Garden with Insight v1.0 Help: Aerate soil tool action

The aerate soil tool action increases the soil's porosity and decreases its bulk density, which means that the soil gets less packed down. Aerating the soil helps plant roots respire better (simulated by decreased aeration stress) and allows more water to percolate through the soil instead of running off.

To aerate the soil, pick up a tool that has the aerate soil tool action (like the pitchfork), then click inside a soil patch. To watch the porosity change, open the pictures side of the browser on the soil patch and choose the materials display. The white and blue areas combined represent the percentage of pore space in the soil, or the porosity. When you aerate the soil, the porosity will change and the white and blue areas will move to the left. (If you have done this once already you may not see a change because there is a maximum amount of change.)

To undo aerating the soil, choose Undo from the garden window Edit menu.

How it works: aerating the soil