Soil TestingYour First Step in Organic Gardening!Soil testing is easy and inexpensive! With a minimal amount of effort to obtain samples, some postage and laboratory fees you can get a basic report from a competent professional laboratory. A basic report will cover all the major elements. Simply obtain a few samples totaling about about two cups from the area you intend to be working with. If you have an area over a few hundred square feet, such as a garden or a lawn, I highly recommend that you obtain your samples from several different locations. This provides an average of the entire area. Follow along with the slide show above. You can use a scrap piece of pvc or brass pipe at least one foot long. Wrap a piece of black electrical tape about two inches from the bottom to show the target depth. A hammer makes short work of inserting pipe without having to push. A piece of coat hanger will pop it out of the bottom. After you get all your samples together, pick out the stones, grass roots and whatever else is obviously not soil. Take approximately two cups of soil and place it in a zip lock baggie.
Now call your local county cooperative extension office. You'll find the listing in the county government section of your phone book. These people are very helpful and informative. It's worth making the contact and getting to know them. Find a local office here Your cooperative extension agent will be able to tell you how your sample needs to be packaged and may even have a pre-addressed box for you to use to ship to the lab. A basic test should not cost you more than ten dollars. You can also put a double baggie sample into a priority mail envelope and it's all packed, ready to go! I've found postage less expensive than shipping a parcel and faster. If for some reason you do not have access to a cooperative extension office contact A&L Laboratories. You can ship them your soil sample and they will e-mail you the results and all very affordable.
www.al-labs.com
You will need to go to this page
http://portal.allabs.com/merchandise/merchandise_main.jsp
Now scroll down to "Sample Submittal Forms & Others" Then click on the Soil Information Sheet. This will download the PDF that you can print off and use with your sample submission. You want to check the box that is marked S1M. This is for the basic report and all that you will need to begin.
What does a report look like?Below is a sample report from A&L Laboratories. It has been cropped to show the heart of the soil test. Look at the Soil Chemistry page to get a breakdown of all the major components. 
Now What?Okay, you've got your soil test report and your wondering what do I do now? Anybody can get their soil tested, that's not a difficult thing. But interpreting what all that data means and knowing what to do next is another story. I've seen reports being sold for $40 and more at other sites. I think that is just plain wrong. My mission is to spread the word, so if I can help you to make the transition to organic lawn care and gardening by giving them away then that is what I intend to do.
An Organic Gardeners Guide To Soil Remediation
Print out your own copy if you like. And remember to be a friend and pay it forward to someone who can use this information,
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