Contact your local office of your state universities USDA Cooperative Extension Service about having that done and then dig in with these simple soil tests to see what you have. 1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

What I do every year is to dump some brush compost from a local garden place made supposedly from leaves. It at least smell right. I did try dumping leaves last year, but it didn't decompose fast enough and made it somewhat into a mouldy mess. If you add some grass clippings, it should decompose faster and be more complete. I guess most book suggest roto-tilling it with compost, but I don't see how to do this on an established bed. When I plan, I sort of dig a hole and fill it back with a half compost / half top soil mixture. I add leaves, just like you did. When the foliage dies back, if you leave the stems / stalks in place, they will help hold the leaves there. If I have compost ready, I put it in clumps between the plants before the leaves. In the spring, hopefully there is more compost ready. Disperse it when plants start growing again, so you can see where to NOT put it. Then mulch if you have it. I wouldn't try to till around existing plants either. I think that advice is more appropriate to an annual veggie patch. To get started, I'm a fan of tilling once. But I don't think tilling is good after that, even for a veggie patch. Organic matter is not naturally under the soil. Since mother nature doesn't put it there, I don't either. Laying it on top and pulling out old root balls (which go in the compost pile) makes much more sense to me. Amending holes as you describe is good, just make sure to do it down instead of out - deep, not shallow. I like to use a big screwdriver or dandelion fork to poke deep punctures into the subsoil of the hole also. It gives the roots some cracks to exploit so they don't start circling around in the hole. Anytime you can put anything on your soil, it's good. Composting it first is good, but not always necessary. For example, if you don't have a lawn chemical service and mow before seed heads form, you can put grass clippings on your beds without composting first. Just don't go crazy with more than an inch or two of any non-composted single thing. If you're a coffee drinker, putting your coffee grounds in a different spot every day is a great idea. After a few years of amending holes, and amending the soil from above, you'll have dark, beautiful, fertile soil. Works the same here in AL as it did in OH. The more years you add leaves to your beds, the more quickly they will disappear. One caveat not already mentioned is oak leaves. They take so long to decompose that a much lesser amount should be used compared to other leaves, or mixes of leaves. Another is walnut leaves. A thick layer of those could have too much juglone for some of your plants. I would compost these before using on beds.

The Soils forum generally slams the home testing kits, saying the testing labs are much more accurate and not very expensive. The labs also give much more information. You could do us a great service by trying both - test a sample yourself with your kit and send a sample to the UMass lab. Then post the results. Claire Here is a link that might be useful: Soil Testing and pH

I fought this for years and here is where it lead me. Using synthetics can and will produce more as well as more dependable results 100% of the time IF you know exactly what you are doing. That means if you don't hold a degree in the field,it will be hit and miss even asking questions of people who hold the degrees and know exactly what they are doing. Problem is the expert must see and touch the plant,know history of soil&run fingers through it and know precisly what has been done including but not limited to,daily weather,amts & timing of water and nutrents up to that point. Organic is the way to go for even for the most dedicated gardeners. Organic is more forgiving of neglect and mistakes eventhough the mistakes and neglect will reduce production,it's not intolerable amounts. Non-organic mistakes often result in drastic results up to and including 100% loss. An often incountered one is where fertilizer is applied then miscalculation of weather and/or moisture occurs. Another is where insectiside is used to rid a pest that is effecting a plant by eating leaves or sucking some juice but not killing it nor ruining all fruit. Benificials on neighboring plant is eradicated and a pest that was being kept in check or shows up suddenly mushrons and ruins one or more crops. Very few things you do organicly will result in such sweeping results,good or bad. The soil should always be in transition for the lack of a better term. This addresses fertilize applications. In any container or plot , I try to insure there are diverse types and stages of finished compost. That insures that as micros are consumed replacements are being produced. I believe far too much gravity is afforded N being tied up by deterioating matter. Dumping a lot of fresh material like saw dust with huge amounts of exposed surface will definitly starve plants until rate of decomposition slows. A case where there is negitive results but usualy recovers enough to produce a fair to poor crop. Turning under green cover like vetch can realy supply season long crop fuel. I just cannot stress enough how important it is to understand your plants and that will happen with experience and experience will come sooner by asking inteligent questions of those willing to help. In an effort of convincing sceptics that it is possiable to read plants,I offer some off topic evidence. Try this out if you know a rancher,not nessarly an old crusty one, a cowperson in their 20s is quite capiable. Drive him/her to a herd they have never been around and without leaving the seat of the vehicle they can tell you; very near the age,the sex,weight and breed/mixture of breed for each animal while average person is deciding what color they are. If alowed to walk near them (many cattle dislike and will run away from strangers) closly estimate stage of pregnancy while our novice wonders why the one giving birth within a week is not fat as the one who has 3 months to go. Think about human faces. Isn't it amazing that we can differinate all of them. Practice!