Now that our Cleveland winter has come to a close, and we are starting to see the signs of early spring, the time is ripe to start preparing our gardens for planting early crops. Within the next several weeks, crops such as peas, greens, and root crops like carrots, radishes and onions can be planted in the garden.
The key to successful gardening often lay in good soil preparation. Now is an opportune time to start working the soil in your beds and gardens. If you have been composting your leaf and kitchen scraps and they have broken down sufficiently, spread it over the top of your planting areas and till it in.
If you don’t have compost, working in soil amendments such as peat moss, or pine bark mulch if your soil tends to be alkaline, or a product such as garden lime and Sweet Peet if your soils tend to be too acidic.
This is also a good time to broadcast an organic fertilizer such as Espoma’s Garden-Tone. Organic fertilizers are not water soluble, so the nutrients will not leach out of the soil with rain before the plants can utilize them. Organic fertilizers are activated by the microbial activity in the soil and are therefore released more slowly into the soil media.
Applying a layer of mulch over top of the prepared soil will help to control the soil temperatures and to keep an even layer of moisture around your early crops.
Once this current cold spell has passed, we will be enjoying warmer temperatures and we can finally start the 2011 growing season. Happy Growing!
If you liked this article, please consider subscribing.
Comments