It does depend. If you just want a tolerable lawn and the cause of your problems is insects, disease, or neglect, you may not need one at all.

If you're looking for Best on the Block, you'll probably want one. And if you're going for Best in City, you're absolutely going to require one.

Before you spend the money, let's see if you're doing things right with watering, mowing, and fertilizing. Here's the basics of lawn care. If you were doing one or another of these incorrectly, then you can go a long way to fixing the lawn prior to the soil test.

Basics of Lawn Care

After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct.

1. Watering
Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.

You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week.

2. Mowing
Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush.

3. Fertilizing
Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything).

At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.

I was having it mown correctly and fertilized OK. I fired my fertilizing company near the end of the season after they oversprayed flowers with weed killer multiple times. I've already used some alfalfa meal, soybean meal, and Milorganite, along with some Scott's.

I was NOT watering correctly but have moved to doing that.

Not looking to be "Best on Block" but more thinking that I'd like to maximize my efforts, so "Best for Time Spent." I actually enjoy spreading the organics, etc., and it seems like it would make sense to get the most out of it as possible.

So I'd enjoy working on it and seeing what I could do to improve it, but don't want to get to the point where I wouldn't "dog sit" my son's dog in case, gasp, she made a spot on my perfect lawn.

Properly managed (and with well-balanced resources) dogs aren't a problem. We vary between two and five dogs, our two and up to three more depending on how many are visiting at that time as their owners go on vacation. This week, it's three.

Grass marks, none, and it's rare that there are any. A well-tuned soil tends not to have issues with dog burns.

Then it sounds like the dog might be one more good reason to get a soil test and work towards getting the soil in the best shape reasonably possible. Thanks.

Most people don't say anything when posting their tests, so I tend to give the "put everything in the perfect groove" answer. If you're looking for corrections to big problems, but aren't looking to have the soil so well-tuned it could play with the London Symphony Orchestra, let me know that.

Organic methodology goes most of the way toward protecting against dog burn. The only time I see it is in hot, dry weather when my mother's Shetland Sheepdog is visiting. He tends to put off going out, then pees all in one spot. Our Bichons like to spread it around as a warning to other mammals.

Poo tends to disappear quickly...actually, I haven't seen a poo on the lawn since the end of winter, and won't again until late November. I presume they're there, somewhere, but I never see them, never have "shoe accidents," and I can verify that I see the dogs do their business out there. It just disappears in a day or two, absolute maximum.