KNOW YOUR SOIL!

Is there anything more fascinating, more mysterious, more keenly a matter of life and death?

Soil testing is crucial for any farmer or serious home gardener.  But, a soil test is worthless if you aren’t sure how to interpret all those numbers in your soil test results — or how to change one element for the better without changing the rest for the worse.  Fertility is a matter of intricate balance between scors of factors, from calcium and boron to pH and tilth to fungal diversity and the slope of the land.

After all, you don’t merely want your crops to grow: you want them to be as nutrient-dense and flavorful as they can possibly  be. You want your neighbor to bite into a carrot, for example, and say, ” That’s the best carrot I’ve ever had.”  That’s what it’s all about my friends!

How well do you know your patch of ground? Let me write you a detailed, comprehensive report all about your soil!  It’s like getting a book written specially just for your place on earth.  It will become a prized resource for your farming adventure, one you can refer to season after season as you watch your soil get deeper, darker, richer and sweeter.

Together we will explore your soil’s

  • geology
  • structure, texture, drainage and tilth
  • weathering, leaching and mineralization
  • pH and cation balance
  • humus levels and organic matter
  • all the elements your soil test can measure
  • tiny critters

I’ll identify the strengths and limitations of your soil and what you can do — organically and sustainably — to remedy those limitations without simply creating new ones.  I’ll let you know how much each choice of soil amendment will cost you and whether it is locally available. (I don’t sell fertilizer.)  Whether you want to raise a specific crop or attract a certain beneficial insect, or just want an all-around more fertile soil, I can bring my seven years’ organic market gardening experience to work for you.

Soil reports are usually 3-5 pages and start at $40 for home gardeners with one soil sample, more for larger operations.  (It’s $25 per hour.) Return customers will pay less in succeeding years, and you can get a price break by rounding up your neighbors! And I’m willing to barter for things — make me an offer.

All I need is a copy of your soil test results (I don’t perform soil testing itself — you will need to send samples to a lab as usual), a bag of your soil if possible, and a dot on a map.

Links to some good soil labs:

A&L Laboratories in Modesto (my favorite, $30 per sample and long history of partnering with organic farmers): http://www.al-labs-west.com

Fruit Growers Lab in Chico ($70 per sample):     http://www.fglinc.com

For more info contact: