I re-read your post, Sammy, and understand that you are looking for good soil. So do I, after the bagged EarthGro topsoil at HomeDepo killed my decade-old orange summer phlox, plus my peony, and put my Japanese Maple tree on life-support. Nastara, zone 5, informed me that this past summer's bagged soils were contaminated with Herbicide, resulting in complaints from farmers. I tested the pH of my soil, EarthGro's topsoil, and Menard's "American Countryside" brand. EarthGro's topsoil was the most alkaline (greenish blue in red cabbage juice), my pH of 7.7 native soil (professionally tested by EarthCo., turned blue in my red-cabbage juice test), and least alkaline is Menard's. I would place EarthGro's topsoil at pH of 8 and Menards pH of 7.5 or less. Moo Cow-manure is the worst, pH of 9, same color as baking soda in red cabbage juice. There was a post in the soil forum about the offensive odor of top soil from Lowe's. Actually stinky means good - because they haven't put lime in it to deodorize the soil, thus shooting up the pH to the 8 to 10 range. I'm buying Lowe's bagged soil this summer (I used it in the past and it didn't kill my plants). Menards' top soil is OK for pH, but it's loaded with weed seeds. My neighbor turned her lawn into a weed patch after using that stuff. The professional lawn company had to put lime plus other chemicals to kill her weeds. The best soil is what you make yourself with your own compost and you know what goes into it. Store-bought bagged soil often contain boiler-ash (#1 industrial waste) to make it pitch-black, plus biosolids (human waste)and lime to deodorize, thus raising the pH. Tapla, professor of horticulture, has a recipe of potting soil: 5-1-1 (5 parts ground composted pine mulch, 1 part perlite, and 1 part peat moss). Here's a clip of his recipe and below is the link to his website. It's the same ingredients recommended by Douglas Green, Ontario nursery - and the same ingredients listed in Ball's planting mix. Ball is the largest nursery here. My Basic Soils 5 parts pine bark fines 1 part sphagnum peat (not reed or sedge peat please) 1-2 parts perlite garden lime (or gypsum in some cases) controlled release fertilizer (if preferred) micro-nutrient powder, other continued source of micro-nutrients, or fertilizer with all nutrients - including minors Big batch: 2-3 cu ft pine bark fines 5 gallons peat 5 gallons perlite 2 cups dolomitic (garden) lime (or gypsum in some cases) 2 cups CRF (if preferred) 1/2 cup micro-nutrient powder (or other source of the minors) Small batch: 3 gallons pine bark 1/2 gallon peat 1/2 gallon perlite 4 tbsp lime (or gypsum in some cases) 1/4 cup CRF (if preferred) micro-nutrient powder (or other source of the minors) Here is a link that might be useful: Al's Tapla container soil mix

I don't put any sulfur in the holes of the roses pictured. The other holes with sulfur didn't bloom well. My heavy clay is very retentive, there is no leaching here. Here's a quote from Nutrient Stewardship site: "Phosphorus is the nutrient most affected by pH. ..Nitrogen, Potassium, and sulfur are less affected. At alkaline pH values, greater than pH 7.5, phosphate ions tend to react quickly with calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) to form less soluble compounds. At acidic pH values, phosphate ions react with aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe) to again form less soluble compounds." It's good to test if one's tap water is alkaline, some cities add lime to water so pipes won't corrode. Calcium in lime will bind with phosphorus, and less is available. In my 12 years of growing flowers in pots, the year that I got continuous MOST blooms despite my pH 8 water was when I used high phosphorus SOLUBLE fertilizer, and low nitrogen. Granular phosphorus like bone meal and 46% superphosphate are useless in the planting hole here in alkaline clay. My results confirmed what University of Colorado stated "bone meal and rock phosphate can only be utilized at or below pH 7". My pH 7.7 soil was tested most deficient in phosphorus. Here's a quote from David Neal, CEO of Dyna-Grow Plant Nutrition in CA: "There is some evidence to believe that low N helps to convince a plant to stop its vegetative growth and move into its reproductive phase (flowering), but environmental factors are probably more important. P is typically 5th or 6th in order of importance of the six macronutrients. There is little scientific justification for higher P formulas, but marketing does come into play ...." He's right, just a tiny bit of SOLUBLE phosphorus made more blooms and more roots - but beyond that is wasteful. The site, Robert Morris NOBLE plant foundation, rated the mobility of NPK: "Let's compare the mobility of NPK on a scale of 1 to 10. Nitrogen is a 10 ... extremely mobile and can be lost to leaching. Potassium is a 3. It has limited movement in the soil. Phosphorus has a rating of 1. It is immobile in the soil and is likely to stay wherever it is placed." Here is a link that might be useful: Soil pH and availability of plant nutrients

piedmontnc summed things up rather nicely but I'll just chime in with this: When testing something, isn't it counter-intuitive to introduce additional ingredients? : Actually, the majority of lab work is done by adding other ingredients. As we've been discussing, a deflocculating agent is added for the textural analysis. In regards to the chemistry portion, the lab has to knock stuff off of the surface of soil particles so that they can be measured by machines, which is done by adding a lot of different stuff, depending on your needs. Sometimes it's an acid, sometimes it's a chelating agent, sometimes is bicarbonate, sometimes it's a cocktail of reagents,etc. Many times, something is detected and measured through a titration in which you keep adding a chemical to a solution until you get the expected reaction and the amount of the chemical that you used tells you how much of the thing you are looking for is in the solution. Lab work is all about adding stuff to what you're testing. Arsenic - strikes me as ubiquitous from the get-go. Yes, it is. How much is too much? That's the sixty-four thousand dollar question and the answer depends on a number of factors. Are you concerned with human exposure to the soil? Plant toxicity? Toxicity to you due to uptake of arsenic by the plants? Ground water contamination? All of the above? Because they will all have different thresholds. Then the answers depend on a whole slew of things including, but not limited to, depth to the water table, soil texture, organic percent, soil pH, the form that the arsenic is in, what you're growing and on and on. Again, I don't think that every time someone uses ironite an angel cries or anything. I just think that there is an, as yet to be determined, potential for crossing one of those thresholds. When there are other options available, I tend to take the cautious route. That's just how I roll. kimmsr and since the professor of soil science I long ago got this simple test from stated that nothing exceopt the soil and water needed to be added to get a good result I've met some brilliant soil science professors, some that pretty much know what they're talking about and some that I have an urge to call after every good rain just to make sure they didn't drown while looking up to see what was falling on them. Don't be too star struck by the title "professor". I see no reason to add anything to flocculate or hold in suppension I know ya don't, buddy. I know ya don't.

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...