What's My Soil

A field guide to the soil under your feet

Soil survey data in plain English

What soil do you have?

Enter your ZIP code to see the soils mapped in your county: how they drain, how acidic they are, and what that means for a garden, a lawn and a septic system.

USDA soil survey (SSURGO) 3,133 counties · data retrieved November 3, 2026

How to read your result

Soils are shares, not one answer
Every county is a patchwork of dozens of soils. We show how much of the land each covers, never “your soil is X”.
Drainage
How long a soil stays wet after rain. Poorly drained soils have water near the surface for long periods, often in spring.
Topsoil pH
Acidity of the top layer. Most vegetables and lawns like about 6.0 to 7.0; blueberries and azaleas like lower. There is no better or worse, only a fit for what you grow.
Septic rating
The soil survey's rating for a conventional drain field. “Very limited” means a standard system is hard to make work there; it is not a permit decision.

Full methodology and sources →

Colored-pencil garden cutaway showing plants above dark topsoil with branching roots and an earthworm, lighter subsoil below, and stony parent material at the bottom.

Popular county reports

All states →

Most widespread soil series

All 1,143 series →