Question
Hi,
My parents have recently retired and began trekking the country in an RV, it抯 great for them - but I find myself having to care for their lawn and garden for the first time in my life and I have very little idea of what to do.
I have read up on your organic lawn regimen and plan to use your suggestions, but I have a few additional questions.
My father uses lime every year?I believe the soil was tested many years ago.
1. Is lime considered organic?
2. If so, what is the best time to put lime down on the lawn?
3. Should I put lime under the shrubs (forsythia, rhododendron), trees (evergreen, holly) or in the garden (irises)?

I have other questions as well but I'll keep them separate by subject.

Thanks!


Answer
Hi Kate;
Lime is organic, but,,,,,
I don't use lime in my yard.
I have read it is used to raise the acid level in soil, and also that it is used to raise the alkalyne content in soil.
I don't know which is correct.
When my girls were growing up, I was their Girl Scout leader, and I did the whole works, and was a Unit Leader in the yearly Girl Scout Day Camp.
We did this in the wilderness, and we dug latreens .
Lime was used each day in the latreens for sanitary reasons, but the girls were not allowed to put the lime on the latreens, because it is supposedly not all that safe to use.
I don't go in for a lot of soil testing.
If there are problems that just can't seem to be worked out, then testing is the best way to find out what you need to be doing.
Generally, there are specific signs of a lack of something or too much of something inthe soil, that is causing.
Because I can pretty much read those signs, and know what needs to be added, I haven't found it necessary to test, but if testing is done, you shouldn't rely on tests that are years old.
The things you do to the soil will change the results of those tests, and while the soil may be drastically lacking in a mineral or something else, that is no indication it will still be lacking in that same thing, year after year.
Also, the amount of lime to add.
Since the primary resaon for lime, as I understand it, is to change the PH balance of the soil, the amount to use would be crucial.
It is a funny thing aboput people wioth a supposedly green thumb.
You kind of have a sixth sense about your garden, and you can sometimes do what other gardeners cannot get away with and have great results.
We kind of "feel" what our garden needs, much the same way a mother recognizes the particular way her chiuld coughs as being what it is, and another mother will have to have a doctor tell her.
You can't explain it.
Guess we are just a weird breed.LOL
Maybe your dad is one of us weird breeds, and he instinctively knows how much lime his garden needs, and whan.
The shrubs you mention, I don't grow, except for the holly.
I have Burford Holly, and it does not require anything other than what it has always gotten. It does great. I have some juniper spreaders, and if they don't get enough acid, they start to turn brown and look like they are dieing.
To add acid, I use cider vinegar.
I put about an ounce per gallon of water and water them with it, and they perk right up.
The higher acid need seems to be with the slender leafed" or spined?" evergreens like Juniper, Pine etc.
Toe broadleafed evergreens ( at least the ones I have grown) seem to ike a more alkaline soil, which we tend to have here in North Texas.
Iff you follow an organic program, the PH in the soil should balance out.
It does take some time, how much depends on what shape your soil is in to begin with, but a total organic program, will bring the soil PH into balance, and then a little more acid or alkaly would only be needed for specific plants, and a little cider vinegar, or lime would be needed for that particular plant.
Before adding lime, If I were you, I would check with your dad, and ask him how much and whan he wants it added.
He may have a " One with his garden " thing going that he knows by feel what it needs, and when.
Now, I can just hear the moans and groans from the "testing" purists, about how rediculous this sounds, but it is true, even if we can't explain it.
I can what the heck out of a bush and break most of the rules to all the rules of pruning, nd come out with  just what the bush needs.
I have done this many times, when some of my neighbors have been sidewalk-supervising, telling me I am killing it, only to have the thing spring into shape and life, just like it is supposed to.
I am like that with my outdoor plants.
If I vary the slightest with houseplants, I can kill silk flowers.
My husband is the oposit. He can grow anything indoors. He grows orchids. He is a disaster if he touches my rose bushes.
So we have a pact. I don't touch his orchids, and he doesn't touch my roses.
If you just follow the organic program, and don't ad lime until you ask your dad, if you should do it, and how much and when. He seems to have something going on there with his garden.
I know this is awfully long and confusing, but it just isn't as simple to explain some of us.LOl
We DO march to a different drummer.
The advice I give here, I research before answering, unless it is something that I have already researched to death.
I pass on the information I gather from other more discliplined TRUE experts, that have the testing to back them up, and what they found is generally applied to all gardening situations.
I have had a number of questions about lime this spring, and all the searching I am doing is giving me conflicting information.
I read the results of a University Agricultural report from a college back east, and it said lime was used when the soil is too alkaline, but here in North Texas, they use it to raise the alkalinity of the soil????????
Because of these confliction opinions, I just don't touch lime.
Plants and grass will tell you whan it needs something.
It starts to change in appearance very fast.
As long s the plants and lawn are a nice green, and look healthy, and are doing well, you probably don't need to be doing much to them.
A little too much care can baby them to death too.
I found the main reason I kill houseplants is because I give them too much care.
I read an article on house plants, that said to remember that houseplants are in the first place, outdoor plants.
They will grow and thrive in certain climates and conditions outdoors, so to grow them indoors, you first need to dplicate the conditions they grow in naturally.
I think before that, I had thought of houseplants as something that was created sepapately from the rest of the world.LOl
Since I have relaxed a bit, there are a few houseplants I can keep alive fairly well.
I do fine with Peace Lilies and Spider plants.
I think you should wait on the lime until you talk to your father.
Charlotte