A long time ago on one of the other forums someone recommended this long tube type thing for taking soil cores. I have no idea where I ordered it from, its about 24" long. I see gemplers and amazon sell similar devices.

I used to only use it for send samples to labs, but lately I've been using it much more to see how much moisture is in the soil.

Doing this is what helped me diagnosis the fine fescue and rye in my lawn; I would see the grey towards the end of each day and figured I had to water. Turns out the soil was quite moist; the bluegrass was tolerating the heat but the rye and fine fescues were the ones turning. Out of curiosity I took two tonight while taking out the garbage, they were fully saturated (and more moist at the top) down to 6 inches; we had an about an inch of rain Friday, but the last two days were over 90. This is in my full sun sloped front yard.

Just one of those things I thought I would share; its very helpful and easier than digging with a shovel.