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Alkaline Vegetable Garden Soil

Gardening Question From Adriana:

I added lime to my vegetable garden soil and I killed everything i planted last year. I tested the soil this year and it still shows too alkaline. What would be an easy repair?
Buy compost bags and add to soil? or Nitrogen only? thanks
vegetable Soil photo

Answer From Pat:

Never add lime to your soil if you live in the arid west. Most soils east of the Rocky Mountains where rains are year-round, the soils are acid so gardeners and farmers apply lime to “sweeten” the soil or make it more alkaline. Most soils west of the Rockies are alkaline (sweet) so in the west we apply acid amendments to make the ground more “sour” or acid.
You apparently live in the west and you did exactly the wrong thing, the opposite of what you should have done. In the west our water is highly alkaline. That is more than enough lime. In fact it is too much lime which is why we need to acidify our soils.
Nitrogen will not fix your soil. If I were you I would purchase bags of aged manure and also bags of aged compost. Of if you can make your own compost in a compost pile. Look up instructions how to properly make compost.

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