Eartheasy offers
great information about sustainable living.
I found this article on their website.
It offers great ideas about preparing your yard for the spring.
Garden Projects
for Early Spring
A few early preparations for the spring
gardening season
will bring benefits all
year long.
The urge to garden
in early spring is primal. Re-connecting with the earth is affirming, renewing,
promising. Waking up the garden to a new growing season is about more than soil
and seedlings...this rite of spring is a tonic to the gardener as well.
Early spring
garden & yard tasks
(1) clear drainage ditches
Leaves and debris
gather in drainage areas over the winter. Now is the time to ensure that the
spring rains will have adequate runoff. Spring seedlings do best in soil which
drains well. Because vegetative growth is at a low point in early spring, this
is the easiest time of year for clearing drainage ditches. And be sure to put
the cleared material, usually dead leaves and small branches, into the compost.
Spring compost piles are commonly short on carbon-rich materials, and every
addition helps.
(2) Repair any
bowed sides to raised beds. fix trellises and fencing.
Soggy winter soil
puts a strain on raised beds; sometimes a stake will rot and give way. Any
bowed or leaning sides should be fixed now. Dig back the soil behind the bowed
side and drive in new stakes on the inside of the sideboards with a slight
inward lean. Push sideboards up to stakes and fasten well with screws or nails.
If you are interested in purchasing a raised bed, we have a comprehensive
selection of Raised Garden Beds available in their online store.
Trellises and
fencing are also easiest to repair in early spring, with less growth to work
around and fewer roots to disturb. Setting new fenceposts, however, is best
done after the spring rains have had a chance to drain through the ground. If
the water table is too high, post holes will fill with water as you try to dig.
(3) Weed young
spring weeds. mulch bare spots in beds.
Any weeds which
appear in your garden beds will be easiest to pull now, as the roots are
shallow. Covering bare spots with mulch or ground cover will minimize the
emergence of new weeds. Adding mulch to a depth of 3 to 4 inches is usually
sufficient. Black plastic sheeting can also be used to cover the beds before
planting as a way to suppress emerging weeds. And if you flip the sheeting over
once a week you may likely find slugs which have been hiding in the bed. This
is a simple way to reduce the slug population in garden beds.
When adding mulch
to garden beds or around the base of fruit trees, keep the mulch a few inches
away from tree trunks and the crowns and stems of plants. This will help reduce
rot on the stems of young plants and will protect the bark of young fruit
trees.
(4) When it's dry enough, 'top dress' beds.
Top dress garden
beds with compost or well-seasoned manure in preparation for planting. Resist
the urge to dig the bed; established beds have a complex soil ecosystem which
is best left undisturbed. Nutrients added from the top will work their way down
into the soil.
In early spring
you may find that your compost pile is wet and does not appear to be actively
composting the materials you've been adding through the winter months. If this is
the case, read their article How to fix a soggy compost pile.
(5) Early spring
is the time for lime.
Soils with a pH
below 6.2 will benefit from the addition of lime. Dolomite is the finest grind,
and is recommended. With ground limestone it will take twice as long for plants
to derive any benefit from it. Ideally, lime should be added several weeks
before planting. Hydrate lime, or "quick lime", is not recommended,
as it can change the soil pH so rapidly that plants may be damaged. Cover newly
limed beds with plastic during heavy spring rains to prevent runoff. Soil pH
can be determined by using a soil pH test kit.
(6) Prepare your
lawn for spring.
Rake the lawn to
remove dead growth and winter debris. This helps bring light and air to the
soil level, encouraging the grass to grow. Re-seed bare patches of lawn. Rake
bare spots firmly with a metal rake before seeding. Sprinkle grass seed into a
bucket of soil and spread evenly over the bare spot. Keep well-watered until
seeds germinate and the new grass establishes. Pre-emergent herbicides such as
corn gluten may be applied now.
(7) Thin dead
foliage of ornamental grasses and ferns. pull vegetable plant skeletons.
Once new growth
begins. it becomes difficult to thin ornamentals without damaging the plant.
New growth will quickly replace the culled foliage. And if you didn't get
around to this last fall, pull the old tomato, squash and other plant skeletons
to clear the bed for planting. Plant skeletons can be added to the compost if
you are sure they do not harbor any plant disease.
More information like this
can be found at the Eartheasy website: https://eartheasy.com/
