We provide instructions in our pre-paid envelope on how to collect your soil sample, but you will also need a digging implement, either a spade or a trowel to get at the soil. You should push your spade a little over six inches into the ground before bringing up the earth. The reason we suggest a little over six inches is because the nutrients in soil are stratified, that is, they’re distributed throughout the soil and six inches gives us an average of how nutrient rich your soil is.