Soil testing

I love gardening; I just enjoy the time I spend outside in my garden.  When I was a little girl we had a very big garden- more like a small farm.  We grew everything we ate other than the rice. I didn't particularly enjoy working in the garden at that time, mainly because I was only about 7 or 8 years old and when you are at that age you have more important things to worry about than food.  I loved wandering around the mountain looking for things that even I wasn't sure what I was looking for.  But as I grew older I found out that I have a strong attachment to earth.    

Even though I've had my own garden every year I have never tested my soils before.  But this year, rather than fighting to figure out what is wrong with my garden during the growing season, I thought I will have a good start by checking out the soils and fixing things up before I plant my garden.

First, I drew the map of my garden and numbered them so I will know which soils came from where.

I mixed soils with water and let it sit for few hours, then I would be able to test it for nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium.

(p.s. I didn't need the entire jar of water, a small cup would have worked)

Here in the green tube I was testing for pH levels.  So far all my soils are more of the alkaline side.

The kit came with color coordinated tubes and powders so it was easy to remember which one goes to where. 

So here it is for a happy and bountiful garden this year.