Soil testing is done to find out a number of things about the soil in your yard, including: nutrient deficiencies, pH levels, salt content, organic matter, lime, and soil texture. Soil testing is most commonly used for crops, but many lawn care companies also offer soil testing.
Soil testing in a lawn is only necessary if you are using chemical products in your turf. When using chemical fertilizers on your lawn, you need to be careful about over-fertilizing and burning the lawn, killing the soil, and toxic buildup.
When using 100% organic products, you don’t need to worry about soil testing because you are letting nature take the lead!
What Your Lawn is Missing
After you use a chemical fertilizer, it may look like you have a healthy green lawn, but that vibrancy will only last a few weeks before the color fades and the lawn turns a dull green again. This is because these types of fertilizers have a fast release nutrient source. This is great for have an instant green-up, but it is unhealthy in the long run for the soil, and is detrimental to the environment. Chemical fertilizers only feed the grass, and do nothing to stimulate beneficial microbial activity in the soil. Lawns that use chemical fertilizers lack a healthy microbiome in the soil, making them susceptible to many issues. We refer to this as a dead soil. Soil testing is unnecessary if you are working to create a healthy, living soil. What does a healthy soil look like? Picture a compost bin. After food scraps and other organic matter start to break down, you end up with a dark, rich soil that is teaming with beneficial microbes by the billions. A healthy living soil keeps everything in balance and there is no need for soil testing. Your grass, plants and trees will all benefit from a living soil.
Causes of a Dead Soil
If you have been using chemical fertilizers on your lawn, it’s likely that you have unhealthy soil, or even dead soil. Not only are conventional fertilizers high in salts which are harmful to the beneficial microbes in the soil, they also only feed the plant. If the microbes are not getting nutrients and are being inundated with salts, they will die, causing a dead soil. While the chemicals cause an instant green-up, they are harmful in the long run. Other factors that can cause a dead soil are over-watering the lawn, frequent shallow watering, compacted soils, and using pesticides and fungicides, all of which are harmful to the microbe population. Over-watering a lawn will replace air in the soil, causing the microbes to die. If you water too frequently, even if it’s not very much at a time, you are still replacing the air in the soil. By letting the lawn dry out in between waterings, you allow the microbes to breathe. Compacted soils also lack air. We suggest getting an aeration at least once a year, to help alleviate soil compaction due to our heavy clay soils in Colorado. If you have heavy foot traffic on your lawn due to dogs, kids, construction, etc., aeration twice a year is recommended, or double aeration. Most chemicals will kill the beneficial microbes in your soil, even if you’re using a hybrid approach, which is what a lot of conventional lawn care companies offer for organic lawn care. The hybrid lawn care programs use chemical products with some organic matter thrown in. This is still not healthy for the soil.
How to Improve Your Soil Organically
The microbes in the soil need four things to thrive: warmth, food, water, and air. Mother Nature provides warmth, which is why the lawn is dormant over the winter months. The best food for the microbes is going to be a 100% organic fertilizer, like those in our Synergy and One Earth products, as well as organic material like that in our Humate soil conditioner. To water your lawn properly, deep and infrequent is the key. This will ensure that the soil is drying out in between waterings as well as promoting deep digging grass roots. We offer a sprinkler audit service if you are unsure how to achieve this. Our technique is called the 1-2-3-2-1 watering technique. If you haven’t had an aeration recently, we highly recommend this service to get air down into the soil. Our clay soils in Colorado make aeration a crucial service to maintain a healthy lawn. Once a year is good, and twice a year is even better. 
