should I apply lime to my vegetable garden?

Calcium deficiencies are rare, but most gardeners want their soil to have a pH of around 6.5, but the optimal pH varies by plant. Potatoes and berries thrive in acid soil, greens like basic soil, and most everything else isn't too picky about pH.

Depends what your soil ph is. Lime will make it more alkaline. If you live where I live, that would make things WORSE. If your soil is very acidic, it will help.

Do a soil test. If your soil has a ph between 5.8 and 6.8 I wouldn't touch it.

Agricultural Lime is ground Limestone. Lime is necessary in only a few rare instances where the soil ph is very Acidic, or you are going to raise a crop that prefers Alkaline soils. It is more commonly used to paint the trunk of fruit trees to keep fungus off the tree, and to a lesser extent rodents and pest out of the trees.

The master gardeners clinic I attend a couple of years ago said to add Organic material to your garden and the ph will correct itself. If your ph is off, you will have to add Organic material to the soil to permanently correct it anyways, so why not just add the material now.

Horse manure is free. Stables have to pay to get rid of it because of Environmental Protection Laws, so most stables are happy to have someone take some of it away. Most stables will even load it into your trailer or truck for free, although it doesn't hurt to slip the tractor operator a $10 for loading it for you.

Borrow or rent a trailer and go get some. Cover the garden site with a layer of horse manure about 2 - 3 inches thick. Till it into the soil. The soil ph from the composting manure in the soil will be perfect for most vegetables and flowers. If you live in an area of high Alkaline or Acid soils, add manure every year to keep your soil ph balanced for plants.

Go online to your State Agricultural Extension Service and find out how to send them soil samples. They will give you a report on what you need to do. Lime takes 3 months to change pH, by the way. So it wouldn't do a lot for this year anyway.

There are two different forms of Lime ; namely quicklime and slaked-lime. For the former, calcium oxide prior to water is added while the latter after being acted upon by water and regarding the problem of should you apply either of them to your vegetable garden. My answers are as follows:
(1) New vegetable garden==using quicklime to sterilize, break down and neutralize the soil's pests, particles and Ph value respectively;
(2) Old vegetable garden==either quicklime or slaked-lime might be used to do the work in (1) as if being required. It is recommended that rotation of crops should be carried out every year especially for crops belonged to Solanaceae Family e.g. Tomato, egg-plant, pepper and potato. Because, that'll be required to prevent from accumulating the toxic residues and exhausting fertility of the soil.
Yip
Yip

I've never heard of adding lime juice to a garden, but you can add crushed up egg shells. It'll decompose and add a lot of nutrients to your soil. And if you have any plants that slugs like to eat, you can put some egg shells on the surface of the soil in a ring right around your plant. That'll make a pointy security system against the slugs. I hope this helped!!