Taking Soil Samples

Today was a good day to get something done that I'd had on my to-do list for a while: Taking soil samples. Soil samples are a good idea and help you determine your soil pH and available nutrient levels in the soil, enabling you to be a good soil steward so that you can grow grass for your animals in the pasture and vegetables in your garden for you!  If you don't take care of your soil, you'll have low yields and waste a lot of time.

Benjamin has been studying soil in science and I figured it would be a good lesson to have him help me so that we could talk about soil structure, erosion, and fertility.  We took 3 separate soil samples, one from the garden and two from separate areas in the pasture.  Soil quality can vary from area to area even within a relatively small plot, so it is important to take different samples.

I dug a hole about 4 inches deep and Benjamin put several handfuls of soil in an old yogurt container.

Taking the first sample.

You want to label the soil so that you know where it came from.

This sample came from the middle of the garden

We then walked out to the south side of the pasture.  I dug a hole with a shovel and it was like trying to dig a hole in some cement.  The ground is hard and dry.  It was so different from the soil in the garden that I've been composting and amending the soil with organic matter year after year.

Rock hard soil

Benjamin asked, "Dad, how're we going to sample this soil.  It's hard as a rock?"  I told him that I'd chop it up with the shovel. 

Softening the hardpan soil

Benjamin was then able to scoop up some dirt and put into his bucket.

We labeled this as well.  The dirt from the pasture was lighter colored and a finer consistency than the garden soil.

The sample from the southern part of the pasture

We walked on to the northern part of the pasture and Benjamin loaded the last bucket with soil for the sample.

Last soil sample of the day

This sample was fine, hard, and dry like the last one, but had lots of roots in it.

Sample from the Northern part of the pasture

The sampler only needs about 60 grams for the analysis, so I googled a conversion to find out how much to use.

I used a Sharpie to mark on each ziploc bag, the location where the sample was taken, along with my name. Then I began spooning the soil into the bags.

Spooning in the soil

Weighing the soil is important.  I want to put a little more than 60 grams in the bags, but not too much as it will increase the shipping cost.  Any leftover was put back out in the garden or on the pasture.  I don't want to give away my dirt!

I included a little more than .13 of a pound

Note the difference in color of the soil below.  The sample on the left came from the pasture.  The one on the right was taken from the garden.  It looks darker and richer and is the result of many years' work in adding compost and organic matter to build up the soil.

Comparing pasture soil (left) to garden soil (right)

Finally, here are the soil samples all sealed up, labelled and ready to be mailed for analysis.

Ready to be mailed

I'll pop these into a box and mail them and will look forward to receiving the results of the analysis.  They are going to send the results in an Excel spreadsheet with a calculator for crop nutrients so that we can easily determine our fertilizer needs.

I'll report back once I receive the analysis back.  It all starts in the soil, so you want it healthy.  If you take care of your soil, your soil will take care of you.