Soil/Ground Texture

I'm not sure of how to create this texture and would like some tips or someone to start me off. I want to do this without any additional plugins - only the ones in photoshop. The texture I want to create is like soil - like in a plant pot.

could try this http://www.proeffect.com/tutorials/tutorials.php?id=ps73

Got a camera, ximensions?

The reason it's called "Photo"shop is because it was an application originally authored to edit actual photographs.

I don't mean to sound flippant, but sometimes, it's a whole lot easier to just go take a photo and extract what you need from that.

Unless, of course, you just want to learn how to create dirt from scratch. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you understand that there are simpler alternatives.

Yes I do have a digicam, and I have taken some photos, but only to examine the texture more closely. I want to create the texture from scratch to learn - as you correctly pointed out.