Early Spring Gardening Tools and Chores
Spring flowers are beacons of light shining through what's left of the bleak winter landscape.
There’s no way around it, even if you did all your chores last fall, the first jobs to be done in the spring are clean up. So get your garden cart out, your rake, pruning shears and gloves and get to picking up all the trash left behind by mindless, rude human beings, and the ravages of Mother Nature.
Look for dead and damaged plant material. Be merciless when cutting back a plant that has suffered any kind of damage. It will come back stronger than ever.
Make sure any leaves and plant material that are diseased have been cleaned up and discarded properly to avoid recontamination of new growth.
Get out your garden fork and cultivator. Cultivate shallowly where there may be roots close to the surface, use the fork on open ground to break up the soil and allow for air and water to get through. Continued vigilance at this time will also help keep weeds down.
Watch for your early spring bulbs and make plans on where you want to expand and with what for the following fall. Draw diagrams and take notes. Don’t depend on your memory.
You should already be planting seedlings inside now for planting out later. Many hardy greens will thrive in the cooler temps of early spring. They are also quick and easy to germinate and they are fast growing. Prepare a plot for spinach, kales, Asian greens, sorrel, Swiss chard, miner’s lettuce, watercress and arugula. A simple tunnel providing minimal protection for these greens will have you harvesting delectable green salads very early on.
Organic seed list:
Consider the Earth when you garden and keep it Organic!
Christy
Mother Earth’s Farm / VermiCulture Northwest
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