If you ask anyone that has been gardening for many years they will say that it is a year round job no matter where they might be located. There are plenty of things that can be done even in the coldest months and you will find that there are times in the summer when you might not be spending every day working in your garden.
With that said there is a time in late winter to early spring when we all start getting a bit anxious about when we can start working in our garden and starting seeds inside for our first planting.
Preparing Your Garden Soil For The Growing Season
Soil conditioning is a very important part of a healthy garden. Garden Soil that is high in organic material provides nutrients for the plants and also a loose soil that roots can grow easily in. Although there are some people that push the no till method of farming this really doesn’t relate to the small to medium sized gardener. The no Till or really the No Plow method is when a large commercial farmer decides to only work the first few inches to a foot of their soil instead of turning over their soil with a deep plow method. For everyone else there really is a need to till the soil to at least 6 inches to both loosen the soil and introduce amenities like compost, manure, peat moss, fertilizers, lime and other materials that provide a rich soil for the plants you are growing.
Normally it is best to prepare your soil as early as you can before you begin planting. This will allow the nutrients to combine with the soil. For this reason as soon as the soil is workable but even before the last frost is expected you can start to prepare your garden beds. You want to do this at least 2 to 4 weeks before you plant.
Getting a soil test might be helpful but a local garden center can also explain which products they know are needed in the local area. I normally purchase a few bales of peat moss, 10-10-10 general use fertilizer and some lime to start. Read the directions on the lime and fertilizer on how much should be applied and add about 2-3 inches of peat moss on your beds before you use an electric tiller or a garden hoe to mix the soil well.
If you have weeds starting in your garden you should do a pre till of your beds to dig down into the roots of the weeds and then remove them with a steel rock rake. Form your beds with walking areas and then apply and till the beds.
Planting Your Vegetable Seed Starts Indoors
If you would like to start your seeds indoors to give yourself a few weeks of growth before planting then you should calculate the date at which you can plant your starter plants based on your last expected frost. Frost dates can vary even within a few miles and if you are in a valley your land might be much colder than someone only a mile or two away that lives on flat land with lots of sun. The important thing to understand is not looking at the daytime highs but the nighttime low temperatures. There are some good sites that will list historic temperatures for your area and you can look up your location and when temperatures were above freezing in the past. You should also understand that 0C or 32F is really not the best thing to go by because you can get frosts or even snow that is short lived at temperatures into the mid 30F’s. If you are considering planting close to those times you should really have a green house or hoop house over your beds that will help protect them in those cold days.
On the other hand there are items like Onion Start Bulbs and Garlic that can take the cold and it is best to plant them early. If you haven’t planted your Garlic in the fall you can still plant your cloves in the late winter/ spring when you condition your garden beds and till them. Your harvest might not be as great but you might not see any difference and more important if you don’t plant at all then you have no chance of harvest.
Once you have calculated your planting date you want to subtract 15-25 days from the planting date and use that day as your indoor seed start date. It is very important to realize that no matter what your indoor setup is you will never provide the same quality of light that you can get outdoors. Indoor hydroponic gardeners may be the exception but their setups are very expensive to purchase and run.
I would not suggest that you start your seeds indoors earlier than 20 days before planting because plants that start indoors can become weak and long stemmed and they will never fully recover when planted in the garden. The exception might be a plant like tomatoes which can be planted much deeper than their soil height and the hairs on the stem of the tomato plant will turn into roots when planted deeply. There really aren’t any other plants that work that way and a strong thick tomato stem is much better than a thin long one which may be damaged when planting.
What Other Things Can You Do Year Round To Continue Work On Your Garden?
Planning is a very big part of a productive garden. If you are very interested in getting the best crop yields and trying new plants in your garden there is a lot of research that you can do.
In my garden I have been working towards a limited interaction philosophy. Yes every garden is going to require care throughout the year but there are times in life when you just don’t have the time or ability to micromanage your garden. For this reason it is important for me to limit the planting of some vegetables that require high maintenance. This also means limited watering so I am looking at plants that will still have a good yield if I am not watering them all the time. Watering is an additional cost that many gardeners don’t consider but it dramatically increased the cost of your produce when you factor all costs for the entire growing season. Everything from seed starting trays, fertilizer and watering and all the way up to canning, freezing and dehydrating the produce after its picked. It can add up to more than just buying food at a grocery store if you aren’t careful. That doesn’t even account for your time. All of these things are important when you are going from a pure hobbyist gardener that just loves the look of their tomatoes as much as someone might like roses to when you are actually raising food to offset your cost of living or maybe even growing enough to sell.
Final Note
If you are getting anxious about working in your garden then thats a good thing. The best thing that you can do until that day is prepare both by learning about the plants you want to grow and methods for managing your garden.
I strongly suggest that you keep good records on your purchases and methods and make it more about being productive than just a pastime. You might be surprised where your money is going and how you can get the most by doing less.