"Garden Resolutions"
Broadcast on: January 13, 2007
Hello!
Yea! We all survived the holidays, all be it a “few” pounds heavier- but we’re
talking survival here!
Wow – 2007! Yes, a new Year – time for making resolutions to lose those few
pounds (and then some!). Time for making resolutions to eat healthier, to
exercise more to feel better! And I hope that if you are a gardener, you’ll take
the time to make some gardening resolutions to make the next gardening season
better for you and your garden. And I also hope that you’ll consider some of
these gardening suggestions.
Take some time now (or in the really near future) to evaluate
last season’s garden. Which vegetables did well? Which ones were failures? What
garden problems did you have?
Well, make a firm resolve to identify all those problems from
last season. Identify all those batty bugs, those wicked weeds, those deadly
diseases, and those asinine animals! Plan now to remedy the situation for next
season. Develop a strategy; plan you attack! Resolve to make your garden bigger,
better, more efficient, more productive.
How? Well here are some suggestions humbly submitted for your consideration:
Consider crop rotation! Try to make sure that you never plant the same kind of
vegetable in the same place 2 years in a row. This is especially important if
you’ve had any problems with diseases or insects. Resolve to shift all those
veggies around, even if your garden is only 10’x10’ or 100’x100’.
Consider your soil! What about your garden soil? How good is it? What is your pH
– high? Low? Medium? Rocky? Is your soil too sweet? Too sour? Need any lime? If
so, just how much? Do you have enough nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium? Too
little? Too much? Do yourself and your garden a real favor; resolve to get a
real soil test. Those cutesy, convenient home soil test kits are just that –
cutesy and convenient, but not all that accurate! So call your Cooperative
Extension office (here in Lewis County it’s 376-5270).
If you don’t know how to pull a soil sample, ask the experts at your Extension
office – they’ll be delighted to help you out. And then you’ll get back a really
neat and complete soil profile of your garden plot. And you’ll get some really
good recommendations how to improve that garden soil.
Resolve to build up the organic matter in your soil. Plan to add compost to it
in spring. Resolve to start a compost pile now if you don’t already have one.
Start saving all of your vegetable and fruit peelings and scraps, all of your
used coffee grinds and egg shells. But don’t add any meat scraps or fat to that
pile!
Try to convince a nearby farmer to part with some of his black gold (aka cow
manure). Or try to get a hold of some horse, sheep, or chicken manure.
Resolve to use other organic fertilizers like fish emulsion, seaweed extract,
blood meal, rock phosphate, greensand, or granite dust. Give that good old
Miracle Grow a rest! Resolve to use some natural organics.
Consider planning next year’s garden now. Resolve to grow something new,
something different. Consider growing different vegetables; consider growing
those different vegetables differently. Consider using companion planting, or
succession planting, or raised beds or wider beds or wider plant spacing. If you
don’t know what these gardening terms are, resolve to take the time to find out.
Consider using mulch, or row covers, or better gardening tools, or an irrigation
system. Consider exploring the idea of using season extenders out in your next
garden. How about row covers? Cold frames? Hoop houses? Walls of water? IRT
plastic mulch?
Consider a long winter still to come and consider curling up with a good
gardening magazine or book) or seed catalog). Consider writing down some of
those garden resolutions. Resolve to make your garden better and healthier so
that you and your family will grow better and healthier.
Hey - Remember – Eat Smart New York!
And – Bye – Talk to you soon!
D
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