Four Signs You Should Have Your Soil Tested Before You Start a Kitchen Garden

A kitchen garden is a great way to give yourself a fun hobby while also providing some vegetables for your home. However, before you start planting, you may want to test your soil. Here are a few signs you should check your soil:

1. You live in an area that used to host a lot of factories.

If you live in a development that is a relatively new residential area, you may want to investigate the history of the area before you start gardening. In particular, areas that used to house a lot of factories or other industrial facilities may have problematic soil. If the industrial facilities allowed lead, arsenic, copper, zinc or other heavy metals to get into the soil, those metals could get into the fruits or vegetables that you grow.

However, if you have your soil tested, you know if you should bring in new soil for raised beds, turn to container gardening or explore other options.

2. You want to choose plants inline with your soil.

When you decide to get your soil tested, the tests can look at a range of soil issues. In addition to checking for the heavy metals listed above, the test can also look at the acidity levels in your garden. Based on those results, you can choose plants that will be the most likely to thrive in your soil. If you like that approach to gardening, you may also want to consider a soil test.

3. You want to know which type of mulch or compost is best for your garden.

Just as a soil test can help direct you to the best plants for your garden, a soil test can also direct you to the best types of mulch. For example, imagine you want to plant rows of veg but to stifle the weeds between the rows of vegetables, you want to use mulch. If you get your soil tested and discover that it's too alkaline, you can lower the alkalinity by using pine needles or leaves as mulch.

4. You want to predict which fertilisers your garden needs.

Similarly, you could take cues from a water test and use them to determine which fertilisers your garden is likely to need. To continue with the above example, you could add pine needles or leaves to your compost to address overly alkaline soil. Alternatively, you could use the results of your soil test to determine if you need to add lime or which fertilisers you should use.