56 February 10, 2007
Well, everyone said we would pay for all the warm weather in early winter. Payment received!
New England is notorious for having acid soil conditions. Acid soil makes it hard for most plants to grow. The amount of acidity in the soil has made it difficult for even the so called acid – loving plants to grow. If you want to have a nice lawn and you want your annuals and perennials to grow properly, you will need to do something about that acid soil. You need to apply lime to your soil.
Lime is the product of choice for neutralizing acid soil. The only problem with lime is that most people never put enough lime on the soil to make a real difference in the acid levels in the soil. As a rule of thumb, you will need to apply 1 bag of lime for each 1,000 square feet of lawn and/or garden beds. If you have a lawn that is 10,000 square feet, you should be applying 10 bags of lime to your lawn each year. If you haven’t applied that amount for a few years, you may have to apply even more lime to offset the acidity in the soil. The best way to find out how much lime you need is to apply is to do a Ph test on the soil in your yard. Ph test kits are fairly inexpensive. You can buy a one test kit for less than $ 2.00. You can buy larger kits that will do more tests. It probably isn’t a bad idea to test in several areas of your yard to get an accurate picture of how much lime you will need to apply in each area. Once you have done the test, you will get a number that signifies the level of acidity. Lawns in our area want to be at a Ph of 6.5 If you did a test and got a reading of 6 than 1 bag per 1,000 square feet will bring that Ph up to 6.5 One bag of lime spread over 1,000 square feet will generally bring the Ph up 1/2 point. If your Ph test shows 5, than you would need to apply 3 bags per 1,000 square feet. It will take about 6 months before you could do another test and get a new accurate reading. If you apply the lime in early spring, then you could do another test in late fall, This would allow you to add more lime in the fall if there is a need for additional lime.
Adding lime to your lawn and gardens will make for better growing blades of grass and garden plants. In the spring, make sure to do a Ph test and add the proper amount of lime to your gardens.
Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.