Sorry I can't help.

I just thought I would come in here and mop the grey matter off the walls of the thread.

Exploding heads can be so messy.

I just noticed that in my veg garden, the phosphorus is "very high" and in the side yard, my potassium is "very high."

Any reasons for this? Sample one has been gardened for two years, sample two, never as far as I know.

So much for the guano I guess, and I've been wanting guano for years. :(

That's kind of you. I might need an aspirin too.

Is it possible that something spilled in the side yard at some point?

Another possibility is that there's something near the surface of the soil so there's not enough soil for the plants to root. My parents bought a house that developed a small dead spot in the lawn after a couple of years (freeze/thaw cycles). Then a corner of a rock popped up. Naively, we decided to dig up the small rock. It turned out to be a chunk of granite about 2x2x2 ft.

I wouldn't add anything high in phosphorous for now. Why is it high? There could be many reasons. You may have soil that is naturally high in phosphorous. A more likely explanation is that prior owners applied balanced fertilizers every time they fertilized. Nitrogen is used quickly and also leaches quickly. Phosphorous sticks around. So if it's not used, it accumulates.

The test referred to a publication: "See MU Publication G6705, "Cool-Season Grasses, Lawn Maintenance Calendar".

I found it online

Here is a link that might be useful: publication

Besides the potassium level and phosphorous level, it looks to me like your garden and side yard aren't much different!
Veg. garden: ph 6.3, phosphorus 144, poassium 250,
side yard: ph 6.2, phosph 92, potass 337,
Too much phosphorus in lawns and gardens can cause plants to grow poorly and even die. Too much phosphorus reduces the plant's ability to take up micronutrients like iron and zinc, even if there are enough micronutrients in the soil. Too much Phosphorous can come from municipal wastewater systems, industrial discharges, feedlots and manure piles, residential septic systems, and/or heavy or repeated application of fertilizer or manure.

I would avoid fertilizing your garden with anything for awhile, and if you must, feed it weakly with a nitrogen-only fertilizer that has a middle number (phosphorous) of 0 and an end number of 0 (potassium), such as 12-0-0. Let your nitrogen catch back up to your Phosphorous and Potassium.
The Lowe's website says: Do not use phosphorous-rich fertilizer for two years, and grow an abundance of plants to use up the excess.

To combat high potassium, Lowes says: Add nitrogen and phosphorous to help balance the soil (which you wouldn't add phosphorous cause you've already got a lot) but do not add potassium-rich fertilizers or soil amendments for two to three years. But you want something to grow now, huh! If it were me, I'd try tilling or digging in some no-nutrient soil to your side yard, and then adding a little nitrogen to balance it all out.

On another note, have you tried loosening the soil on the side yard? My mom's side yard was so compacted by people walking from frontyard to backyard that her lawn wouldn't grow. Also, does it get any light on that side?

Gosh your post wasn't the only long one! Sorry! :)
Good Luck!

Does the side yard get a different amount of light? Does it get more foot traffic? Is it compacted because someone drove a car over it, or walked on it a lot in wet weather? Does it get more leaves that stay on it after the fall?

My soil tested 4 times the minimum recommended amounts of phosphorus and potassium but the lab said that was not unusual as neither is easily leached away as the nitrogen is. I do not add anything to my soil but compost, which is added spring and fall. Yesterday I removed my tulip bulbs from under my roses and did not use anything but my hands to feel around in the soil and pluck them out. Working with nature and the soil organisms will produce perfect soil, but not overnight. Al

Thank you all so much for your replies!

I've lived here for almost three years (this will be my third growing season), and I don't know much of the history of the yards.

On the veg garden, with the high phosphorous, my neighbor said there was a tree there that was removed a year or two before I got here. Could that have upped the p level? I've never found any roots from the tree. It was just grass (with weeds) when I first tilled it up.

The side yard....that soil *might* be compacted. It wasn't hard to dig for my samples, but the dirt stays in place. Not much foot traffic, but it does get a lot of leaves (that I rake up all year) from my huge sycamore tree. It also doesn't have lots of light, but the far edge of it supports three spyreas that do quite well.

My ext. agent said I should till up the whole thing (avoiding the spyreas), add compost and try various groundcovers. I don't want to till it, but i may go through it with my fork and work it a bit, plus add the compost and gypsum.

The good news is that the first two years of gardening the veg garden was successful. My only problem last year was an insect invasion, but tomatoes, sweet peppers and eggplants (and chives and various herbs) absolutely thrived. This year I've got a major plan going to combat the bugs. (All organic...companion plants, aerated compost tea, seaweed, several trap plants...and if all fails...kaolin clay.)

I am SO glad I got the testing done, because my fertilizer plan was a guano that is very high in phosphorous.

