Let's see those '10 gardens

[shilala]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

I have lots of compost, worm castings, mulch, etc. My garden used to always get this stuff added every year. I filled the raised boxes with the mixed stuff from a landscape supply. I am hesitant to add ashes because how much it will raise the already borderline high ph. Greensand sounds like a good way. We have kelp meal around here as an organic fertilizer that is high in K but it is also high in $.

It's kinda hard to make suggestions without knowing what your area is like. I lived in a farm community. Limestone is everywhere. So was organic material like leaves, crop leftovers, straw, compost from our half dozen chicken coops, rabbit poop and bedding, stuff like that.
I kept a huge compost pile and trucked home everything I could get ahold of.
I agree completely on the ashes. I don't use them, never did. Lots of people here do use ashes and tons of powdered lime. It's a tempoarary solution to a permanent problem.
If you had lots and lots of limestone chips in the soil you could use all you want. Thing is, it's still a temporary solution, just like commercial fertilizers.
That stuff is money down the drain, literally.

On the organic material and compost...
Imagine that your garden soil is 100% composted organic material. That would be the ideal. Perfection.
Then add the dirt you have to it. Every shovel makes it worse.
That's not a rub, it's just that forest soil (along with lots of other types of soil) is depleted. It's just the way it is.
I said that to illustrate that no matter how much compost or organic material you've added, it ain't enough. It took me a lot of years to kinda get my head around that.
Your test results are what shows that. It's fixable, and you can fix it for good. Just keep working at it.