Q: I added soil conditioner last year on your advice and the soil was wonderful to work with! Do I add more this year? If not, do I add lime again?

A: Once the soil is soft you can just add a half-inch layer of composted cow manure or perhaps some well-composted soil conditioner on top of the soil each year. Earthworms will take it down and mix it with the underlying soil, keeping it soft.

If you don’t do this, due to Georgia’s summer heat and humidity, the soil conditioner you added last year will disappear out of the soil. The earth will become hard once again in just a few years.

Plan to scatter four pounds of lime per one hundred square feet every two years to counteract the natural tendency of the soil to become acid.