Thanks gardengal! I guess I should be more concerned with the ph level of my native soil more than anything. I just bought one of those ph meters at Lowes and after wetting the soil I am getting a ph level of 3. I guess I have alot of work to do to get it even out. I'm not even sure how to go about doing that. There's alot of work to this stuff lol

That's not even close to being correct!! If your soil had a pH of 3, virtually nothing would be growing! The meter type testers are not very reliable unless you get the really pricey ones. And there are some tricks to using them properly. You would be better served with the small, inexpensive test kits that use colors to determine the pH of a soil-water solution. But you have to use distilled water, as tap water has its own pH.

Where are you located? Many times a general conclusion of a pH range can be deduced just based on regional location. Or tell me what plants are growing in your area - check your neighbors' yards, etc. Do they have veggie gardens? A lot of different trees and shrubs? If a lot of different plants are being grown, then your pH is much more likely to be in the "normal" range..........somewhere between 5.5 - 7.0. To be honest, nailing down a soil pH is not always that critical. When I first started gardening, I had no idea what a 'pH reading' was and never paid any attention to it. I just knew that plants needed decent soil and water and went from there.

If you are just getting started with gardening, don't try to get overly complicated :-) It'll drive you nuts trying to figure out all that technical stuff. But it will come to you eventually with experience.

Thanks gardengal! I'm glad I posted on here because I was ready to do whatever it took to get the soil more acidic lol. I live in Indiana. There's tons of vegetable gardens around here. People around here grow just about anything. However, I haven't seen anyone growing things like Lupines, Delphiniums, Fox Gloves (which are native here). There's definitely alot of different trees growing in peoples yards here as well. I have noticed alot of trees this year with pink leaves on them. Not sure what those would be. Before learning about the whole ph test I had already planted alot of different seeds and they are coming up now so I guess figuring out the soil isn't as important as I thought it should be lol. I guess it's really just a learning process. What grows well this year will hopefully return next and that will give me a better direction as well. Most everything I have planted is perennials. Thanks again for all of your help. It is very much appreciated :)

16-16-16 always seems to be the cheapest, so that's what I use. Go slow. I add like a teaspoon around the plant once a month, or every 2 weeks for fast big growers like Canna. Banana plants are the only ones I've ever heavily fertilized...unbelievable amount.

I've also used Jobes fertilizer spikes, the big kind made for trees. Again I use as close to even number as I can find. They can be found pretty cheap and I break them up with a hammer into chunks and add 2 -3 chunks to 5 gal pots. Good for a season. A cheap slow release type deal. Not as good as actual slow release. The normal granular stuff is a bit strong for pots, and washes out pretty fast. So when I use granular I just add a pinch every couple of weeks.

I do use ammonium sulfate, like 21-0-0 for lawns and would for some green only plants at least some of the time. It's a bit cheaper.

The formulas for specific plants can be used of course, but normally are more expensive. Like a 14-5-10 rose fertilizer isn't really very different from a 16-16-16 and I doubt the rose can tell the difference. When we add fertilizer a lot isn't going to be used by the target plant. But the higher the numbers the more care is needed for not over doing. As gardengal48 said, the less powerful kinds like organic and lower numbers are harder to screw up. But hey, this is gardening. If you're not killing a few plants every once in awhile are you really learning?

Don't be concerned with the ph of your soil. Your location is just fine for growing; in fact, all of the USA is just fine for growing. Make sure the plants you're wanting to grow are suitable for your area. Your soil is just fine. What fertilizer you use doesn't matter, it's mostly all the same stuff, just different variations on nutrients. Using a broad spec or general fertilizer is fine. Don't overthink it!