FINALLY!! The soil testing kit came in the mail! I ordered it from a company in Burlington, WA, http://www.simplysoiltesting.com/ not very far away from the Floret Flower Farm – where I ordered my seeds from…the soil testing kit took longer to get here than the seeds!!!

I was surprised it came in a flat envelope, because it is supposed to come with bags to put the soil in & a pre-paid box to mail the dirt back in.

Surprise…the box was inside the envelope- of course it was!!

I was so excited to get outside this morning & dig some holes to get the samples back into the mail, it was like Christmas morning!

We are testing 3 areas, a vegetable garden, the cut flower garden area (which was the fairy garden last year) and a gourd/pumpkin patch.

Following the directions on the paperwork, we did a W pattern dig, taking 5 samples from each garden plot, taking scrapings from each point on the W in each garden.

Joe dug the holes according to the instructions, 8 inches deep, I scraped the bottom of the holes & scooped dirt into the coordinating zip loc baggies that came in the kit.

Now, time to fill out the paperwork!

It’s rather interesting how they have things laid out on their testing form. It lists a vegetable garden option, (01) but then lists out different vegetables-as if maybe beets (14) & carrots (16) shouldn’t be in the same garden!? As well as pumpkins (26) and gourds (19) in different categories….can they not go in the same patch? These numbers are only used if you are asking for lime & fertilizer recommendations…which we are, in addition we ordered a full comprehensive test to check all minerals, ph, soil composition and density. So hopefully-my request won’t seem too crazy when they get my paperwork! My final paperwork I sent them isn’t the picture below, I promise it wasn’t that messy, it was probably dirtier, but not messier!

Probably dirtier because when I went to put the bags in they didn’t fit, apparently my scraping was a bit overzealous!

So I had to empty the bags into a pot & mix the dirt up to be sure to get a good sample of all five holes….

And refill the bags, to try again!!

I just hope it’s enough for the tests…

(After reading the page AGAIN it did say only about a cup was needed!!).

I taped the box all up, we trotted down to the mail box, sat it carefully upright in the mail box (because it’s heavier than it looks and it would be easier for our mail lady), swung the door closed, raised the flag with such a flourish you would think we had just finished a race!!

It was not more than a half hour that the mail lady came rattling down the road to pick up the mail, we high-fived each other for getting it out in such a timely manner, even my 22 year-old daughter was excited for me on the other end of the phone!

Now we wait, for the soil testing company to email us the results within 10 days.

I’m convinced they are going to tell us nothing will grow, we should stick to cattle!! We shall see!

In the mean time we are discussing green house plans, soaker hoses, warming mats, grow lights, bigger garden plots, bigger road side stands and everything else in between!