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One of the best deals a gardener can get is a soil test, which is available to most North Americans through local cooperative extension offices or similar agencies. Check the useful links at the bottom of this page for a list of soil testing labs in your state In most areas, you can get a fairly comprehensive and informative test done for $5 to $10—less than you'd spend for a bag of fertilizer. And the soil test may tell you that you don't even need that fertilizer.
Get your soil tested as close to home as possible so that the recommendations you'll receive make sense for your climate and soil. Wherever you send your soil for testing, ask the lab to tailor any recommendations for a garden. Lab recommendations for remedying soil deficiences are typically designed to serve farmers and thus are given in terms of pounds of the proposed remedy per acre of land unless you request otherwise. (If you have to do that math yourself, just divide "pounds per acre" by 43 to convert the recommendation "pounds per 1,000 square foot.")
Also note on the paperwork accompanying your soil sample that you would like any remedies proposed to be in the form of organic soil amendments, as opposed to agricultural chemicals.
