Springtime Vegetable and Flower Planting Tips – Part Two
Garden soil is okay to garden in each year after the winter ground thaw has occurred. It’s springtime and so it makes perfect sense. That is when the soil is malleable, easy to dig down in and easy to plant in. When soil is soaked it’s too easy to compact, which means it’s hard to keep aerated. Spring crops for a vegetable garden that work well are leeks, lettuce, spinach and peas. Anytime you plant a vegetable garden the goal is to enjoy doing it and for it be successful. Do an online search for the best plants to plan in early spring and then pick the one’s you would like to eat when your crop comes in.
Get the Jump on the Nasty Cabbage Moth
The pervasive cabbage moth starts to show up as soon as frosts end. This nasty insect places its eggs along the inside of various vegetable seedlings including cauliflower, kale, broccoli, and cabbage. If the eggs make their way onto the seeding, it will most likely cause the seedling to lose its gumption and end up dying. Get set to take care of your garden’s crops from ugly root maggots. To do this you’ll to place row covers over your plantings or put tiny paper barriers around each seedling stem base. Root maggots are more common when the garden dirt is moist and not hot.
Get After Garden Slugs
The start of spring means damp weather with lots of rain across a lot of the country. When it is wet, garden slugs show up in gardens. In your neck of the woods, if garden slugs are prevalent police the area daily for them and then remove them by hand when you spot them. If the weather allows it, spray your garden with slug control product. Only use the non-toxic variety. This will help prevent gardens slugs, which will in turn save your crop so you can harvest it and enjoy it.
Bulbs and Tubers Action Plan
When early spring comes around, it’s high time to take the bulbs and tubers that were in pots and bowls in your home and set them out. It may turn out they will not produce blooms for 2 – 3 years due to low food reserves, but they may produce blooms in the spring. When spring time comes it’s okay plant out all the bulbs and tubers overwintered in your house.
Split up, Clean-Up and Do Perennial Bed Mulching with Vigor
To handle shoots more readily split them up and replant them when they’ve only grown 3 -4 inches high. Get your new flower beds ready for perennial flowers by placing ½ foot of compost or manure and turn the soil over completely 1 – 1 ½ feet down. Flowers growing in wonderful nutrient rich dirt will handle the hot weather of the summer and thrive. Flower beds with perennials need to be completely cleaned out of the last season’s left-over plant waste and then mulched to stop weeds from proliferating. Place mulch around each perennial root location, not over it. If you place mulch over the plant root, it will not grow.
By following the tips suggested here your vegetables and flowers will thrive you will hopefully enjoy a wonderful crop harvest and a beautiful garden throughout the spring, summer and fall.