In New England, it was a given that "everyone" had acid soil. Even if you put down lime, a few years later you needed to put down more lime.
I was amazed to learn that other regions had mostly alkaline soil!
If you've never limed or applied agricultural sulfur to acidify your soil, isn't it pretty safe to assume that, if all your neighbors lime regularly, that you probably would be better off liming also?
Or are some regions "patchwork" collections of soil types, some acidic and some basic?
Or, borrow a few cups of lime from someone with a big bag. Sprinkle that on one square yard of one bed. If, next year, that square yard does much better than the rest of the bed, you need lime. Of course, if next year that is the sorriest-looking part of that bed, you're out of luck!
