Measuring the Quality of Your Soil  Measuring the Quality of
Your Soil  09 December 2010  | CategoryNews Geoff Buckley, co-
founder of Tamborine Mountain’s Green Shed ( and Community
Garden explains how to measure the quality of your soil in this
article.  The most common measure of soil quality is the pH and
this is a good general indicator but does not tell you what to
do if the pH is too low or too high. Soil pH can also vary
during the crop cycle by as much as a whole point. To find out
what to do to correct the health and balance of your soil you
really need a soil test that identifies the mineral deficiencies
and excesses. There are 92 elements that make up the earth (and
the human body) and plants cannot create them if they are not in
the soil, so your fruit, vegetables and herbs will lack
nutrients that are not in the soil they are grown in.  Ideally
you need to do a soil test once a year because different plants
take out different amounts of each nutrient and the rain and
watering can leach out some m