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Preparing the Vegetable Garden
In my part of the world, spring is just around the corner. I can see the buds on trees getting ready to pop. The delicate but hardy crocus flowers have raised their colorful, pretty heads out of the brown, dormant grass. It’s time to get the vegetable plot ready for planting.
The first order of garden business is to rake out and dispose of any dead leaves and plants that might have been left from last year. Once that’s done, it’s time to work in the mulch. Sphagnum peat moss, cottonseed hulls and if you have any of last years top cover of wood chips left over, throw them into the mix to help improve the garden soil. The garden plot should be spaded to just the depth of the spade and then the mulch worked into the top two to three inches of soil. This not only enriches the garden soil, but helps it to better transport oxygen and water.
Another important thing to do, now that you have worked the organic material into the garden, is to get a soil test done by your county extension office. Gather about a pint of soil from several different areas of the garden to be tested.
The soil will be analyzed and you will be told if fertilizer or any other amendments are needed. As we all know, excess fertilizing has already added a great deal of pollution to our environment.
Now that you’ve gotten your soil analysis done and your garden plot is spaded and raked, it’s time to choose what you want to plant. Here, where I live, I have the choice of several cool-weather vegetables that grow quite well and with very little effort on my part. I’ll start by planting potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day…Irish potatoes, of course.
