I know next to nutthin 'bout reading soil tests but a couple of advisories. Depending on who did the testing, some labs give recommendations for lime for agricultural purposes where they expect the lime to be mixed into the soil rather than spread on top. Keep in mind that grass does best in soil that is at a PH of 6.5ish or so.and that it is much easier to increase PH than it is to reduce it. So if you add to much lime... Second thing to keep in mind is that you do not want to add more than one pound of N per month at a time to an existing lawn. Also too much N in a seed bed is not beneficial to seedlings and can kill germenating seeds Thirdly, N and P leach pretty quickly, so adding more than the plant can use before they leach out is both a waste of money and bad for the enviorment. Maybe there are some soil test readers here, If not, I'd suggest you re-do the test with Logan Labs and pay for them to make recommendations. Just my two cents.

You do not need to test all 20 beds seperately, you could sample the soil in each of the beds, mix them together, and have one test done that will give your an overall picture. If you are going to grow pretty much the same thing in each bed, ie. vegetables, flowers, the requirements will be about the same and so one soil test is all that is needed, same thing as testing a large garden plot of 400 square feet. What material do you have available to add to your compost? Any leaves? Any possibility of getting lots of leaves? What is the level of organic matter in the soil now? How is the drainage of that soil? How workable is the soil? What does the soil smell like? How many earthworms are in each shovel full of soil from those beds?

Wow, thanks for the fantastic information everyone. It sounds like my plan of 1 cubic yard of compost + rabbit manure should do the job. I admit I was surprised to have such good results. I will be adding rabbit manure (either directly or through tea) throughout the season, so nitrogen definitely shouldn't be an issue. To be honest, I'm not sure if the area has been limed--this is our first year planting here. The existing bed hasn't been cared much in quite a few years, so if it was limed, it wasn't recently. I was honestly expecting to have to lime myself, since the whole area is bordered on one side by some sizable hemlocks. I'm actually interested to see if any of the seeds I randomly threw down among some bushes in the back will actually grow. Because it's wooded, it's never been mown, so there are lots of decaying leaves and what looks like very rich soil as a result. I figured some shade-tolerant plants (kale, collards, lettuce, spinach, peas) might be happy there. Best case, my bunnies will happily eat whatever is grown. Worst case, I used seeds which I already have too many of anyway. There's also a HUGE compost pile, but I have no idea what to do with it. It's all yard waste and hasn't been tended. Our landlords have just haphazardly thrown everything in there from leaves and grass (good) to gigantic branches (bad). Digging out the good stuff on the bottom might require a backhoe...

I revive this old thread on soil testing, since I have just received my soil report from EarthCo, as recommended by Karl from zone 5a. A $20 test gives you accurate results for pH, organic matter, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. It's a good deal, considering that you get MANY samples from your garden, and send that 1 cup of cumulative soil to www.drgoodearth.com EarthCo also gives you a thick booklet that covers the basics of soil science. I was lazy, so I got only the surface soil, rather than the bottom yellow clay (which I already tested using Lowe's soil kit). My surface soil (with dead leaves & grass, horse manure, etc.) are: 7.7 for pH (as expected with alkaline clay and horse manure), high in organic matter, and SUPER-HIGH in magnesium! I would like to thank Michaelg, Mike Rivers, Karl, and Jim for encouraging me to DO A SOIL TEST FIRST BEFORE WASTING TIME WITH EPSOM SALT. My calcium and phosphorus are adequate, but my potassium is a little bit short. We can always use more banana peels for roses in my zone 5a, 1 hour west of Chicago. Berndoodle is right on the info. about heavy clay and high magnesium in California (my 3 sisters live there). Bern's info. on high pH can be amended through addition of nitrogen/organic matter is correct, since cow manure's pH is 4 to 5, peat moss is 4, and both alfalfa meal and pine bark are acidic. The exception is horse manure, reported around 8 to 10 pH, since some stables add lime to deodorize their stalls. I spent 1 hour researching to see if gypsum is necessary for clay. The answer is NO, do not waste your money. The best amendment for clay from my experience is peat moss to lower pH, and alfalfa meal. Here's my experiment on William Shakespeare rose, planted as a band this July: Knowing his reputation for being wimpy, I put him in Miracle-Gro potting soil. The pot wasn't draining well, so he was turning yellowish. He whimpered in the hot sun, so I put him in partial shade, he improved and started blooming. I planted him in the ground September 1. I was really annoyed by his continued yellowish leaves, even with improved drainage. So I dug him up, and amended the soil with 2 gallons of peat moss mixed with 1 gallon of alfalfa meal. It was excessive, but worked wonder. Mr. Shakespeare turned dark green, and really bushy and vigorous. The peat moss brought down the pH, fixed my alkaline soil problem, and the alfalfa meal gave the nitrogen needed and stimulated abundant new growth. With Eglantyne I followed Roses Unlimited directions of 2 cups of alfalfa meal & 3 cups peat moss in the planting hole, OK, but leaves are NOT as green as Mr. Shakespeare. Michaelg: Where do you get litmus paper or Rapi-test for pH? The soil test from Lowe's is not accurate with pH, and I need to test horse manure repeatedly for high pH whenever I get from the stable. Many thanks.