GardenSpotlight

Last time we talked about starting your spring plants indoors. If it’s too much for you to consider, or you just don’t have the room, you can always visit your favorite local garden center to purchase plants for your garden in the spring. You should keep in mind a few points while making your choices. Look for local growers as their plants will adapt more readily to your garden since they are grown here. There are many retailers who bring plants in for sale from out of the area, usually from areas where they have longer, earlier grower seasons. Because diseases and insects have specific life cycles, and because the growing season begins earlier in these other locations than here in the North, there is the strong possibility that plants from these regions can transport diseases and/or insects into the Northern zones, before their natural cycle would normally begin in our area. Such was the case with Late Blight just a short time ago in 2009. Late blight is a fungus of which mainly tom...

Soil fertility is a key component in growing healthy plants.   There are many different factors which affect soil fertility and as a result, the soil makeup is constantly changing.    There are at least 16 nutrients which are necessary for plants to grow and complete their life cycles.   Of those 16, non-mineral elements are used in the largest amounts and are found in air and water.   Those non-minerals are carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.     Plants rely on the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide (carbon and oxygen) and water (hydrogen and oxygen) into food.   This process is known as photosynthesis.    The rest of the elements (minerals) are known as macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients and can be either found in the soil or added as fertilizer or lime.   The 3 primary macro-nutrients are nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K).    These are most commonly supplied as fertilizers and come in different ratios to ac...