In article , "Penny S."
wrote:

paghat wrote:
Soil ammendment tends to be temporary, & repeat ammendments can
eventually corrupt the soil. Some plants, like camelias, die in soils
that have been ammended two or three times. If one lives in a region
where soils are naturally to the alkaline edge, but wanting a big
collection of rhododendrons, & so truck in acidic topsoil for the
collection, a few years later the soil will have alkalinized to match
the larger environment. I love our naturally acidic soils, but if I
found myself living somewhere to the alkaline side, there'd be a few
things I'd have to give up, but many new things I could grow instead.

Ideally one understands what the natural soils are like in the
region, & if one's immediately accessible gardening areas have soil
in need of restoration or improvement (for instance, because it is
all clay, or some other repairable limitation), it would be ammended
toward the natural state of local soils. That way it might never need
further ammendments ever. Regional soil types are defined by types &
percentages of mineral deposits & topography (such as a valley below
lime-rich hills), types of plants that recycle themselves into soils,
& the rainfall patterns & water tables or amounts of surface water.
One selects plants appropriate to the natural pH levels, finding
plants that do best in the actual local environment.

-paghat the ratgirl

is not adding appropriate organic material (compost etc) also consdired
ameding? I am confused now.

It is. But if the goal is to change the soil to something other than is
the normal average in the region, it will be a temporary fix, & if the fix
is done repeatedly with soil additives (chemical or mineral), the
accumulative effect can destroy the soil for sensitive plants even if one
can get the preferred pH reading after long tinkering.

-paghat

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/