Last night I completed the nitrogen (N), potassium (P), and phosphorus (K) tests on the soil sample. Basically what you do with this Lee Valley Tools test kit is you collect a soil sample, add water, agitate, and let sit until the soil precipitates out. Then you add water to one small container for each of the three elements, add a pre-measured amount of a test powder, agitate, let rest, and finally compare the colour of the resulting solution to colour-coded charts.
The first results suggested deficiencies in all three elements, which was surprising since we have good growth in the lawn. There was turfgrass at the sampled spot until a few weeks ago, when Faye remved it in preparation for our expansion of the vegetable garden. I agitated the samples again and for a longer time to better mix the testing solutions and water samples in the comparators. This time, while the nitrogen test still showed a deficiency, the P and K tests indicated that there is sufficient to surplus levels of these in our soil.
Now to learn how to best add nitrogen to our soil!
previouslytexan 