09 08 - Soil Testing

I have temporarily suspended the Manhole Cover Series to bring you a few other, timely pictures.  I bought a home pH soil testing kit at the Family Tree Nursery to test the soil in our yard.  I have always heard that if you have oak trees (yes), that they leach the good stuff out of the soil and leave it too acidic for your grass to grow.  We paid our lawn services company to test it last year, but this year I decided on the do-it-yourself home kit.  I carefully read the directions, assembled my materials, sampled my dirt, measured my dirt, mixed my dirt and chemicals and waited for the test results.  All of this time, my chemist husband, who did things like this for 40 years at work, just about fell out of his chair laughing at me.  He kept 'volunteering' to do this for me (in about 1/10th of the time), but I pointed out to him that if he did the test, then I did not learn anything.  I am the one that has to do the yardwork, so I was going to do the test.  And yes, the soil is still out of balance, so now I get to mow the leaves, then break up the ground in the bare spots, then put down the new grass seed, then put down the lime.  Woman's work is just never done!