I can see I have my work cut out for me. Looks like I'm starting with raised beds. BTW, as this is my first post, I'd like to thank the members of this forum for providing so much fascinating reading material over the last few weeks, even if I should also be cursing them for my new obsession with soil & composting. :) I had no idea I was going to be lying awake at night thinking about C:N ratios, tilth, drainage, and coffee grounds this time a year ago. If you'd told me I would, I would have asked you what most of those meant and then stared blankly.

I suggest you not try to bring that down in some quick way....plants in an area can adapt; thus a plant where the usual is toward acidic, the same plant may adapt well to a higher reading.
Speak to your neighbors, they have the same soil as you and unless they have added amendments to change the general nature, they grow the same thing as you.

I might assume too since you admit to being 'new' to composting....maybe gardening has not been high on your list--then maybe you have a new home site as well and with that the builders have not made a point of giving home buyers soil around their homes that encourages plants in any particular growing way. New homesites can have problems of drainage...and thus in clay soil, poor nitrogen levels, higher levels of the other elements.

Did the lab that did the test give you any indication of what to do in any corrective measure. You could give your local garden nursery a call and invite them to suggest what plants does well in your particular area and also fill them in on what the test shows. They may then be able to suggest what measures of fixing (if that is necessary) you could do.
Be sure though to speak to the nurseryman....not a high school kid working his way through college.

Lloyd

p.s. Apologies to the Borg.

I'm new to having the space to garden and compost in, I've mostly done apartment container garden in the past.

By all means, do a lot of searching on the web for, "calcareous soil" for a start and there will be a great deal of useful info to be found.

The addition of organic matter to your soil will allow the micros. in it to become available over time, however, try to use O.M. that is NOT high in Ca as it will only exasperate your calcareous dilemma. Hardwood leaves tend to be rather high in Ca, yard clippings, low, and so on.

Your irrigation water may also be a big problem in the long run depending on the formation it comes from. In our white rock area, wells very commonly have high bi-carbonates which amongst other things can cause soil dispersion, leading to poor drainage, increased soil pH and micronutrient deficiencies (an additive effect beyond the soils' impact on micro deficiency). The effect of bicarbonates in irrigation water can be lessened by judicious use of water (not loading the soil as much with bicarbonates), adding soil amendments such as sulfur to reduce pH and the addition of organic matter to the soil. The irrigation water can also be very effectively treated to essentially neutralize the bicarbonates by adjusting the pH down to about 5.5 with specific acids but I strongly recommend not doing it unless you have an intimate knowledge of the chemistry involved and the irrigation and safety equipment required to do it. the neat thing about proper acid injection is that the bicarbonates end up being converted to CO2 and H+ in the water, the CO2 can off gas and the H+ goes on to lower the soil pH which in my case, can use all the help it can get.

Good luck and enjoy all the studying you have ahead of you.

That said, caliche, ugh.