Reading Water, Soil, and Plants in the Places Your Yard Can’t Make Up Its Mind By Taylor Coxon, July 2026 Some parts of a yard are easy to understand. A hot, sunny slope? Dry. The edge of a pond? Wet. The shady patch under mature trees? A mysterious woodland kingdom where turf grass goes to lose its will to live. But then there are the confusing places. The low spot that puddles after a storm, then turns crispy in July. The ditch edge that is soggy in March and dusty by Augus