GardenSpotlight

Spring is here and it’s about time to prepare the soil bed for your gardens.    Remember, you don’t have to have a garden so big that you cannot take care of it all.   You can actually be more productive in a smaller, more manageable sized garden.   Begin first by planning out your space.   Select a spot in the garden that gets a minimum of 6 hours of direct sunlight if you are planning a vegetable garden.   If you are planning for flowers, know the amounts of sunlight your gardens will be receiving, as well as soil type and drainage and choose the types of plants accordingly.    Next, mark out your perimeter and then begin turning the soil over.   Dig down at least 12 inches.   Using a roto-tiller is best as it will break up the soil more thoroughly and deeply.   If you don’t own one, you can usually rent one at a local hardware store.    If one is not available, you can use a shovel and rake.   As you are prep...

Adding organic matter can be the best thing you can do for your garden soil.   It is the only amendment that affects both fertility and texture of the soil.   Organic matter is simply dead or decaying animal or plant material;   i.e.   animal manure, green manure such as a cover crop planted specifically for tilling into the soil, or garden compost such as grass clippings, leaves and kitchen scraps.   Organic matter provides nutrients for your soil and also provides beneficial microbes, which help make the nutrients readily available for your plants as well as helping to keep disease from your soil.   It is usually best to allow organic matter to decay for a period of time.   If using manure, allow it to decay until it turns dark brown in color and has no odor.   Nutrients found in manure are generally readily available, but if overused, can provide excessive amounts of some nutrients.   A good example of this would be ammonia.   Exce...

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...