Guide
Nine pounds of test kit saves a lot of dead plants
Almost everybody gardens on assumptions about their soil. A pH test costs nine pounds, takes ten minutes, and explains most persistent failures.
The pH test
Nine pounds for a kit that does about twenty tests. Take samples from four places; gardens vary enormously within one plot.
What it changes
On alkaline soil, blueberries and rhododendrons will never thrive whatever you feed them. Knowing that saves both money and disappointment.
The jar test
Free, and tells you the sand, silt, and clay proportions. Soil in a jar of water, shaken, left overnight, and measured in bands.
Read the full guideSee the jar test
