Unseasonable weather brings avid gardeners out to prepare soil.
“Unseasonably high temperatures this winter here in East Tennessee have some avid gardeners itching to get their hands into the soil of their gardens,” reported Debra Hopkinson, former owner/partner of the DanDe Greenhouse here in Clinton, Tennessee. “My husband was no exception. Between the repeated waves of inclement weather bringing rain every three to four days, he decided this past Tuesday to attempt his first tilling of our garden plot this year. While he found our own garden plot still wet from the most recent rain, his stubborn persistence got the majority of our garden tilled and most of the remnants of last year’s weed patch cleaned up, as the picture at the upper left shows. For the first tilling of each year, he adds a small amount of fuel system cleaner to a gallon of fresh gas, and then puts that mix in the tiller gas tank. The fuel system cleaner helps to remove any deposits in the tiller’s fuel system that may have built up since he cleaned it at the beginning of last season. Getting started on garden preparation this early in the growing season is always a plus, giving him an opportunity to make any adjustments on the tiller before the machine is needed for more vigorous and regular work. Within 24 hours of finishing this first tilling, we were blessed with the next wave of rain. But, he says, at least we are ahead of the game at this time. If the moderate weather continues through the rest of this winter, we may be able to plant cold weather crops a little earlier this year.”
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