In order for your garden to flourish the way you want it to, there are many things that need to be done. One of those things is to find out what properties the soil in your garden has. This is important to know so that you can take action to prevent that any properties of your soil stand in the way for you planting the plants that you want to have. Not all plants thrive in all types of soil. In order to find this out, there are tests you can do. In order to find out the most about the properties in your garden, you should know a few things about soil testing.

Structure test

You should initially find out what soil structure the soil in your garden has. This is important to know as it tells you if you need to water your soil more or less to make all the different plants in your garden flourish. You do it by digging down just below the surface of the soil and scooping up a handful of it. You should do this when it hasn't been raining for a few days but without it being a drought to get an accurate result. Rub a little bit of soil between your fingers. If the soils feel wet and stain your fingers, you have muddy soil and should cut back on watering. If it feels grainy, but you are unable to break the grains with your fingers, you soil might be too dry and will need watering. This is one of the simplest methods of soil testing.

pH test

pH testing is a more intricate method of soil testing, and will tell you what pH value your soil has in order for you to optimise it. You can buy a kit from a gardening store to find out what pH level your soil has and from there take the appropriate actions. 6.5 is the best possible value for gardening. If the pH in the soil in your garden is more than that, it's alkaline soil and might need sulphur added to it to go back to a neutral value. If it's less than 6.5, you might need to add lime to make it less acidic.

Compaction test

You should also have soil testing done to test how compact your soil is. This is important as too compact soil can prevent roots from growing deep enough and thereby prevent plants from getting enough water. You can test this by pushing a thin wire down through your lawn at different places. Make a mark on how far you can push it before the wire starts to bend. If it bends right below the surface of the lawn, you need to have your soil disintegrated.

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