Annette Meyer Heisdorffer Entitled "Soil Testing Provides

¶ … Annette Meyer Heisdorffer entitled "Soil testing provides what the lawn needs," although in truth the title of article is slightly a misnomer. As discussed within this article, soil testing actually indicates what essential elements soil in either a lawn or a garden needs. The author's approach to this article is highly conscientious and somewhat simplified. It is written in clear, somewhat unimaginative prose that substantially aids in the clarity of the article, which appears to be the author's main focus.

Essentially, this article relates how to utilize the method for soil testing as recommended by the University of Kentucky Soil Testing Laboratory. This method involves taking samples of soil to the County Cooperative Extensive Service Office of Davies County, which charges $7 to evaluate the soil. Individuals who follow this process will get the analysis of their soil in approximately a week.

The author alludes to the fact that the proper timing for actuating this procedure is prior to the October and November -- which are the optimum months for providing soil fertilization. One of the reasons why the author chooses to elucidate the University of Kentucky's method for testing soil is because it provides tangible information about important facets of soil including its levels of phosphorous, potassium, and its PH.

However, it is worth mentioning that this method does not reveal information about the amount of nitrogen that is needed for soil to grow, which the author states is "determined by the plant or crop" (2 on mine). The author's tone and writing style appears to cater to all audiences, especially novices.

She provides a fair amount of explanation regarding the ph scale, explaining the concepts of acidic and alkaline as well as the fact that the scale operates logarithmically, so that an acid reading of 3.5 is ten times more acidic than that of 4.5. She also identifies the facts that phosphorous and potassium are key nutrients for soil, and details the exact benefit that they provide for plants and crops.

Newcomers may find the fact that she details how to read the exact amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium that various fertilizer products particularly beneficial. However, the author saves the majority of the detail for denoting expressly how to apply the soil test. Doing so involves gathering soil from various places in a particular lawn or garden, so that gardeners can gain a truly comprehensive view of the soil.

The author provides the exact number of inches of excavations needed to be made, and provides information about how to take out the soil as well as where to put it. Towards the end of the article, she explicates some of the differences of taking soil from lawns vs. from gardens, since the latter have deeper roots and require deeper excavations. On the whole this article is highly utilitarian. It provides more information that simply how to take a soil sample and get it tested.

It explains what sort of nutrients soil needs as well as how to obtain them. There is a fair amount of didactic value in the article related to the.