As someone who cares about having a lush, green lawn, you might be curious about what lawn services are most important. For instance, you might be wondering whether you need a lawn soil test for your Ohio or Northern Kentucky lawn.
You may have heard about soil testing or even seen a soil test kit for lawns at the local big box store. But what’s soil testing all about and do you really need to do it?
In this article, we’ll talk about what a soil test for the lawn can help you with, as well as whether it’s something worth investing in. The truth is, not everyone's lawn really needs a soil test to achieve great lawn care results. But there are some instances where it makes sense.
What is a Lawn Soil Test?
Before we get into whether you need one, let’s talk about what lawn soil testing means.
The simplest explanation is that a lawn soil test is an analysis of what is going on in the soil. It involves pulling cores of soil throughout your lawn and having those sent to a laboratory for analysis.
A lawn soil test will look at the pH of the soil as well as the overall nutrient levels.
You may have seen a soil test kit for a lawn in the local hardware or big box store and wondered about doing it yourself. The trouble with this approach is that oftentimes the DIY kits are subpar to those used by a professional. Mistakes can also be made that will impact the results, such as not going deep enough into the soil or not taking samples from different areas of the property.
But the biggest factor to consider is what you do with the soil test results.
It’s critically important that a soil test is properly interpreted. If you aren’t making the proper amendments based on those results, it isn’t going to make a difference for your lawn. If you already have a lawn care company handling your lawn services, it makes a lot more sense to do the testing through them.
When to Get a Lawn Soil Test
A lawn soil test can be a good idea as it provides a starting point for how your lawn is faring. But as we said at the beginning of the article, lawn soil tests are not always necessary.
That’s because we already typically have a good idea of where a lawn is starting. After all, we’ve been working in this region for many years and our well-trained lawn care technicians have a great eye for what’s going on in local lawns.
We are also not in the business of charging you for additional services when you don’t really need them.
At Oasis Turf & Tree, we typically take the approach of letting the lawn tell us whether there’s really a need for a soil test.
- For instance, if we’re getting applications underway and the lawn is not responding, that would be a good time to have a lawn soil test performed. The information from the soil test would help us get to the bottom of whether there’s something deeper going on.
- Another situation where we might perform a soil test is on a brand-new home where it’s possible low-quality soil was dumped into the lot. This would be a situation where we might not know exactly what we’re dealing with from a soil standpoint. It’s not uncommon for contractors to use extremely subpar fill dirt and then toss grass seed in it to start a lawn.
- Finally, another example is when you had a different lawn care company treating your lawn and it was producing really subpar results. If you feel like you were doing everything else right from a cultural standpoint (including proper mowing and watering), we might perform a lawn soil test to find out what’s going on at the soil level before starting our treatments.
It’s also important to note that when we do perform a lawn soil test, we are not overinflating the price as some lawn care companies do. We are just covering the cost of the test and the time to perform it.
The Importance of Soil Health
At Oasis Turf & Tree, we take soil health seriously. We know that the secret to achieving an amazing lawn lies in the health of the soil. Soil health is very undervalued, even by lawn care pros. But we know it is the soil that supports the health of your total lawn and that’s something we take seriously.
That being said, we typically know what’s needed to achieve great soil health without having to do any testing.
Our lawn care program includes bionutrition that is focused on regularly introducing beneficial microbiological organisms into your soil throughout the year. Lawns typically begin responding to lawn treatments relatively quickly. Though every lawn is different, you’ll start to see some progress over time, as each lawn treatment builds on the last. But if you aren’t seeing progress, then we want you to reach out.
And when it is warranted, soil testing is a service that we can offer to figure out if there’s something else going on.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to caring about getting you the amazing lawn care results you deserve. We want to be your partner in success! When that happens, you can let go of the worries about whether you’re going to see great lawn care results and know that you’re in good hands and the right steps are being taken.
Want to learn more about professional lawn care services for your Cincinnati, Dayton, Ohio, or Northern Kentucky home? Request your quote, choose the lawn care program that’s right for you, and then sit back and relax as the pros help you get the lawn of your dreams without the worries.
