I'm not ignoring you Tox. Soil test interpretation is out of my league. There are few guys over at bestlawn that seem to know a LOT about soil tests for lawns.

Lloyd

Ya still owe a round to the cult, need manup first, there is no info available until double Kentucky Bourbon is on the house...yessir...

Mackel

Is it typical for clays to naturally be so low in P?

A pH of 6.8 is at the top end of what is optimal for a vegetable garden, 6.2 to 6.8, but not what should be considered high, good levels of organic matter and everything else looks to be in balance. You are right that you do not need to spend anything on any fertilizer for that garden.
The test from the lawn says you probably need to do some work. The soil pH is maybe a bit low at 6.0 (grasses do prefer something in the 6.2 to 6.8 range just as many other plants do), but do not add any Drywall waste because what is used as binders and fillers in that material is not something you want added to your soil. The soil test lab recommended Gypsum instead of a Calcitic lime? Maybe none, not even Gypsum, is needed if you concentrate on increasing the level of organic matter in the soil. Compost can do that but it needs to be spread more often then once a year. Up to 1/4 inch can be spread at one time without possibly smothering what grass is growing.

Yeah, the veg garden looks good to go for a while. I would supply nitrogen only, at least for this growing season and probably longer. I would plant without any fertilizer and throw in N when the plants look like they need it.

I wouldn't do a thing about the pH in the Lawn area. I don't start liming turf until around 5.5 or 5.6. As far as low P and K go, yes, they're a little on the low side. But remember, it's turf that we're talking about here. Grass doesn't need those nutrients as much as a lot of other plants. If I were using just a fertilizer, I think the 12-12-12 at about 8 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft. would be good sufficient without adding any other P or K sources. But wait...there's more on that later.

The organic content is what I would consider optimum for turf in sand or maybe a sandy loam but in a clay soil, you may benefit from some more organic. If you want to be super proactive, you can core aerate prior to topdressing with an amendment and rake it in. Otherwise, you can just top dress and let it work itself in. Like Kimm said, I would try to get a relatively fine material, although, I'm a bit of a snob and would shoot for something screened to 1/8 inch or less. 1/4 minus would be okay too, just not quite as awesome. A good rate for the top dressing would be 12 cu ft. per 1000 sq. ft.

The city compost will likely get sufficient K and a little P. Then you can use either a little bone meal or triple superphosphate (0-45-0) to bump up the P just a tad. Or, if you want to do N and P together, ammonium phosphate (16-20-0) would do the trick.

I wouldn't worry about calcium at that level but an addition of that nutrient at this point would fall into the "it couldn't hurt category".

Although I wouldn't try to adjust the soil pH upward right now, I would make an effort not to push it down further. For that reason, I would avoid acidifying fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate and urea. Since most turf fertilizer applications should be nitrogen only (contradictory to what the fertilizer companies may want to sell you) you'll need non-acidifying nitrogen sources that are low in P and K or just plain don't have it. A good synthetic source is calcium nitrate (15.5-0-0-15) The first three numbers are the normal N-P-K. The 15 at the end is calcium. That's a very soluble material so you need to apply small amounts and relatively frequently. A nice organic source would be blood meal with a typical analysis of 12-0-0. It's quick release relative to other organic fertilizers but slow compared to calcium nitrate.

After you do whatever it is you decide about organic and nutrients right now, I would apply blood meal at a rate of about 15 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft. every 60-90 days over the coarse of the summer (depending on how the grass looks) and then come in at the end of spring with a complete fertilizer like the 16-6-8. If you use calcium nitrate to supply nitrogen through the summer, go with about 5 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft. and you'll probably need to do it a bit more often.

In the fall, make an application of a complete fertilizer and you should be good to go.

Sorry for any typos you may find up there in my post and for that fact that I won't read or respond to any questions for a few days. I'm am quite literally on my way out the door to spend a long weekend in that woods.

gargwarb: You won't see this until after, but I wish you a wonderful Memorial Day in some beautiful woods!

Garg, when you get back, help me with the very fine screening you like. Is it for cosmetics or are there other reasons. I could screen my 'post finer if there is a case to be made to do so.

Thx

Lloyd

Lloyd: No worries, I won't fire ya. :-]

pnbrown: No experience with clay and P outside of my two properties in this county but that's 2 for 2 so far. The house/garden is on a former farm field, topsoil stripped, graded several feet into clay and some topsoil replaced. Low P from day 1. The 'lawn' test is a tiny spot virtually right in the woods, cleared in 1989, probably little ever done to it. May be just the type of clay we have here...

kimmsr and garg, thanks very much for that detailed analysis, I'll be digesting it. I like the blood meal idea, did not realize it had no P and K at all. Perfect.

