What Can a Soil Test Tell You About Your Lawn?

You can water, mow, and fertilize all you want, but if your soil isn’t balanced, your lawn will always struggle to thrive. Sometimes the real issue isn’t what you are doing above the ground, but what is happening beneath it.

A soil test reveals what your eyes can’t see: your lawn’s pH level, nutrient balance, and overall soil health. It tells you whether your soil can hold onto nutrients or if they’re simply washing away. It can uncover hidden deficiencies and explain why certain nutrients are present but might be unavailable to your grass.

Let’s break down:

What Does a Soil Test Tell You?
Why is Soil Testing Important?
How a Lawn Soil Test Can Help
Partnering with Shades of Green in Indiana

What Does a Soil Test Tell You?

If your lawn isn’t thriving in the way you’d expect, a soil test is one of the most accurate ways to understand what’s going on beneath the surface. The results can reveal a whole lot about your soil’s health and what is holding your grass back.

A standard soil test for lawns measures several key factors, starting with pH and cation exchange capacity (CEC). Think of CEC as your soil’s sponginess. It is your soil’s ability to hold onto nutrients and water rather than letting them pass straight through. A soil with a good CEC acts like a nutrient storage bank, making vital elements available to your grass over time.

The test also evaluates macronutrients (like phosphorus and calcium) and micronutrients (like iron and zinc). You won’t see nitrogen or potassium levels included, since they are mobile nutrients that leach out of the soil too quickly to measure accurately. Instead, soil testing focuses on nutrients that reveal long-term imbalances or deficiencies.

What are the soils like in Indiana?

Here in Indiana, soils tend to run alkaline (high pH), which can make it harder for lawns to access certain nutrients. That’s why understanding your soil’s makeup is so critical. It is the foundation of any effective lawn care program.

Why is Soil Testing Important?

Before starting a lawn care program, it can be an important step to take the time to discover what your soil truly needs. Skipping a soil test can lead to wasted time, money, and effort, especially if the underlying problem is something that fertilizer alone can’t fix.

A soil test provides the baseline information needed to create an effective and customized treatment plan. For example, many Indiana lawns have naturally higher pH, which can prevent plants from absorbing key nutrients even when present in the soil. When that’s the case, treatments like sulfur applications can gradually help lower pH over time. It’s not a quick fix, but it is one of the most effective long-term solutions.

Soils that show low CEC scores indicate that they could benefit from increasing organic matter content through methods like topdressing or liquid aeration, which can temporarily improve structure and nutrient retention.

How a Lawn Soil Test Can Help Inform Your Lawn Care Company

A soil assessment does more than reveal what’s happening beneath the surface, it provides the data your lawn care company needs to make the right decisions for your property. While you can purchase a DIY soil test kit, it is often necessary to have a professional analyze the results.

For example, many homeowners see signs of an iron deficiency and reach for a fertilizer labeled as an iron booster. The problem with this? Most of those products only contain 1-2% iron, and they're rarely ready for the plant to absorb immediately. Since the iron is just small pearls scattered into the bag, it is often a waste of money.

At Shades of Green, we take a different approach. We blend the five most commonly missing nutrients, including trace amounts of iron, formulated so that nutrients are actually absorbed by the grass. If you’ve already had a soil test done, we can review your results and incorporate them directly into your lawn care plan. Our team can analyze the report to identify deficiencies, imbalances, and soil structure issues.

Even without a recent soil test, our premium lawn care program already includes methods designed to improve soil health over time. Treatments like liquid aeration and core aeration enhance soil structure and oxygen flow, while micronutrient applications ensure essential elements are immediately available for plant uptake.

Overall, a soil assessment is more than just helpful data. It helps build the foundation of a science-based lawn care strategy.

Partnering with Shades of Green for Lawn Care Services in Lafayette, Carmel, Noblesville, Westfield, Zionsville, and Nearby Areas

A soil test is one of the most powerful tools for understanding what your lawn truly needs. From revealing hidden nutrient deficiencies to identifying high pH or poor soil structure, it gives you a clear picture of what is happening below the surface - and a professional will be able to address what to do about it.

That’s where our team at Shades of Green can help. We know Indiana soils inside and out, and we use that knowledge to design custom, science-based lawn care programs that address your soil’s specific needs. Whether you have already had a soil test done or you are just beginning to explore the process, we can help you make sense of the results and turn them into real, lasting improvements for your lawn.

Ready to take the guesswork out of your lawn care program? Get started today by filling out our contact form.