Soil test recommendations
A few weeks back we used our new soil probe to collect samples for our soil test. We shipped them out via UPS. I chuckled to myself when the UPS employee asked for a description of package contents. I said, “dirt,” to which she responded with a confused look. I smiled and said, “for soil testing.” We received our soil tests back the other day and have been working out the type and amount of amendments we need to add to each bed.
We decided to work with a new soil testing lab this year. We had heard good things about this company from different podcasts, so we decided to pay a little extra to get information from this place. One of the benefits was to speak with an agronomist. Unfortunately, their customer service rep was curt, unfriendly and not helpful when asking about different options and actual cost (as their website provided no information on the cost of the recommendations).
But we did chat with the agronomist who has been in the field for “50 years.” He spent almost an hour on the phone with us. He answered a good number of questions but we realized he hadn’t completed the recommendations for one of the tests and after digging into some things, we were losing confidence in his suggestions.
After all that and our own additional research, we have ordered our amendments and will be adding them soon to allow time for them to blend into the soil and become more usable for the spring crops.
Without a doubt, we will be using another company for soil testing next year. Luckily, we have reached out to the excellent folks at Shalom Farms for more options. Kaz used to volunteer there and has stayed in touch with a few helpful people. They are CNG (Certified Naturally Grown) and we know their growing practices.
If you think we will be bored this winter, don’t worry! Winter projects include: pruning berries and fruit trees, adding weed barriers to bed borders, and expanding our growing space (and of course crop planning and ordering seeds)! Creating more beds means tilling once to break ground, broadforking, mixing in compost, and mulching walking paths…plenty of manual labor to keep us warm all winter. We have lots of barn, house, and yard related things we want to get to as well.
We always welcome some help if you want to get your hands dirty this winter! 😉