From the photos it looks like your soil is predominately sand and some coarse silt. You can't see medium to fine silt and clay sized particles with your eye, and so it looks like these make up the uppermost layer. One problem is you really should remove all of the organics from the soil before you do this kind of test, but that's usually beyond what can be done, as it involves either burning off the organics or dissolving them in a reactive solution. The soil test indicates a silty clay loam, which simply means about 75% of the inorganic component of the soil is sand and silt. Overall, the results look good.

Thank you! I appreciate the insightful feedback. It's good to know I am on the right direction! Maybe I do have a green thumb after all! I will add an iron amendment and nitrogen next month. I am also going to start a garden on the side of my house as well this spring. Here are the results. It is pretty much the same considering I worked the soil the same. pH is a little higher. I also noticed the organic matter is a little low so I am going to add a yard of compost once the ground dries up a little more and I can roto-til it into the soil. Do you have any other recommendations or insight into the garden soil? Probably more iron and nitrogen as well. I will be planting tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, beans, peppers, cabbage, possibly corn, and whatever else the wife wants! Lol Thanks! :) Brett

Given the consistency between tests, I don't see too much chance that all four are off, no. Let's begin at the beginning. All recommendations are for everything except the holly, which actually likes soil like this (there are plenty of plants that actually prefer poor soils). For the most part, I won't quote the holly bed in the stuff below. Big point: stop using the compost. It's probably got way too much phosphorus in it. Standard depth of soil testing is 4 inches, so some numbers aren't quite as bad as they look. I'll adjust recommendations accordingly. ME 10-13: Sand with silt, and a nice place to be. Once we stabilize this--in a few years as it's really far off--you can probably test every 2 or 3 years and be fine. pH 4.8 - 5.5: Very low, but not the lowest I've ever seen by a long shot. My own initial test was below 4.8--4.3 if memory serves. We'll fix this under calcium, magnesium, and potassium below. OM 5-12%: Good to extraordinary, and you don't need any more at this time. While I wouldn't mind seeing the Right Bed area come up to match the others, I don't want it badly enough to add more phosphorus! Sulfur 13-15: Completely normal numbers and entirely appropriate. Phosphorus 1282-2187: You don't quite take the crown for highest phosphorus I've ever seen (that was over 2,400), but it's close. Avoid any and all phosphorus sources (hence the recommendation to avoid the compost). Soybean meal is OK as it only contains 1% P versus 6.25% N. However, even with organics, never use anything that's above a 1:4 P:N ratio. That pretty much means soybean meal. Calcium 37-54%: The Right Bed is actually not awful, while everything else needs a serious boost. In this case, with your low pH, I don't recommend dolomitic limestone--use a good calcitic like Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. But don't throw out the dolomite, I want you to use that as well to raise the magnesium levels at the same time (just very slowly). Magnesium 4.3-7.1: Low to low-ish. 30 lb/K of dolomitic this year will very slowly work to raise this. It's not an emergency, most plants do OK at 4%, they just prefer around 10 in a soil of your EC. Potassium 1.0-1.5%: Quite low, the floor value would be around 2.5%. I'm actually a fan of being in the 4-5% range. We use potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash) to fix this, which you can get from some garden or landscape stores, or they'll order it for you. Minor Elements: I wouldn't mind fiddling with boron, but you have so many other issues that I don't wish to do that--and I'm not completely sure what will release from the organic matter in your soil. So hands off that for this year. Iron is great, none is needed. Copper 36-60 PPM: These are through the roof...and there's not much we can do about it. Some types of organic matter (manure compost, I'm looking at you, here) will contain large amounts of some elements. Apparently yours had excessive copper. I have to do some research to be sure, but this shouldn't be much of a problem...I hope...however, avoid any copper source, no matter how small. Zinc is also quite high, but that's not a problem. Aluminum is extremely high, but raising your pH will overcome any possible problems from that. It's not an issue unless pH is below 5, and not a severe issue until under 4.5. Recommendations: Now: Apply 9 pounds per thousand square feet Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime. Apply 15 pounds per thousand dolomitic limestone. June 1: Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet potassium sulfate. September 15: Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet potassium sulfate. October 15: Apply 9 pounds per thousand square feet Encap, Mag-I-Cal, or Pennington Fast Lime to everything except the Right Bed--apply 3 pounds per thousand there. Apply 15 pounds per thousand dolomitic limestone everywhere.

Fescue needs 2-3 lb/k of nitrogen a year, KBG and rye 3-4 lb/k. If you leave the grass clippings on the lawn, you can reduce fertilizer by 25%. If you use synthetic fertilizer, I think I'd do a slow release fertilizer in early fall (late August/early September) and a fast release in late fall after the grass has stopped growing but before the ground freezes. Do a slow release in late spring around Memorial Day. If you use organic fertilizer, do an application in mid to late August and mid to late May. The late fall application needs to be synthetic fast release. Aim to put down 1 lb/k of nitrogen for each application. If you decide to do just two applications, like they suggest, do them early fall and late fall.