You might not have been told this, but your soil’s pH is extremely important for the health of your lawn and garden. While most types of grasses are highly resilient and can survive in a slightly more alkaline or acidic soil, there are herbs and flowering plants that can be more sensitive. Combined with environmental stressors associated with the local weather and climate, an unbalanced pH can cause these plants to stop growing properly and it might even lead them to become sick and die.
Planning for a perfect soil pH requires careful testing and adjustments until the ideal pH value is reached. To test your soil’s pH, get a sample from the soil, put it in a glass and pour distilled water on top. After agitating the glass, pour the sample through a coffee filter and get the water to flow into a clean glass. Then use a pH test strip to see the actual pH of that piece of soil.
For best results, repeat the test with samples from different areas of your garden to find out the average pH and see where the soil might need to be adjusted. The best practice would be to test the pH in areas where you’re actually thinking of planting some of your most fragile plants and herbs. As the testing process is done, use simple methods such as adding garden lime or dolomite lime to make it more alkaline, or amending it with well decomposed compost soil to make it more acidic.