Saturday, December 17, 2011

In Case You Were Wondering...

...Garden lime is not quite the same as whiting. Some garden lime is closer to dolomite. And some contains what is enigmatically describes as "rock dust."

Okay, so you probably weren't wondering that. But I was, briefly, when I realized I had forgotten to pick up whiting on Thursday, in all the party excitement. I was hoping to save myself a trip to Portland, so I called Knight's Farm Supply. They do carry garden lime, but it is not straight calcium carbonate; there's apparently some magnesium in there as well, like dolomite, only who knows how much. Guess I am making the 110-mile round trip, which is a bigger deal now that I am driving Truckzilla.

On the other hand, whiting is a perfectly good substitute for garden lime on your perennials, to lower the acidity of soil. I don't use it, myself; my plantings pretty much have to sink or swim on their own.

Oh, gardening, I miss you. And it's not even officially winter yet.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You might want to look at having it shipped. I ordered in 55lbs of Cornwall stone from US Pigment and it cost $35 for the shipping. Well worth it as compared to spending a day driving plus the cost of gas, and lunch while I was out. It took 2 days to arrive.