Definitely the pellets. It rains so often that the powder would get washed away. I just sprinkle a little, around, yes, the lilacs and the clematis. Also put a bit into the veg. garden soil. But I keep it away from the hydrangeas which I want blue. Lime might make it pink.

Happy Spring, hah! Still raining and cold. Bah.

I'm no expert, but I have limed gardens and lawns in past years. It's a good task for late winter, and I've done it on nice days in January when I desperately need to be outside doing something. April is certainly fine, just don't apply it any time near when you might be using a fertilizer that contains nitrogen; I made that mistake once when reseeding part of a lawn, and the results were terrible. I mixed lots of manure and lime into the soil, and nothing would grow in that area for months.

I usually have more than enough wood ash at the end of the winter, so I don't often buy lime. I haven't noticed any difference in results between pellets and powder, it does take weeks or more for the lime to get down to the root level and for the soil to react.

Also, on the Cape, our soil is so acidic that I usually give my blue hydrangeas a little lime or ash; I DO like blue, but prefer pinkish over turquoise, which is what some of my hydrangeas tend towards if left on their own.

Carol6ma,
I'm with you, this cold dismal grey weather is making me gloomy! No wonder you said "Bah!" Only word missing was "humbug"!!!!!

DirtDigger,
Doesn't it still feel like late winter to you? I keep my window open 2 inches at night but have to put the furnace on in the morning when I'm in the house and out of the nice warm bed. Maybe that's why I started thinking liming... usually done late winter.

Yes, thanks for the tip on the nitrogen and fertilizer. One year I did it too. Since Hubby was fertilizing the lawn, I asked him to sprinkle some in my perennial beds.... Wrong! My tree peony didn't bloom for 3 years and the perenials developed lovely green foilage and nuthin else! Dang! Good gardeners learn the hard way I guess!

All--

I've pruned my roses since the forsythia is now in bloom, and it's a small comfort that the rose leaves are getting bigger. I could use some sunshine. (sigh)

I lime my lawn and my clematis. (I don't have lilacs - yet). I lime in early April, using pelletized lime. I try to plan it that I lime a couple days before we are expecting rain. I will also throw a couple handfuls in each of my raised vegetable garden beds.

2 weeks after liming, I will fertilize. I don't fertilize every year - usually every other year.

I lime the lawn again in July. Then in October, I lime both the lawn and clematis again. Each time I lime the lawn, I also throw a bunch of lime in my compost bins.

The previous owner of our house lined the property with white pines. So our soil tends to be acidic. Which is why I lime so often.

This is also the time of year that I put GrubX on my irises and yellow flags.

White pines have nothing to do with soil acidity. In the wild, they prefer acidic soil, but as domestic plants they can handle fairly high pH. My normal pH is over 7, and it is still over 7 under the white pines.

A lot of nurseries will do complementary pH tests. If someone near you is offering them, you really should take them up on it.