If all the stuff we can buy to make our lawns and gardens look better worked as quickly as some advertising depicts, everybody would have green thumbs.

Back in my less skeptical days, I believed all the pretty plant pictures. When I finally heard about the specialty of “food photography” for spicing up menu mirages, I deduced there might be such a thing as “phony fertilizer photography” as well.

Alas, there is no “instant green-up” and you won’t witness plants growing “before your very eyes.”

I know most folks need to get past poinsettia and mistletoe season before even thinking about spring gardening. But there are things worthy of thought and even action during the winter that will make for good plant growth when our warm growing season begins.

Probably nothing gets bantered around as much as the topic of lime applied to landscapes and gardens, not to mention pastures and soybean fields.

For now, I am only going to refer to when to apply lime if lime is indeed called for. I suppose it’s “an estimated rule of thumb old saying,” but it takes about six months for lime to make all the change it is going to make to soil acidity.

Those changes do begin right after lime and soil water meet up, but it is a gradual series of chemical reactions that increases the pH of soil.

The process is faster in warm weather, slower in cold, faster in damp soil, slower in bone dry dirt. Instead of me looking up some graph with varying temperatures, moisture levels and calcium carbonate equivalents, let’s keep it really simple.

If lime is needed, apply it now and the pH will be much better by spring planting. Wait until April to put out lime and the pH will get right about August, but it will stay right for several years to come.

As for adding fertilizer this time of year, there are two things to remember about the “big 3” fertilizer elements Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.

First, manmade chemical nitrogen fertilizers are all “fast release” in that they are very water soluble. So adding nitrogen fertilizer now for plants doing nothing until spring gets here would be a waste of money.

Over the next four months, rain would carry any added nitrogen down below the reach of roots before spring.

For warm weather plants, leave the nitrogen fertilizer in the bag or at the store.

On the other hand, phosphorus and potassium are not as quickly soluble as nitrogen. Luckily they are indeed soluble; otherwise plants couldn’t use them since roots don’t take up solids.

There is no big advantage to applying needed phosphate (phosphorus) and potash (potassium) fertilizers in mid-winter for spring plants, but it is okay to do so.

Perhaps somebody either has more time on their hands now than in a few months or just has a hankering to do something outside.

I’m saying it’s lime time, but no nitrogen for now, yet OK for P and K.

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Terry Rector is spokesman for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District.