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STOP! BEFORE YOU TOUCH THE GARDEN, DO THIS

March 24, 2015

Before you add anything to your soil or plant anything in your garden this year, answer one question:

When was the last time you had a soil analysis done? Five years ago? Ten? Never?

Soil analysis tests are an investment—usually $10 to $15—but I can almost guarantee that you will recoup that money several times over by not adding things to your soil that it doesn’t need.

Just to be clear, I’m referring to a soil analysis done by a lab, not one of the little kits you pick up at the hardware store where you mix something that resembles and Easter egg dyeing kit with tiny bits of soil. I think those are probably better than nothing and are a bare minimum if you are gardening in a new place. Of all the things you need to know about your soil, the acidity level is the most important in my opinion, and those little kits can give you a pretty good idea of where that is at.

When you take a soil sample, dig down about 4 to 5 inches and sample from several places in your garden. 

Most labs that do soil testing focus mostly on agriculture testing or environmental testing for things like Chromium (“Erin Brockovich,” anyone?), but they also do simpler tests aimed at homeowners. But you won’t necessarily hear about them until you go looking for them.

To my knowledge, every state has a public university extension program and they will either be able to test your soil at a state lab or give you a list of labs that do the testing (if you’re in Canada, here’s one list of soil labs I found). Just do an Internet search for “University of (your state) extension” and once you get to the extension website, do a search for soil test. If that fails you could search for a nearby state’s lab and ask if you could send your sample there.

It’s important that you take a sample properly. Some labs provide sample bags but most that I know of are fine with a sample in a regular old Ziploc bag (well, actually a new bag because you wouldn’t want anything else contaminating your sample).

A Ziploc bag works fine, but some labs also provide wax-lined sample bags.

When it comes to taking a sample, don’t be greedy. Different areas of your yard could have very different soil depending on fill that might have been used, what has been growing there, or how you’ve amended the soil over the years. So stick to an area that you anticipate will have consistent soil. You want to take small samples from about five different areas within a bed (assuming you’ve identified that as your test area) for a total of about 2 cups of soil. A trowel will do just fine for this job. Just dig down to about 5 to 7 inches below the surface and bring up a bit of soil. Then use just the “core” of what comes up on your trowel to add to the sample bag.

I took samples from two gardens and you can even see the difference in the soil. The top sample is from the small garden between the patio and the house that, despite having great growing conditions, does not produce plants that thrive, leading me to believe there’s something wrong in the soil. The bottom sample is from the main garden.

Label your bag and fill out the sample submission form. If you are sending more than one sample, make sure to label them in a way that makes sense to you. I used “Patio garden” and “Main garden” as well as assigning each a sample number as required on the form I sent in with them.

Speaking of forms, there will usually be one to fill out and send in with your samples, so make sure you do that. Most labs will also ask for what kind of planting is destined for the area so they can offer amendment recommendations.

Labs will have submission forms for download on their website. Make sure to fill it out and mail in with your samples.

I recently sent two soil samples in to the University of Wisconsin Soil Lab. The first is from the skinny garden between the house and the patio. This three foot strip of dirt is deep and gets full sun. It might be slightly dry because it is a little under the eaves, but I make it a point to water it. And even though sun-loving plants should thrive there, they don’t. They grow, but nothing is truly happy there. Which makes me wonder if something is going on with the soi. I will probably dig out all of the dirt there and replace with with really nicely amended soil, but if there is something leaching into the soil, that should show up in a soil test.

I also sent a sample from the main garden, just because I’ve never tested that area.

Depending on how busy the lab is (I’m hoping I beat the spring rush), I expect to get results and a list of suggested amendments in a couple weeks. It should be interesting.

Have you ever tested your soil? What did you learn?

soil test
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
6 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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previous post: THE ONE VEGETABLE YOU MUST GROW THIS YEAR
next post: How to start seeds in soil blocks

Comments

  1. Kylee Baumle says: March 25, 2015 at 12:45 pm

    In spite of going through the Master Gardener program (where we learned about this in detail), I've never had my soil tested. In recent years, my vegetable growing has been less than stellar, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the soil. Time to do this!

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: March 27, 2015 at 4:28 pm

      Aren't you excited to see what it will show?

      Reply
  2. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: March 25, 2015 at 2:15 pm

    We did it at our first garden which was small. I don't remember if we did it here, but with a half acre that is completely gardened I think we did not bother. We used to generate a lot of compost, had access to aged manure etc. So we did a fair amount of early improvements. Now we just pretty much add leaf mulch.

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: March 27, 2015 at 4:28 pm

      We're going to get a huge bagger attachment for the riding mower that should mulch and bag leaves much more efficiently than we've been able to do until now. More and more, I think leaf mulch is such an important amendment for the garden.

      Reply
  3. Fiona says: March 27, 2015 at 3:30 pm

    I sent three soil samples away for testing yesterday. I've been meaning to do this for years, but I'm planning on landscaping a large part of the property now and I really want to get an idea of what is most likely to thrive in my soil before I purchase the plants. I can't wait to get the results.

    Reply
    • Erin Schanen says: March 27, 2015 at 4:27 pm

      My results are due today and I'm oddly giddy with anticipation. This is probably a sign that I've truly gone off the deep end, but there's not too much to be excited about in the garden this time of year.

      Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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