Soil pH testing kits
ALTHOUGH often taken for granted, the most important basic material of any garden is its soil. Why? Because this will determine which plants you can grow and how well they will perform. Plants have a pH range they prefer, in which they will thrive, and another in which they will survive but perhaps never reach their full potential. Outside this range, they may not even survive.
The amount of ‘free’ lime (available to plants) in the soil is a key deciding factor for what you can grow but, all too often, the pH is confused with the soil type. There is a widely-held assumption that clay soil is alkaline, for instance, but it is possible to have clay, silt or sandy soil (or a combination) and they could all, potentially, be
