Spring Garden Prep

By BethAnne Brink-Cox House and Home Feature Writer

Seems like the minute snow begins to melt, we’re impatient to start planning and planting for our gardens, large or small. But there are things that need to be done first. Do you know all of them? Gerry Schwartz, owner of E&R Seed LLC, 1356 E 20 S, Monroe, since 2016, knows.

“We’ve been in business here for 40 years. We sell seeds, nursery plants and supplies, mostly. ”So let the preparations begin! Schwartz said, “Well, tasks that need to be done, for me it starts in the fall. I really feel it’s essential to workup the soil in the fall, and when I say that, I mean that we plant a cover crop in the fall, then when it reaches full height we till that down in as a green manure. That really seems to help get things started earlier in the spring.

For myself, I use a blend of turnips, radishes, buckwheat, and sometimes I add winter pea.”Think of it as a bedtime snack before the hibernation begins! Another good preparation is warming the soil in the spring by covering it. That can be as simple as putting down sheets of newspaper, wetting and weighing them; they’ll breakdown as any compost would. Other methods are sheets of black plastic, and Schwartz agreed. “Black plastic still sells and it does help. But you can now buy commercial things that compost, like newspaper does. They’re organic and that’s been a good selling point. It’s a product from DeWitt, and they call it biodegradable paper mulch or weed barrier. It’s 100% all natural paper mulch.”

A quick search showed that it’s available at all the big box stores, many garden stores and online as well.

Next, make sure you have all the tools you need! What might those be? Schwartz said it’s pretty simple.“It depends on what you’re doing, but you want a good set of small tools, like pruners, trowels – and you can buy all kinds, but get a good one! Get a good set of snips, a hoe, a shovel.” Other sites recommended what they called eight essential tools: garden gloves, hand pruner, shears or scissors, watering can, hand trowel, sprinkler and hose, garden kneeler, leaf rake and shovel or spade. In other words, most of what already appeared on Schwartz’s list!

Some of you will start your garden with seeds, others with seedlings you started a few weeks ago, and still others will buy plants from a nursery you trust. But if you buy them before your soil is ready to receive them, Schwartz said there are things you should do. “It depends on what the plants are, if they’re flowers and vegetables it depends on the size of the container. If they start to look root bound, transfer them to a bigger pot. Keep them in sunny places, like window sills. And they need air! They don’t get air movement inside your house. Open a window for them. And if you can’t do that, fans seem to help.” For people like me who planted a lot of strawberries and never got to eat a single one (we had some happy squirrels, though) Schwartz said there are good things you can buy that go beyond the old remedies of human hair around the plants or screening in your garden.

“There’s products available. We like the ones from a company called EPIC. They’re called SCRAM, and there are formulas for deer and rabbit. They’re granules, made of natural products like garlic and I’m not even sure what all they use. You sprinkle them around the plants you don’t want eaten. You do have to reapply when it rains.”

So when can you start planting? Schwartz said that’s a hard question to answer precisely. “I’d say early April, but if you learn something different, let me know!” He advised watering in the morning during the cooler weeks of spring, and never to water during the heat of the day. “And fertilize early to help the plants get started, but you can burn vegetables if you feed them too much, so don’t fertilize again until the plants are pushing through the soil.” Write your list of needs and start your planning! n