Because YAY spring is ON.
But what are you doing about it?
Are you tending to an early spring vegetable crop, testing and amending the rest of your garden's soil for forthcoming warm season crops and gathering all of your know-how and materials to get those sun-loving vegetables planted by the end of April?
If you had to avert your eyes from that last question - we understand. Prepping your garden for the big awesome warm weather growing season can be daunting. It feels like there's so much to do and know and do some more to make sure that it's all in place to have a successful growing season.
The good news is that it doesn't have to be scary. It doesn't have to be overwhelming. It can be rewarding and delicious with just a bit of preparation and planning.
So planning, then...
Warm Season Garden prep | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Test your soil
You can send your soil off to a lab to be tested or you can do it yourself at home with a kit that tests pH (soil's acidity levels), N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus) and K (potassium). While you won't get the micronutrient levels in the home test kit that you would from a lab, it will give you enough information to amend your soil's macronutrients (N, P and K are the three majors) to your specific crop's heart's desire. And isn't that what you want? Desirable crops? Knew it.
Amend your soil
Once you've tested your soil and found that there are a few nutrients that it needs, you can organically amend it by adding in bone meal for phosphorus,dried blood meal for nitrogen and a mix of organic materials for potassium for any deficiencies. It's also a good idea to add a layer of organic amendment (We like Gardner & Bloome's Harvest Supreme.) at a rate if about 1 2 cu ft bag per 25 sq ft.
Clear weeds
This is crucial. Weeds around your garden are basically just houses for pests. Aphids, white flies, slugs, snails and all kinds of nasties take up residence within chewing distance of your garden in weed stands of any size. So pull those weeds or, if you're not into hand pulling weeds, arm yourself with a scuffle hoe (also called a Hula-Ho, Flex Ho and HO knows what else. Joke. That was a joke.) and go to town on those weeds in minutes flat.
Check/fix your irrigation systems
Before you get all ready to plunk plants into your garden's soil, make sure that the life giving water source is working properly. Remove filters from dripline manifold heads, flush the systems, clean the filters, check emitters for clogging, clear any clogs and replace any emitters that are beyond redemption.
Once everything's working properly, set up the driplines and emitters in your garden and set your irrigation program accordingly. Then test it without any plants in the ground and on dry soil. This way you can see the wetting pattern of the driplines and make sure that they're even. Replace any lines that are beyond redemption. If you water by hand, make sure that your hose head is still in good condition, tighten connections between hose bibs and hoses and check your hose for any cracks or unmanageable kinks. If you're handwatering by can, rinse that baby out and put it near the water source so that you'll be sure to water at the first sign of dryness. Find all your structures
If you're going to use any structures in your garden; tomato cages, bean trellis, cucumber trellis, cans to prop up melons and pumpkins, re bar to stake pepper plants, etc; go find them all, clean them up and make sure they're ready to rock.
Gather your seeds and plants
It's spring. Do you know where your plants and seeds are? If not, now's the time to source them. For reals.
Our favorite organic seed sources are Johnny's Selected Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, LocalHarvest.org and High Mowing Seeds. Some amazing plant sales are coming to a farm, park and college near you: Stock up on fertilizers/compost, row covers, organic pesticides
Before you get everything planned and planted and growing, stock up on the things that you'll need to keep your garden happy once it's in the ground. Bags of finished compost near the garden (or your own finished compost), row covers to put over new squash plants to keep pests away and some Safer's Soap in case pests take up residence are good things to have on hand so you're not scrambling to find it when you need it. Or, worse yet, forgoing it altogether because "Pffffffffft. Who has the time?"
Yeah, we've all said it, but don't let this be you. Not this year. This year's garden is going to be magnificent. And productive. Now, what about those cool season crops?
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