Yep, pretty much what everyone has said.

You won't get what you're needing from a home kit.  

If I were doing raised beds. I'd either fill them with a known mix (that doesn't just mean one mix. You can figure out what you've got in there if you know what you're mixing together to get your growing medium)  or I'd do EXACTLY the same mixture of stuff in each raised bed, then I'd sample from each bed, mix it all together, and get ONE sample from all of that, and send it off, marked as a veggie garden.

Our soil tests are less than $10 at the extension office. Yours are likely not a great amount more (though I could be wrong of course) from your extension service.  

It's worth it.

Wonderful job amending your soil!  

I would be interested in knowing the test results and how they differ after those two different treatments.

You can post it here.  Others would benefit too.

And... I will forget.  

I have no mind anymore, even for things I care about.

That'll be fun.

I would still never substitute, as the cheapy kits can't give any kind of detail, but it would be fun to see the results.

That's very interesting.

Did they give you any kind of nitrogen analysis, or are they assuming the pH will be the tell?

ETA:  Reading back through your existing amendments..

You plan to double dig the bed.  What that will do is dilute (somewhat) your mix, and that will change your current standing for some of that analysis.

That's not a bad thing.

And you can adjust on the fly with liquid fertilizers (even manure tea, if you're trying to go organic, but you have to make this in advance) for many things.  

However, "over-fertile" is USUALLY not a problem.

I'm still just interested in the N level. With all that manure, I would assume it's okay except..you put it on last year, and Nitrogen leaches, and you're on the base end of the scale.

You said:  "made the problem worse" and I ASSUME by that you meant you would have gone the wrong direction.

BUT....are you saying you had an actual plant growth/development/fruiting problem last year?

I'm guessing that's not what you meant by "problem" but I think I better ask just in case.

Chemistry:  This is WAY OVERSIMPLIFIED and DOWN AND DIRTY...but..

Nitrogen is acidifying.

You can ALMOST think of Nitrogen as acid.

So the fact that you have a slightly high pH  (not much.  6.5 is considered relatively optimal for many garden plants) --Do you know the pH scale?  7 is the middle/neutral (scale runs 0 to 14) but 7 is generally too high for most garden plants.  

What happens is that certain nutrients are not available unless the pH level is within certain ranges (this is a chemistry thing, and has to do with how the soil colloids/particles hold onto minerals or do not hold onto them, sort of...jeez this is so broad as to be almost inaccurate)  For the soil to release the mineral (chemists would kill me here) there has to be a certain range of acidity in the soil...so the chemical reactions can take place.

So when you see that a plant needs a certain pH range, that's almost ALWAYS why.

At a pH of 6, we usually need to add a little lime (basic) to bring the pH up a bit where I live.

You've got it pretty high.  don't know exactly what components added up to that, but getting it down to 6.5 MIGHT be useful to you, depending on what you want to grow.

It's an easy search.  Just google what plant you are growing, and ask the question..."Best pH for squash"....

You'll get an answer.

If you search for all the things you want to grow, and make a list, you'll know how close you are.

One of the EASY ways to correct a soil pH that is slightly high, is to add some acid in the form of nitrogen.  If you see "miracid" for instance (that's miracle grow's acidifying fertilizer) you will see that it's something like 30-10-10.

Those numbers, IN ORDER are ALWAYS Nitrogen, Phorphorus, and Potassium (N, P, K)

So you will see that Miracid, an acidifying fertilizer, is MOSTLY nitrogen.

Certain nutrients are not available to the plant (I'm not even going to approach the chemistry of this) unless there is enough acid in the soil.  

EXAMPLE:  Chlorosis (Iron deficiency in plants) is one of those issues, and is very common in ornamentals.  Less common in veggie gardens unless the grower is using a lot of undecomposed mulch on the garden. (Decomposition of mulch requires a lot of nitrogen, so it sucks the nitrogen out of the root zone, and there's not enough for the plants....sometimes. )  With Chlorosis, the IRON is not available to the plant unless the soil has enough available nitrogen (and hydrogen, but forget about that)  ("Not available" means it can't get released fro the soil so the plant can take it up, OR the plant itself can't grab onto it because of how the plant is chemically constructed, and what ions are hanging out on the tiniest roots)

Okay have I thoroughly confused you?

Basically if I see an acidic soil, I think, "Okay, plenty of N availability."

If I see a basic soil, I think, "what's the nitrogen analysis in the soil test?  is there enough?"

I'm sort of surprised that you didn't get one.

You might ask your extension agent about that.  

I'm interested in why that was not included, as OUR veggie garden analysis always includes basic NPK spectrum, and does NOT include as many trace elements as you have in yours.  

Different strokes for different labs, maybe.

But Nitrogen is a very fundamental basic--and perhaps the most commonly amended--soil nutrient. (ETA because on a read through I realized that this could be confusing in this context since I'm talking about acid-base relationships, and used this word for another purpose, but still...)

Let me just say...I LOVE soil science--it was one of my favorite parts of school.  But I am NOT a chemist.  Any decent chemist would smoke most of what I am saying with his/her understanding of how it works, if they'd had a soils class. (How soil reacts to chemistry is a whole different thing, and how plants take up those elements is a whole different thing.)

I know just enough to squint my eyes at the numbers  and maybe make corrections.

Now then..

OP, if you did good with your garden last year, don't mess with it unless you have changed the mix.

If you need to adjust that pH a little, you now have the understanding of how/why to do that.

If you can't grasp the "on the ground" part of it, ask.

There was a lot of theory (sort of ) in what I wrote up there.

That's not often actually useful on the ground.

So...ask.

Lots of folks here have more garden knowledge than I do.

You will get good answers.

No on the pathways.  Do whatever you want with those.  If the roots are not extending into them, don't worry about it.  Mulch at will.

I agree on the blueberries.

They need their own planet.

However, her focus on only that and potatoes?  

It's okay.  She's obviously got her stuff together and is helping.  Good.

Give me a bit to look at your results. I'm running hard this weekend, and will focus on them as soon as possible.  In the meantime, carry on as planned. You can always amend.

You are welcome.