One followup - I'm going to go ahead and add compost. Does anyone see a problem with that? It would have decomposed bunny manure in it, but of all the nitrogen sources, poo would make up about 1/20th of it. The rest was coffee grounds, alfalfa, garden clippings and kitchen waste. (and a billion chopped sycamore leaves)

Compost is rarely a bad idea. If you don't want to till- you could hit it with a plug aerator before adding compost. It's sort of a good compromise between tilling and no-tilling.

Your humus level is low, you want it to be in the 6 to 8 percent range so just add more organic matter. I would not add any more calcium, just organic matter. I would not add anything that contains phosphorus or potash except more organic matter.
The CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) is a measure of how well the minerals in your soil will exchange and you are in a good range for that.

How close is the sycamore tree to the side yard?

Oak trees prevent stuff from growing underneath, and my understanding is that the roots put out some sort of herbicide. Maybe sycamores do something similar.

You said there are no roots, but if the tree is close that would still be a possibility I would keep in mind.

Patty, that sycamore tree is right on the very edge of it. So it drops many leaves (that I use in my compost pile) and those itchy ball things (horrible creatures). On the opposite end is some kind of evergreen, a pine tree I think. But it's in bad shape and trying to struggle now, a result of our devastating ice storms. The pines didn't fare so well.

When I said no roots, I was referring to a tree in my veg. garden that was removed before I moved here. I just never hit any roots when I was tilling or digging.

But there would very likely be many roots from that gnarly old sycamore. It's HUGE.

Anyone have ideas on some kind of ground cover I might try there? I may try Pablo's suggestion and borrow an aerator, then lay down a layer of compost and kind of scratch it in. I thought I'd give vinca minor another try, but it wouldn't hurt to put 2 or 3 things out and see if any take hold. I'm tired of the bare dirt.

Won't adding compost to that area increase your phosphorous and potassium? If you're already at 4x the normal amount, I think you ought to add nitrogen only.

As for groundcover, Vinca is good! Try Star Jasmine...mmmmm...smells so good! Not sure how it will grow in shade/partial shade though. Might want to check.

Adding only Nitrogen will cause what soil bacteria are there to work at digesting what organic matter is there so there would be even less and the nutrient balance would be even worse. Getting enough organic matter, 6 to 8 percent, is needed so the soil nutrients are more balanced.
How many earthworms do you see in this garden? They are one indication of soil health and very few will be seen in soils without adequate levels of OM.

You had posted the five home tests awhile back, and I did those. One of those was worms. The news isn't good, although they aren't non existent.

Sadly, when I was digging the soil for my testing, I think I came across a total of four worms. I only had to actually pick one out of the buckets of collected soil. I dug several shovel fulls out, then did a slice, per each test. So about 15 or so digs...I think four worms.

My compost bin is right next to the veg garden, and in early March, I planted my lettuce/spinach/greens right next to it (because it gives shade). As I worked that little patch of soil with my fork, that soil was LOADED with worms. Either they were enjoying some goodies that were leeching out of the bin, or the bin was full and they were going back and forth.

I remember posting about another one of the home tests, and that was smell...my soil had NO smell, good or bad. The other tests were okay, the tilth and the drainage.

That 3 percent humus level is why there are so few earthworms. Earthworms need organic matter to live, they digest it, convert it to a nutrient rich waste that helps feed the soil and the soil bacteria.

Compost will increase your Organic Matter, which is too low to support much in the way of earthworms. It will also raise your Ph, which is on the low end like most unamended soils in Southern IL. People who attempt to fertilize with more N and no P or more Calcium and no magnesium end up creating unintended, yet unavoidable imbalances. COmpost and aerated compost tea is all you need.

Regarding your pests, I had nasty invasions every summer from Japanese beetles. Milky spore has really knocked those numbers down to a manageable level--that and using the grubs for bait or feeding them to Bubba the wonder dog.

Is there such a thing as too much compost? This is my first year with my own compost, so I'm really looking forward to spreading all my fun work around. I really have no idea until I start spreading how much I have, but I was planning on about three inches thick.

What about the gypsum that was recommended by the extension office? In reading up about that, it sounds like it would help the structure of my clay soil while adding some calcium. Last year, when I added lime to the tomato holes, I had no split tomatoes for the first time ever.

Maupin, how far south are you? I come from extreme SI originally, and my experience is the further south you go, the more clay you get.

Marion. No such thing as too much compost. Don't outthink yourself--add compost, get your Ph up a little with some lime, and learn how to make aerated compost tea -- do a search for posts from Captain Compost to acquire this skill.

-we have difficulty getting much to grow under our Norway maple. The tree takes most of the available water, leaving the nearby plants to dry out & wither. We have some grass & moss growing under the maple, but there are bare patches, too. I think compost will help the soil in the side yard, but if the soil is too dry, it will be necessary to water that area regularly, during the summer dry season.