Question
Hi Ms. B, this is Ron W. again.  I took a soil sample to my local ext. office and it is acidic.  Should I use pelletized lime or would you suggest a more natural approach.  Would "sugar" help here or is that basically a natural fertilizer approach?

Thanks again!

Answer
Hi Ron;
Using lime will raise the PH, but how much to use I can't tell you.
Lime is not the safest thing to handle, so I have never bothered with it.
I am not sure what is unsafe about it, I just know, when I was a Girl Scout leader, during day camp in the summer, we had primitively dog latreens, and had to put lime on them every day, and the leaders had to do it because it was not safe for the children to use, so I have just avoided lime.
A little too much and you would reverse the problem you have.
For low PH, you want the high-calcium lime.
The best source for this is limestone.
Use about 2 to 10 pounds per 100 sq.ft, depending on soil analysis.
I would use lava sand.
That will raise the PH, and add a lot of nutrients at the same time.
Use about 40 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.
Charlotte