A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum To Lime or not to Lime, that is the question

Hey everyone,

I recently chopped off all the branches of my pine tree from the ground up to about five feet (it was overgrown and looked awful, full of dead branches that just snapped off.)

Anyway, we raked up about six inches of needles and my husband took them "away" leaving me with some nice (if root-filled) dark dirt beneath it all.

Well, this is my first year gardening at all and I've always wanted tiger lilies in my yard. I didn't find those, but found some pretty orange and yellow lillies to put in the big dirt circle in my front yard. But--I didn't know how "rich" the earth would be so, because we are seriously broke, I got a bunch of black dirt (free from the dump) stirred in about two gallons of miracle glow, then raked it in, turning (cultivating?) until it was blended and I had a lovely, rich smelling soil to work with.

I planted my flowers.

A neighbor told me though, that because of the needles from the tree, I need to put lime down. Reading online, there seems to be two schools of thought--that the lilies are great in acidic soil--and that they will die. I'm confuzzled ;)

So should I lime--and if I do--does anyone have a good link on this process?

Thanks so much for ANY help you can give me!! :)

Warmly,
Jenny:)

I think both of these are correct. Although different plants are adapted to more or less acidic or alkaline soils, ideally speaking the pH of the soil should be between 6.5-7. "Neutral" soil is pH = 7. BUT for most plants real problems don't start until the pH is below 5.5 (very acidic) or above 8 (very alkaline). I think it's best to err on the side of a bit too acidic than alkaline, especially for tiger lilies. They do well in slightly acidic soil, but don't in very acidic soil.

If you want to know for sure, you could get a soil test kit. I have never in my life tested my soil b/c I, too, seem to be "seriously broke" all of the time! (Which is to say I think this is a waste of money.) Instead, I rely on "indicators". For example, if-- and before you did all this work to improve the soil-- you saw moss or a greenish film sort of covering the soil beneath the tree, that's an indication that the soil is too acidic and probably poorly aerated. That you tilled it up and added better dirt should take care of that. If clover grows in the area around the tree, that's an indication that the soil is *not* acidic.

In my experience, tiger or day lilies are tough. Unless they don't take hold after a couple of months, I wouldn't worry too much!

Good luck!

I grew the best tomatoes one year using the soil from under the pine trees
to mix into my garden. :-)

Oh awesome!!!

Thank you!!!!

I didn't see any moss at all on or near the tree (some of the pine needles were ashy-like when we removed them, but as I said, we took all that layer off.) I do have clover growing in another area beside the house and it's GREAT to have that indicator tip! THANK YOU!

The flowers have been in the ground for six days now and seem to be doing great. I bought mostly unopened blooms and a lot of those have opened now, so I'm thinking that getting the needles out, mixing up the earth and stuff made everything okay.

I'd just never heard of the lime thing before and figured it was better to ask than go through life being ignorant :)

Really, truly--thanks bunches!!

And I'll remember the tip for the tomatoes too! (Actually, I've started my own little gardening notebook--I have them for everything--because my memory is completely untrustworthy! :))

Thanks bunches again!!

Warmly,
Jenny:)