Adding Lime to the Garden and Lawn is Key for Successful Gardening
Every summer I have people ask me how I am able to grow such a great garden. The soil is the key and adding a garden lime to the soil is essential. We get a lot of rain during the year here in Lexington. In fact our average rainfall far exceeds the rainfall in Seattle, Washington. Rain tends to cause acid build up in the soil. The majority of plants like a Ph level between six and seven. In order to help keep soil in the six to seven Ph range, homeowners need to add at least 40 pounds of garden lime to every 1,000 square feet of garden and lawn each year.
If your soil has a lot of clay, then you can probably put two or three times as much lime on it. Jerome Lange, a Casey County organic farmer, recommends five times as much lime as what most of the experts do. Mr. Lange argues that this much lime will keep the Kentucky soil loose and help prevent flooding during the heavy rains.
Adding Lime to the Garden and Lawn is Key for Successful Gardening
Sweeten the soil with lime and you will save time and fertilizer. Even if you use the best organic fertilizers the plants will not be able to assimilate the nutrients is the soil is too acidic. It is much the same idea of successful baking. If you bake a cake or cookies without the baking soda or baking powder there will be no chemical reaction and you will have a flat cake. Without the lime in the garden soil you will have stunted plants. It is both inefficient and frustrating to waste a lot of money on fertilizers that are of no use to the plants! Plants cannot assimilate the nutrients if the soil is not sweet enough. If you need a lot of lime then it will probably be cheaper to purchase it from a local hardware store.
Adding Lime to the Garden and Lawn is Key for Successful Gardening
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