Soil test.
Why do you need a soil test? You always put the same fertilizer down at this time of year, so why waste the money? Well, by not spending $10 for a soil test, you may be wasting a lot of money on the wrong fertilizer.
Worse, you may be poisoning the soil and making your plants sick.
Soil tests measure the amount of nutrients in the ground.
The three most important nutrients are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K).
When you buy fertilizer, the numbers on the front of the sack are the amount of these nutrients in the fertilizer.
If your soil is low on Nitrogen, but is medium or even high on Phosphorus and Potassium, you can make plants sick by adding a fertilizer with a lot of Phosphorus and Potassium in it.
Agricultural producers test their soil every year before they buy their fertilizer.
It costs them money to put down fertilizer that is not needed.
As mentioned earlier, a farmer can even make his crop sick with too much of one nutrient or not enough of another nutrient.
Soil tests are easy to do.
You get a bucket, go out into your flower bed or lawn, or whatever area you are trying to grow things, dig down two to three inches and put a shovel of dirt in the bucket.
Now sample four or five other places in your flower bed or lawn the same way.
Mix the dirt in the bucket good and put it into your soil bag.
Send it to the soil lab and wait for the results.
In about six weeks, you will receive a print out in the mail with your soil analysis.
So far, so good.
Now, what does the soil analysis mean? Normally, your county Extension agent will be more than happy to explain anything you do not understand.
However, the soil test lab will print how much of each nutrient is in your soil and how much you should add for the type of plants you will grow there.
Simply follow the directions and you will know you are spending money on needed fertilizer, not scattering it to the wind.