How We Built MySoilType: USDA Soil Data for Every US Zip Code

How We Built MySoilType: USDA Soil Data for Every US Zip Code Every gardener and homeowner eventually asks the same question: what kind of soil do I have? We built MySoilType to answer that question for every zip code in the United States. The Problem The USDA maintains the Web Soil Survey — an incredible dataset covering soil composition across the entire country. But it's complex. Really complex. Navigating it requires GIS knowledge, and extracting actionable gardening advice from raw soil taxonomy data is anything but intuitive. We wanted to bridge that gap: take the USDA's soil survey data and turn it into something a homeowner could actually use. Architecture Decisions Zero Database, 35,000+ Pages MySoilType serves data for every US zip code, every state, every county, and every soil type. That's nearly 35,000 pages. Instead of a database, we use pre-processed JSON files. Each zip code has a data file containing: Dominant soil type and texture pH range Drainage classification USDA