How good is the soil in my garden? What should I do to make the garden soil better? Avid gardeners can be usually found asking these questions. The quality and health of the soil in your garden directly affects the growth of the produce. You might have heard from people or on the internet that many gardeners add lime to improve the quality of the soil. So, what exactly does adding lime to the soil do? Before adding lime to soil, you must check if your garden soil really needs it. The lime is basically added to reduce the acidity of a soil or you can say, to sweeten the soil.
The studies suggest that garden soils normally have a pH between 5.5 and 8.0. If the pH level is less than 6, the soil is highly acidic and you can add lime to reduce its acidity. Adding lime also encourage soil life and the plants grow healthy. At a neutral pH level, the soil nutrients are easily available for the plants and the environment is just right for the plants to grow healthy. Like human beings, plans also need calcium for good growth and addition of lime helps in the same. Liming your garden soil also helps control some pests and diseases.
It takes some time, from a few months to a year, for the soil pH level to stabilize. Therefore, you must test the pH level of the garden soil at regular intervals and add lime to get the desired pH level.