Garden pH was 7.5 years ago so I'm thrilled with 6.8.

I put the city compost on the lawn area last spring and what lawn there was went nuts. Very inexpensive, screened but not 1/4", but this ain't Better Homes here anyway, it's a redneck cabin in the woods. kimmsr, I've studied the drywall thing and we're just of different minds on that one. Probably wouldn't use it in the garden but this is a good application for it. JMO. Over time I'm concerned about boron buildup from the borax binder though. Probably won't use it forever.

This exercise was very enlightening. My garden generally sucks but apparently it's not from lack of nutrients, except maybe N. Beginning to suspect sun/shade, water and nitrogen. I have never used that much fertilizer, so looking at mostly the effects of compost here. Blows me away, although I suppose it shouldn't. ;-]

Doesn't Mackel have an opinion on this?

pat, mackel is holding up til he gets that Bourbon round.

Tox, keep in mind that the manufacturers of Drywall, Sheetrock, Wallboard, etc. all tell us to not use this material in the garden. The Environmental Protection Agency says the waste material from that must be disposed of in a construction, or hazardous waste dump, not the ordinary household sanitary landfill. There is probably a good reason for that.

I am unable to find any references at EPA regarding special disposal requirements for drywall scrap. It does not make sense to me that it would be allowed in a C&D landfill (the least stringent of landfill designs) but not a sanitary landfill, and in fact I don't believe that's the case.

Some municipalities have kept Chinese drywall out of their sanitary landfills apparently due to odor problems from the unusually high sulfide content. My city owns its own landfill and composting facilities, and I'm quite familiar with their operation. Their use of clean unpainted drywall scrap in compost is entirely acceptable to the state permitting authorities who are delegated by EPA to regulate landfills. Any drywall that is not composted there goes right into the sanitary landfill as far as I know.

If the industry is recommending it not be used in garden, fine, but I didn't see that anywhere. In fact the Gypsum Association recommends that new drywall scrap can be disposed of at construction sites by pulverizing and spreading at a rate of 22 tons per acre. :-o

I'm not advocating for the drywall association, just reporting what I see. If you have something different please share, I'd like to see it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Drywall Assn Residential Jobsite Disposal

Kimm, have you ever been to an operating landfill? Every one is chock-full of drywall and other construction debris. Drywall is about as innocuous a debris as can be encountered. Pressure-treated wood is far worse, old roofing shingles of various kinds are worse, creosote-treated ties, asbestos insulation, the list of mildly to very toxic materials in landfills is extensive. Drywall isn't one of them. It would certainly be advisable to avoid digging up old landfills and rolling around in the rotten contents, though.

This is similar to the idea that medications will get from urine into the ground, then plants, and then back into a human through the digestive tract. It doesn't hold up to rational examination.

Yup, some sanitary landfills will have a lot of stuff they should not have in them. There are still people here in Michigan that dispose of their yard waste in their weekly trahs, something that has been illegal in Michigan for about 25 years now. There are still people here that will tell you that they did not know it was illegal to put much of that kind of stuff in regular trash, because they do not want to know. In Michigan yard waste, supposedly, can only go to a recycling center to be composted becasue that takes up nearly 40 percent of landfill space and recycling it, instead of landfilling it, will help extend the usefull life of a landfill. Construction waste is supposed to be seperated from household trash because much is hazardous waste and some can be recycled, and keeping that out of the regular landfill will also extend the usefull life of that landfill.
Massachussets banned the disposal of drywall in landfills in 2011.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mass. bans drywall

Canadian study on composting drywall.

Lloyd

In fact, I believe in most of MA local landfills are closed and capped. All the ones around here are. Everything goes to a transfer station and then to SeaMass, where it is burned or composted. The trucks that haul it off often come back with compost, which I wouldn't put in my garden if they paid me.

Thanks dowbright! We decided to cut things a little short but man, it was great. A wonderful time was had by all.

Heya Lloyd. You just might be able to make a couple of extra bucks per yard by screening some of your product to 1/8 inc minus and labeling it is "Turf Extra" or "Sports Black Gold" or something snappy like that. The 1/8 spreads a little easier and it works itself down through the turf a little quicker with an irrigation or two. But Kimm's right. For all practical purposes, 1/4 works just fine. I just like to see it disappear fast. To me, it's worth a couple more bucks. For landscapes, gardens, etc. it doesn't really matter.

By the way, boron isn't an issue in most drywall but some of the stuff that comes in from China is, indeed, a significant boron source. I've seen it result in some pretty nasty container mixes because of it.

pnrown. I don't personally see much of a pattern regarding clay and low P.