Mulching
{Reed places soap box on ground and steps up}
It’s Spring again, except for that snow the other day, and it is time for my annual diatribe on Mulch. Here is a link to my comprehensive discussion from last year. I don’t need to repeat or rewrite what is in last year’s discussion, but I do want to reiterate how important good mulch is for your garden and the health of your plants. For years I have been recommending MadMics mulch and have seen the benefits in the health of the soil, and testing shows excellent nutrients and measures for organic matter after using it in gardens for several years. However, a question that I often get is: Do I need to use it everywhere, or can I use bark mulch and wood chips too?
MadMics is an enhanced leaf mulch, and it breaks down quickly. It’s best use is in beds that have perennials and flowering shrubs. I know many of you have larger yards, and you can use longer lasting wood chips or bark mulch under trees and larger beds that wouldn’t benefit as much from MadMics. A nice 3-4″ layer of wood chips in beds will last two seasons and may just need to be raked and topped off as necessary.
Finally, when you or your contractor source mulch, demand natural bark mulch that is not dyed and is not created from scrap, construction or shipping materials. It shouldn’t smell bad or sour like mulch often does these days.
A good mulch will:
- Minimize moisture loss in heat
- Keep annual weeds from germinating
- Minimize soil temp. swings that can stress plants
- add organic matter to soil
Yes, it might cost a little bit on money, but it is well worth it for what it can save in cost and effort.
Soil Testing
I have mentioned this already this year. One of the best things you can do is perform soil tests in your garden. Especially if plants are not thriving or you see insect or disease challenges. Imagine if you were wearing wet wool socks and you couldn’t take them off! That is what it is like for a plants in soil conditions that they don’t like.
Go to the UMass Soil Lab. They provide all the instructions to get a good sample. If you are growing food, a test will save you money and headaches. Get the routine test with ‘organic matter’ and it will cost you $26. It will save you much more than that in short order.
It can be a little intimidating to understand despite their easy process, so I am always here to help out.
Divide and Transplant
We finally have a nice stretch of Spring weather coming. Thought it would be the past two weeks, but the next two look great. Get out there and do your transplanting and division. Many to most perennials liked to be divided to help with their vigor and flowering. It is the simplest and most rewarding work to perform in the garden. Creating new plants! I spend a lot of time showing people how to do this, and then they go off on their own and build bigger gardens and have plants to trade with friends and neighbors.
Fertilization
This is the time of year to fertilize your plants, but please don’t do it blindly. More often than not, when I come to a new garden and test the soil, there are ample nutrients and it doesn’t require fertilization. Don’t waste money, do a soil test. Often, the most important need is to adjust the pH to make nutrients more available. Don’t waste your money on something that isn’t necessary. If you do fertilize, I suggest the Espoma line of products. They have combined and single source products to provide exactly what your garden needs without wasting money and product. They are also organic and safe for food production.
Weeding
Lots of Winter and early Spring weeds out there. Get to them now before they flower and set seed. Every year I recommend the Stirrup Hoe and I get emails thanking me for the suggestion. If you aren’t going to get on your knees and weed, you can breeze through the garden with a stirrup hoe. It isn’t as effective as removing weeds, especially perennial weeds like Dandelion and Creeping Charlie, but it is much better at collapsing the weed colonies than nothing. Sharpen both sides of the blade regularly with a file and it will destroy weeds with little effort.
Get out there and enjoy this nice weather in the coming weeks. We should really see flowers coming with the warming trend!
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