REALLY high potassium & phosphorus test results

I have had a soil test done on a permenant flower bed, and the Phosphorus and Potassium levels are "very high". The Phosphorus is 1206 parts per million, and the Potassium is 1717 parts per million. The bed is 10 years old and has been fertilized with liquid fish fertilizer and has had some composted steer manure mixed in over the years. The bed has probably had some lawn fertilizer on it over the years from the sloppy use of spreaders.There was also a huge Male dog in the yard, but he was never seen to 'water' the flowers. Our local Co-op extension has told me that the dog was not the problem. They have told me to replace the soil, but this really isn't possible. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Or how this happened!

All the things you've mentioned that have been added to your soil over time (manure, fish fertilizer, dog pee) would add nitrogen but not much P or K so I don't know how your levels got that high in the first place. Lawn fertilizer would have some of all three elements, but I don't see how a little bit of lawn fertilizer overspraying into the bed would make your numbers so high that they're telling you to replace your soil.

As far as how to fix it, it's usually relatively easy to add missing nutrients to soil, but it's much harder to remove excess. If that level is really too high for plants to be happy then the best solutions are either replace the soil, or dilute it by mixing in some quantities of new good soil. But...do you currently have plants in that bed that are doing well? If so then I wouldn't worry about it too much--just make sure when you do fertilize you only use things that add nitrogen so that you avoid making the problem worse.

I am having the same problem in a rose bed that has only had organics added to it. The roses did well until about 3 years ago. I was told not to add any organic matter to the bed for 5 years! Is there any way to leach the phosphorurs from the soil?

Hey ecrane3! There are a few things in the bed that are doing fine, but the perennials are so-so, and the annuals get worse every year. The annuals are from my own seeds and the same kinds every year. I can see that they are less robust every year. I can replace some of the soil every year, but without knowing what the problem is, I fear that the problem will continue. Other planting beds I have get the same treatment, but they arn't showing the same problems. It might be easier to just abandon the bed and let it return back into lawn. *SIGH* I am still open to ideas and suggestions...

Since it sounds like a lot of the things in the bed aren't doing that well, I'd consider starting over. If you don't want to dig out the soil that's there, you could build raised beds over the area and have good soil brought in to fill them. That should make things do much better. Trees/shrubs would still end up getting their roots down into the bad soil, but smaller things like your annuals should be just fine.

ya know, I hadn't even though about building UP! I can't build any raised beds in because the bed is just over the property line and is 'technically' on city property, but I do have a lot of huge pots I could wheel on top of the bed in between the perennials. Hummm...