loam

“A nice scent—really earthy. It smelled like loam soil.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026

The result, if we want to get really geeky, is a mix of clay, pure sand and sandy loam.

From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2024

That’s because, contrary to the shibboleth, the good isn’t the enemy of the great—it’s the loam of the great.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 9, 2023

For me, loam from my mole hill, compost, and also leaf mold, fallen leaves allowed to rot down in a bag for a year or two, provide the most amazing medium.

From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2022

One minute they were above ground, a moment later there was a veritable shower of loam and topsoil as they vanished beneath the earth: nature’s own technicians.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

The pioneers of empire, for all time, Are gold-dust, from the placers of our homes— The surface croppings from a nation's prime, The mellow acre of the richest loams.

From Montezuma An Epic on the Origin and Fate of the Aztec Nation by Hiram Hoyt Richmond

The soils thus vary from sandy loams, usually on the higher ground, to stiff clays along the limestone hollows.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 4 "Coquelin" to "Costume" by Various

Sandy soils and sandy loams produce the very best roots, most evenly distributed, and also most easily preserved and removed when the trees are dug from the earth.

From American Pomology Apples by J. A. Warder

Such soil is better than light sand, or some of the poorer loams.

From Soil Culture by J. H. Walden

The lands most sought after have been scrub, deep alluvial flats, and black and chocolate loams; and, until recently, it was on land of this kind that most of the wheat and barley was grown.

From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland