No good soil test lab will test for Nitrogen anymore because the availability of N is too dependant on soil temperature to give a reliable result. A test for organic matter is real simple and you can do that your self, what you are really interested in knowing is your soil pH, and why it is where it is (the CEC helps here), and the macro as well as many micro nutrients as possible since the micro nutrients affect a plants ability to uptake the macro nutrients. Michigan State University CES now charges $12.00 per sample for about the same test. This test is an indicator, not the end result. A soil test now is the base from which you begin and if you amend your soil and retest in 5 years you should see where you are going. There is no good reason to test the same plot every year, or more often, but you can test different beds, different years, to see what is going one in them.

Superphosphate is a well recommended method to put phosphurus in the ground when you first plant. Most plants can use this form to enhance rooting and flowering and is recommended 99% of the time at planting time. The abundance of phosphurus (0/20/0) or triple superphosphate (0/46/0) are the usual packages found everywhere in garden centres and nurseries. As most garden fertilizer packages have, either a balanced level of nutrients with phopshurus the middle number, or is found in unbalanced formulae, it is easy to pick and choose according to the plants' requirements. Phosphurus is directly attributable for rooting and flowering and is the reason why, for instance, Miracle Gro...15/30/15 is the leading fertilizer for flowering gardens.

Gotcha! That's a nice change in one year, but there's still some work to do. Your soil has gone from "WTF" to "not that bad," however, so severe grass problems as caused by soil chemistry really aren't in the cards any longer. We'll want to know more about what went wrong this summer to diagnose it for you! Both plots are now more than close enough to fold together into a single test. Exchange Capacity 5.6/6.6: Sandy with some silt, so the soil will tend to drift pretty fast and will need soil tests every year or two. pH 5.7/5.8: While still a bit low, these are moving into proper range rather nicely. We'll nudge this along under calcium, magnesium, and potassium below. OM 2.4%/2.8%: Sampling differences probably account for the change over the year, plus some of what I used last year did burn off a little organic matter. Both are in the Fair range. Always mulch mow, mow all your fall leaves, and consider importing leaves that are on the street if you wish. Sulfur 45/38: Both reasonable, with somewhat less margin than last year. That's normal post a major chemistry adjustment and it'll drift back down over time. Phosphorus 280/333: It looks like I overshot a bit, although these numbers will drop as the phosphorus moves deeper into the soil profile. These are perfect levels for a lawn, however, and no phosphorus is required or desired, but you don't have to avoid phosphorus either. Calcium 58.4%/62.2%: Approaching optimal range. In a lower capacity soil, I'd like to push these to the top of the range. We use Mag-I-Cal, Encap, or Pennington fast lime as the calcium source. Others will be too slow or require too much material in this instance. Recommendations below. Magnesium 8.3%/7.8%: Much rosier than last year! This should be nudged along again, and this is probably the last nudge on it. We use Epsom salt for this, available at your local drug store in the bath or First Aid sections. Recommendations below. Potassium 2.2%/2.3%: This drifted down a bit from last year and I'd like to kick it back up considerably. We use potassium sulfate, available at most landscape or garden shops (or they'll order it for you). You can get it online as well. Minor Elements: I'm still staring at that copper, but it's just barely in tolerable range and we have a lot of other things to be doing this year again. Boron is deficient and mentioned below. Iron's improved nicely. Boron <0.2: Deficient. We use Milorganite as a carrier and 20 Mule Team Borax as the boron source. You can purchase 20 Mules at the grocery store in the laundry section. In a wheelbarrow or the like, dump the Milo. Spraying very, very lightly with water (I use a spray bottle like the kind people use to damp their clothes when they iron) will help the boron stick. Add the recommended amount of 20 Mule Team Borax and stir, spraying occasionally to get the stuff to stick to the Milo. Then apply over the recommended area. So if going for bag rate Milorganite (1 bag per 2,500 square feet), you'd add 12.5 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax. Iron 175-ish: This has risen by 50 PPM and is in the range that it'll produce nice color on a generic lawn. You can certainly continue with Milorganite use to keep improving the color if you like, iron isn't toxic until truly ridiculous levels. Recommendations: October 1: Apply 4 pounds per thousand square feet of Mag-I-Cal, Encap, or Pennington Fast Lime to both areas. October 15: Apply 2 pounds per thousand square feet of Epsom salt in both areas. Apply 5 tablespoons (not a misprint) of 20 Mule Team Borax per thousand square feet. November 1: Apply 2 pounds per thousand square feet of potassium sulfate. April 1, 2016: Apply 5 pounds per thousand square feet of Mag-I-Cal, Encap, or Pennington Fast Lime to the "Front No Sod" area. Apply 3 pounds per thousand square feet of Mag-I-Cal, Encap, or Pennington Fast Lime to the "Front Sod" area. April 15: Apply 2 pounds per thousand square feet of potassium sulfate.

Another little update and another question: Yard is greening up nicely. Section F1 is trailing far behind B1, but I'm not concerned at this point. Since I last checked in I've continued with the plan and added a 24-25-4 starter fertilizer. I supplemented that with Milorganite at 1/2 label rate. Next up in the soil plan is the epsom salt and potassium sulfate this weekend. I *could* put that down, but I'll be aerating in 2 weeks though,at the same time as my next starter fertilizer and Milo application. So if I wait and apply the epsom salt, the potassium sulfate, and the fertilizers at the same time, they'll have the benefit of deeper soil access. Should I worry about applying those at the same time though? Is there the potential to burn the grass?