Thanks toxcrusadr.

Today the local extension office told me the county libraries all have the collection materials. That's great as I have one about 1.5 miles away.

The only time I would worry about a soil test is when I am doing a planting (I don't do lawns.) In such cases, I have to work the ground anyway, so the soil is already loose. If I wanted to do the cylinder thing, I could use PVC, but with loose soil it's not necessary. However, I haven't yet needed a soil test for my property. It will be interesting though to see what you learn from the test.

When we bought our house, it was 2 yrs old, built on a former soybean field, much grading done and a few inches of clay topsoil put back over heavy clay subsoil. We tested because our dwarf fruit trees wouldn't even bloom. Turned out to be a P deficiency - it sticks to clay like crazy. We were able to fix it.

Always good to know what you're starting with, whether it's unmolested native soil, or someone has been adding who knows what to it.

I ask for organic recommendations, so my tests come back advising me how much manure to apply, greensand, etc.

And flying carpets? :-P

Ha!

Well now I'm just in the waiting period... I ticked plenty of boxes and asked for recommendations. I keep reading that it's better to do in the fall as there's a shorter wait time. Oh well.

Having done more research I now have some ideas about what might come back.

I know I'm in the Virginia Piedmont. There's plenty of clay. However in this large subdivision the builder scraped off the soil (like so many places) back in 1969, and the only owner simply planted invasive non-natives (mostly), with a few specimens.

So the "soil" started out about 0-1 cm 'thick', with masses of Ivy and Vinca romping about under Norway Maples and a Callery Pear.

Since then I've been gently figuring out what the heck to do :)