Take prenatal vitamins,” advised Amanda, the cute, young clerk at the local hardware store. “That’s what my hairdresser said, and it worked in two weeks.”

You see, I’m losing my hair. My doctor says it’s because of heredity (and yes, my mother’s hair was thin), and stress, and yeah, I’ve got that, too.

So I’ve been taking the prenatal vitamins for a few weeks now, with no increase in my hair population. I keep the label of the prenatal vitamin bottle turned toward the wall; I don’t want my Ed to see it and have a stroke.

I think I need to check my flaugh.

One doesn’t really try to pronounce “pH,” one just says the two letters: “P - H.” What it means is the acid-alkaline characters of soil. Some people say sweet and sour soil. I don’t mind the “sweet” part, but I don’t like saying soil is “sour.” That sounds as if it is “bad” soil, when the fact is that many of our ornamentals need this sour or acid soil, and you will have more success with the plant if you have the acidity correct, than if you don’t.

The acidity-alkalinity of soil is based on a scale of 1 to 14, with 7 being neutral, neither acid nor alkaline. Anything less than 7 is acid, and anything more than 7 is alkaline. Most plants, both garden and agricultural crops, grow in the range of pH 4 to 9. That is the reason many farmers in our area, where the soil is acid, have to scatter lime on their fields every two or three years, depending on the crop to be grown and the results of a soil test.

To know your soil’s pH, you do have to test it. This is how you do that: Take soil from your planting area. Go down about 2 to 6 inches in the soil and take samples from several places on your lawn or from your flower/shrub area. Mix these, then take a pint of the mixed soil to your local County Agricultural Extension Office. (You can find the address in the phone book.) The people there will put your soil in a special little box, ask what you want to grow in the area, then send it away to be tested.

In South Carolina, the sample is sent to the Soil Testing Lab at Clemson University, and the cost is $6. You get a reply in the mail in about 10 days. In Georgia, the cost is $8. The sample is sent to the University of Georgia Soil Testing Lab, and you’ll get your answer in about the same time.

Another way is to announce to the family that for Mother’s Day/Father’s Day, you want a soil test kit, and then you can do your own testing.

To make soil acid, you can add peat moss, leaf mold, animal compost, or about ƒ cup of sulfur per each 9 square feet. To make the soil more alkaline, add agricultural lime (about 50 pounds per 1,000 square feet) or ashes from your fireplace.

Some plants and their pH requirements are azalea — 5.0 to 5.5, blue hydrangea — 4.5 to 5.5, iris — 6.0 to 6.9, peony — 6.0 to 8.0, rose — 5.5 to 6.9, camellia — 5.0 to 6.0, tomato — 5.5 to 7.5, blueberry — 5.0 to 5.5, sweet corn — 6.0 to 6.5.

I had rather think of myself as sweet than acid. I’ll go drink a glass of lime water and take another vitamin. We’ll see what happens.