How to sample your soil

You don't need anything fancy — a trowel or small shovel you already own, a zip-top bag, and about 15 minutes. Read through once before you start; the actual sampling goes quickly.

What you'll need

The steps

1. Pick your spot

   Decide which area of your garden you most want a read on — one raised bed, one section of lawn, one patch of orchard. Bag each area separately so the results are specific to that ground. Testing more than one? Choose how many areas at checkout — each area gets its own bag, its own QR code and its own results, and they all ship together in one box on one prepaid label.

   Avoid sampling if you've recently:

   • Applied fertilizer, compost, or amendments in the last 30 days
   • Limed or sulfured the soil in the last 90 days
   • Heavily watered or had a hard rain within the last 24 hours (let the soil drain first)

   Avoid these locations within your chosen area:

   • Within 6 feet of a tree trunk, fence post, or driveway
   • Compost piles, pet areas, or where you regularly dump yard waste
   • The bare edges of beds where soil mixes with paths or gravel
   • Straight into the root ball of a plant — take your slices from the open soil between plants
   Leaf litter, mulch and lawn thatch aren't a reason to skip a spot — just brush them aside and sample the soil underneath. You want soil, not the material sitting on top of it.
   Raised beds are welcome — free-standing pots aren’t. Sample a raised bed the same as any other area, even if you filled it with bought soil. Don’t send potting mix from pots or containers.
   Ordered Soil Safety together with Soil Health & Microbiome? Each panel needs its own bag, so that area sends two. You don't sample twice — take one set of slices as usual, mix them together, and split the mix between the two bags. Both panels then describe exactly the same soil.

2. Take 5 to 8 sub-samples

   This is the most important step. Soil varies a lot even within one bed, so we need a blend from multiple spots — not one scoop from one place.

   • Walk a zig-zag or "M" pattern across the area (see diagram above)
   • At each of 5–8 spots along the pattern, dig a small hole 4 to 6 inches deep (the root zone for most garden crops; go 2–3 inches for established lawn)
   • From each hole, take a thin "slice" of soil from top to bottom of the hole — not just the surface
   • Drop each slice into your zip-top bag as you go
   • You want to end up with about 2 cups of soil in the bag — roughly a pound. That's the target for each bag you're sending, so if you're splitting one mix between two bags, take a slightly deeper slice at each spot and aim for about four cups before you divide it
   • Pick out the large and medium pieces of anything that isn’t soil as you go — rocks, wood chips, bark and twigs. Small stones and fine bits are fine to leave in
   • Squeeze the air out of the bag and seal it

3. Label it and pack it

   Write the area name on the bag in marker — the same name you gave it at checkout ("Front Bed", "Back Lawn"). That's the one thing worth writing: it tells us which ground the results describe, and it's our backup if a QR code won't scan.

   Sending two bags from one area? Add the panel name to each one — "Front Bed — Soil Safety" and "Front Bed — Soil Health & Microbiome" — so the right bag runs the right test. Each bag's QR code is labelled with its panel on your confirmation page.

   Put the bag or bags inside any box or padded mailer you have at home. A shoe box, an Amazon mailer, a padded bubble mailer — all work fine. Don't worry about cushioning; soil isn't fragile. Several bags can travel together in one package.

4. Print, attach, mail

   Print your label sheet from your order confirmation page — at 100% (Actual size), not Fit to page — and cut along the dashed lines. Tape the postage label to the outside of your package, keeping the barcode flat and uncreased. Put the QR code inside the bag with the soil — the lab scans it on intake to match your soil to your order.

   Testing more than one area? Your QR codes are on your order confirmation page, one per area, each labelled with the name you gave it. Print them and put one inside each matching bag.

   Then drop the package at any USPS mailbox, hand it to your mail carrier, or take it to any post office.

   Tracking: your tracking number is in your order email. You'll get an email from us when the lab receives your sample and a second email when your report is ready.

Frequently asked

When your report arrives

You'll get an email from us when your report is ready. What's in it depends on the test you ordered, and every section explains what's driving your results:

Order Soil Health and Soil Microbiome together and one report reads them as a single picture. Whatever you order, the most important thing the report does is point to the highest-impact things you can act on this year — and if everything's in good shape, we'll tell you that too.