Acidic Soil

Cindy sent me the following question about acidic soil. 

I found your site searching for “acidic soil” because I think my soil might be too acidic and wanted to know how to find out and what to do about it. In general I’m just trying to figure out how to tell whether soil is good soil or bad soil.  Are there easy tests that I can run on the soil in my backyard to know whether the soil is good or whether it needs to be supplemented in some way?

Keep on reading to see my answer.

The best thing any gardener can do is have the soil tested. This test is the easiest part of gardening.
 
The  way to do get your soil tested is to go to your county Master Gardener office (check your telephone book for the address or Google it up) and buy the soil testing packet. It costs just a few dollars (approximately $15 dollars) and will be the best spent money for your garden because it will tell you everything you want to know about the soil in your garden.
 
At the Master Gardener office you will get the soil testing packet with instructions on what to do; the MG who speaks to you will repeat the instructions about what you have to do.
 
Basically what you do to get your soil tested is not much more than digging up soil in the area of your lawn or garden that you want tested and putting the dug up soil into a small bag that you then mail to your local Extension laboratory; the address and all the directions are given to you with the packet. 
 
 In a few weeks all the information you ever wanted to know about your soil will be sent to your home as well as to the Master Gardener office nearest to you. It will have information such as how much lime to add if your soil is acidic, etc. If you have any questions about what you read on the information sheet sent to you, you can now call your MG Helpline where you can ask questions about anything you don’t understand. 
 
 This information can help make you the most knowledgeable gardener in your area.