Spring gardening begins in Winter
WASHINGTON - If you’re
a backyard gardener, this is
the time of year to prepare
for next Spring’s planting.
U.S. Department of
Agriculture horticulturist
Robert Weame offers these
tips to help you.
- If you still have crops
such as collards, kale or
turnip greens growing, work
around them. The cold and
snow enhance their flavor
and you can still get good
meals from them.
- Clean up old plant
material. It’s best to destroy
any jilants badly diseased or
infested by insects, such as
white flies. While cold
weather may prevent the
insects from surviving the
winter, old plants can give
them protection.
-- Save healthy, un
diseased plant material to
dig back into your garden or
to compost. Collect enough
leaves to make a three-inch
deep layer on the garden.
Compost any extra leaves
for use as mulch during the
growing season. If asked,
your city street department
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leaf cleanup. Shredding
leaves with your lawn
mower helps them work into
the soil faster or break down
faster during composting.
Leaves help sandy soil retain
moisture and allow clay soil
to drain moisture.
- If you haven’t had a soil
test for two or three years,
do it now. Soils can became
too acid from fertilizers and
organic materials or too
akaline from buildup of
sodium, calcium or other
salts. Your local county
extension agent, listed m the
telephone directory under
the name of your county, can
tell you how to prepare the
soil sample, where to have it
tested and what the test
shows your soil needs.
Discuss with him the need
for a separate nitrogen test.
- Fall is the best time to
add lime and organic
matter. By Spring, it should
be effective.
- Plow or spade the lime,
leaves and other organic
material roughly into the
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soil. Rain, snow and the
freezing and thawing of
winter will break down the
dirt clods and help in
corporate the lime. A garden
Fall plowed generally
requires only raking in
preparation for Spring
planting.
- Correct any drainage
problems. One way is to
establish raised beds about
four feet wide, four inches
high and the length of your
garden. Leave enough space
for you to walk between the
beds.
- Finally, clean up your
equipment to protect it for
next year. Clean off tomato
stakes and metal tomato
cages. Dirt and old plant
material causes cages to
rust. After removing the dirt
from your garden tools, oil a
cloth and rub them down to
retard rust. If you have a
garden tractor, drain the
fuel from it and run the
engine until all the fuel in it
is burned up. Otherwise the
gas will evaporate over
winter and leave a gum
deposit in the engine. Also,
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Weame gave these ad
ditional tips to remember
next season. “Many gardens
aren’t as successful as they
could be for lack of proper
watering. Set some empty
coffee cans under the
sprinkler next year when
watering. One to two inches
of water in the cans means
the water has probably
seeped down about four to
six inches. The soil should be
moist down past the plants’
root zone, at least 15 inches.
“Time your watering and
dig down to see how far the
water soaks throgh the soil
m a given time. Then you’ll
know how many minutes to
water your garden.
“Mulching keeps weeds
down and reduces the
amount of water required to
keep the plants growing.
“Even though home
gardens are usually small,
it’s good to rotate your
crops. Don’t always grow
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tomatoes, for instance, in the
same place. This helps
control plant insect and
disease pests. It helps
control weeds and improve
your garden soil, too,” said
Weame.
Weame said home gar
deners should start small,
with two or three tomato
plants, some radishes and a
few other vegetables they
like and work up to larger
gardens. Part of the fun of
gardening, he said, is
knowing how to do it
properly so he suggests
home gardeners learn about
soil preparation, and how to
care for and fertilize the soil
and become familiar with
gardening techniques.
“People should learn to
distinguish between
beneficial and harmful in
sects,” he said. “You don’t
need to spray a whole garden
just to get nd of insects on a
few plants. You can pick off
by hand the cabbage loopers
your garden will probably
attract. And you can make
little foil ‘collars’ placed an
inch above and below the
ground to keep cutworms
from killing your transplants
plants, cabbage, for in
stance.”
Wearne also suggests
gardeners watch catalogs to
experiment with new
varieties that may be more
productive in their location
or be more insect or disease
resistant.
Two final tips: be careful
not to bring insects into your
home when you bring your
house plants in for the
Winter. Inspect them well
first. Insects multiply in a
warm home and can be
difficult to control.
And for everyone now
harvesting their green
tomatoes, Wearne suggests
pulling up the entire vine,
knocking the dirt off and
hanging it on a wire or nail in
the basement or other cool,
dark place, to allow the
larger tomatoes to ripen.
For those who have
already picked their
tomatoes, Weame suggest
wrapping the larger ones
individually in newspaper to
help ripen them. The small
green ones, he said, are good
for making relishes and all
green tomatoes are delicious
when properly f ned.
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