Next Year’s Garden, continued…

Compost Making

You can make inexpensive, easy compost at home from leaves, grass clippings, garden wastes such as stalks and weeds, and vegetable leftovers (never meat!). Pile these together until well rotted. Use a compost tool to aerate the pile. You can enclose the pile with wire or with a ready-made compost bin. Keep adding organics until the size of the pile suits you, then start another one. Keep the pile moist but not soaking. The pile is usually ready in about 6 months, or faster in warm weather. You’ll know it’s ready for the garden when its contents are dark and crumbly and look like woods soil.

Our Customer Service Department will send you more information about composting on request.

Next Year’s Garden, continued…

Soil Amendments

Plant growth is highly responsive to proper soil reaction (ph) and to ample supplies of nutrients, particularly Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). Send samples of your soil to your local County Agricultural Extension Agent; for a very modest fee you will get excellent advice as to how to amend your soil for maximum productivity of the plants you want to grow. Lime sweetens soil if it is too acid, increasing the availability of nutrients. Sulphur reduces excess alkalinity. Fertilizer hastens and promotes growth. All should be used carefully, according to directions.

Next Year’s Garden, continued…

Soil Preparation

Good soil grows healthy plants! You should prepare your soil well ahead of planting time to provide the right texture and nutrition. We’ve had our best success preparing beds in fall, right after summer’s garden is finished and when cool, dry weather prevails.

Roots like a soil that is spongy enough to hold moisture, but porous enough to provide air spaces and good drainage. The best way to give a soil this texture is by adding well-rotted organic material, as often as is practical. Good organics include peat moss, well-rotted manure and compost. Spread the organic material over your entire garden to a depth of several inches and mix it into your soil as deeply and thoroughly as you can.

If your soil still seems heavy and forms sticky lumps when wet or hard clods when dry, mix in up to 2 inches of coarse sand as well as the organic material. Soils that are sandy and drain too quickly can be made more productive through liberal additions of organic material.

After preparing your bed, cover with a deep mulch over winter to protect the soil texture and hold down spring weeds. With a raised bed prepared this way, we’re often able to plant straight into it in spring with no further tilling; just rake mulch off and plant.

Next Year’s Garden, continued…

Tools

Have them on hand when preparing beds and planting. When preparing beds: spade, spading fork and garden rake. When planting garden: rake, planting tool (trowel or short-handled hoe). For maintenance: a garden cart, hoe and pitchfork are handy.

Next Year’s Garden, continued…

Water

Soil Soaker hoses or trickle irrigation dispense water to your plants most effectively and conserve water. Place your beds where a garden hose can reach from the faucet

Next Year’s Garden, continued…

Seasons

Identify the average dates of Seasonal Benchmarks in your area, such as the last spring frost and the first fall frost. They are important to know so you can garden successfully. See 1/27/12 post for a handy chart.

Next Year’s Garden

Planning and Preparation

There are some things that you should do at the end of this year’s garden in order to have an even better one next year. Be creative and plan ahead.

Location

Give some thought to the size and location of your garden sites. Whatever your choices are, it’s wise to make them ahead of time. Plan for paths where you want to walk. Consider the type of plants you want, the conditions under which they thrive, and place your beds where the best combination of light, shade, moisture and drainage prevails. Choose the right plant for each location.

The density and time of shade cast by each object in your garden should be considered when you plan your plantings.

Deciduous trees are most versatile, permitting plenty of light during the cool weather of early spring and fall, and providing mottled shade in summer.

Evergreen trees and shrubs will provide year-round shade, its density depending on the branching habit of the evergreen in question.

Low walls and evergreen hedges provide a pattern of part-day shade and part-day sun, except to the south side where sun falls all day.

Buildings and high walls are opaque to light, providing dense shade to the north and very hot, bright conditions to the south. A building may provide protection for tender plants in winter.

Remember the sun rises about 30 degrees higher in summer than in winter. Observe how light falls in your yard over the course of a year, and plan your garden area to use this to advantage in each season.

Winter Care of Your Garden, continued…

Winter Care of Your Garden

Annuals

Sowing Outdoors, continued…

Feeding

Generally, yellowish (not brown or wilted) leaves and slow growth mean more nutrients are needed. For more details, see the Growing Tips at the end of this book, or talk to your local county extension agent.