of plant life. Different types of soil found throughout west Michigan are suited to different plants. If you're planting in loose, well-drained soil and the plants need heavy, moisture-rich materials to grow, you won't have a healthy garden.
  
  

Sandy

• Sandy soil is loosely-packed and drains easily. Because water drains from loose, sandy soils so easily, the soil usually lacks adequate nutrients. Sandy soil is best used with drought-resistant plants found in deserts and other dry areas. Sandy soil is formed in areas that contain granite, shale, limestone, quartz and other rocks. Sandy soil particles are large, with jagged edges. When wet, sandy soil will not retain its shape well, and you will be unable to squeeze water out of the soil when it is held in the hand.
  
  

Clay

• Clay soils are dense and moist in nature, retaining a lot of water. Clay soils are found in floodplains and forests in west Michigan. Water-loving plants like duck potato and bulrushes thrive in clay soils, which may be too thick for many types of plants to grow in successfully. Some plants cannot send roots into tightly-packed clay soil.
  
  Clay feels somewhat sticky to the touch; it is made up of many fine particles that give the soil a smooth feeling when it is wet. Air does not circulate well through clay soil, though it is very high in nutrients plants need.
  
  

Loamy

• Loam has a texture that is between the thick heaviness of clay and loose lightness of sand. Loam offers the best of both sand and clay, providing well-draining but nutrient-rich soil, which is considered to be the most fertile of all soil types. Loam is found in forests and prairies, which west Michigan contains in abundance. Loamy soils contain both clay and sand, and are the most desired of all soil types when it comes to gardening.