Gardening season is finally upon us! With the increased food prices expected this year, many families will rely on home gardens for delicious homegrown fruits and vegetables. While the key to successful gardening is appropriately preparing your garden ahead of time, Oakdell Organic Compost experts provide five essential spring gardening tips to ensuring a productive and successful vegetable garden.
Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or tilling your soil for the first time, these spring tips will help ensure your garden reaches its full potential.
Essential tips for early spring gardening:
1. Don’t plant outdoors too soon: Wait until the last projected frost before transferring plants outside. In Utah, the last frost date is typically around Mother’s Day. Some cool season plants like peas and lettuce can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked.
2. Start your gardening indoors: Depending on the type of vegetables you are growing, an indoor start enables the germination process to begin early resulting in an early and bountiful harvest. Leaf crops, including spinach, lettuce, chard, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes and others can be started indoors now.
3. Provide your soil with necessary nutrients now: Premium organic compost provides essential nutrients to improve the most stubborn of Utah soil types, from clay to sand and can help your plants grow better. Compost also helps soil retain moisture and improve aeration to allow plan roots to receive necessary oxygen. Make sure the correct amount of compost is applied. Evenly mix one inch of compost into four inches of soil.
4. Don’t plant your vegetables to close to each other: If vegetables are planted too close together they can’t reach their full growth potential, resulting in a much smaller yield. Just like people, plants need their space too! Some vegetables can be grown closer together, including lettuce and green leafies, but should be thinned before they reach full size, or while you eat them. Adhere to the spacing recommendations provided on the back of your seed packets.
5. Water your vegetables responsibly: The weather, growing conditions and time of year all affect how often your garden should be watered. Use the one-inch rule when watering. If you dig out an inch or two of dirt and find no moisture it is time to water deeply. If the soil is still moist, even after several days, check it the next day. Vegetable roots reach deeper than the roots of your grass. Therefore, they can and should go longer in between watering. An over watered garden is more susceptible to disease and bugs.
Oakdell Egg Farms Organic Compost experts recommend prepping gardens now to maximize the warm growing season and to ensure every plant gets a good start.
About Oakdell Egg Organic Compost:
Oakdell Organic Compost is the only Rodale-certified organic compost manufactured in Utah. As the official compost of Thanksgiving Point, Oakdell Organic Compost is an all-natural, multi-purpose and pleasant earthy-smelling product ideal for vegetable gardens, flower beds, trees, potted plants and lawn fertilization. Oakdell Organic Compost is available in Utah at IFA Country Stores, Millcreek Gardens, Wasatch Shadows, J & J Nursery, J & L Nursery, Vineyard Nursery, SunRoc Nursery, Dallas Green, Hurst Stores, Tooele Valley Nursery, Pinea Greenhouses, Harmons and other retailers. Oakdell Organic Compost is also available at independent nurseries in Idaho and Nevada.
For more information or for a complete list of retailers, visit www.oakdell.com.
Add comment