I have to confess, I am a lazy gardener. So it’s no surprize I’ve never bothered to test my garden’s soil pH or nutrient level. My beds and containers where filled with bags from the nursery. I don’t use local city soil. I am afraid it is contaminated. The pH of my beds was fine to start out with.

Knowing that many nutrients tend to be over-applied resulting in imbalances in the soil and harmful effects on the environment, I’ve only used compost and organic fertilizers in my beds. My fruit, flowers and vegetables grow so well I am under impression testing my soil is obsolete.

What Can Affect pH

I am no expert only observant and curious. I haven’t seen garden soil become alkaline unexplained but I have seen it become more acid. Many things can lower the pH of soil over time. Peat moss, excess animal manure, pollutants, rainfall, harvest of high yielding crops, decomposition of organic matter. That’s why gardening sources always stipulate to add well compost organic matter.

Why My Soil’s pH Is Fine

As I said earlier I only use compost and compost teas. Did you know compost acts like a buffer. It can have a marked influence on acid soils. For example an EPA study showed that water with a pH of about 2 discharged from a mine had risen to a pH of 5 by the time it passed through a compost filter. So my pH maintains itself in an acceptable level.

My test is the visual aspect and productivity of my garden. I’m stubborn and had grandparents that use to farm to subside and they never used chemical fertilizers nor soil tests because there wasn’t any around, Their farm and garden fed 3 generations of folks, so they had to be doing something right.

Related posts:

1. How To Improve Garden Soil
2. Assessing Your Garden’s Soil