In order to have a fantastic garden or lawn, you need to understand at least a little about soil chemistry. If you don’t know what your soil consists of, how can you know what you need to adjust in order to best support your plants or grass? 

What is soil chemistry?

At its most basic level, soil chemistry is about what the soil contains and how it reacts to the environment. It’s about how the soil absorbs everything, whether it is water, nutrients, or pollutants. It’s about the composition of the soil, including:

• Chemicals/nutrients
• Organic matter
• Level of acidity or alkalinity

Understanding what’s in your soil helps you to create ideal conditions for your garden. You need to know what your yard’s soil contains in order to properly adjust or amend it for optimal plant growth.

Chemicals/Nutrients

Several chemicals necessary for your plants are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium, among others. Probably the most recognizable and the one most often found in commercial fertilizers is nitrogen. This chemical nutrient needs to be renewed in the soil when most plants are growing, because it gets depleted as plants use it. Other chemicals will become depleted as well, but to varying degrees depending on what is being grown in the soil, where the soil is located and even whether you use compost in your soil or not.

Other elements are usually trace, meaning that while they’re necessary, they are not needed in the large quantities that nitrogen is. Of course, too much of a good thing usually turns out to be a bad thing, so don’t over-fertilize your soil.

Organic matter

Good soil is living soil. It contains matter in various stages of decomposition, bringing nutrients to the plants growing there. Plenty of organic matter breaks up clay soils and helps sandy soils retain moisture better.

pH balance

The pH balance (soil acidity or alkalinity) is vital to your garden. Unfortunately, all plants don’t like the same pH level. For example, a blue flowering plant will need a more acidic soil to keep the blue color while other plants may actually want a more alkaline soil. Your soil can be amended to change the pH, but before you do that, you have to know what the beginning levels are.

That’s why soil testing is so important. Try your local garden center or a feed store for test kits. Follow the kit instructions, and your results should come back with easy to read statistics on what your soil chemistry is and what is currently lacking.

It’s a good idea to test your soil once a year and amend it according to the results. While it’s not necessary to be a chemist when talking about your soil’s needs, it’s definitely a plus to have a basic understanding of soil chemistry so you can get the most from your dirt.