Lime how often to apply to garden and how much ash can I add from my wood stove to the garden ?

Question

I live in Japan an am using a former place which was a home and changed the land 100sq meters into a garden with lots of top soil on top of the sandy soil base….have added leaves, compost , ash from the woodstove and lots of cow manure as well as a gardening soil …trying to get my soil less dense and hard …please tell me how to test if I have reach my limit for ash…they do not seem to have a testing place here for garden soil…
and also for garden lime Please tell me how often to apply the white lime which I use to try to break down the dense soil. Thanks

Answer 1

Lime sources are used to increase pH. If you haven't tested your soil's pH, do not add lime or wood ash. (pH meters are available by mail) You may end up with such a high pH that plants won't thrive. Greensand is a product used to loosen soil. So is peat moss and coir - any organic material. Always use 2-3 inches of an organic material like compost or shredded/chipped wood as a mulch on top of the soil. Loosening heavy clay soil is a multi-year process.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/using-wood-ashes.htm