Spring Time Activities
Follow the plan for your garden. It should Identify sunny and shady areas, play areas, areas where you will eat outside and entertain, and a special area for your dog, etc. Then record what, where, and when you planted. Keep the plan and refer to it when planning your next season.
Manage your tools. In the early spring, inspect your tools, rain barrels, pails, containers and repair or replace as necessary. Have a place for your tools and other equipment, nd put them back in their place after using them. If you don’t, you will waste a lot of time looking for them.
Clean out your garden shed, throw away stuff you haven’t used for a while.
Check your seeds, make a list of what to buy, and buy.
Prepare watering cans. These are larger cans (e.g. tomato) with their bottoms removed and inserted into the garden, spaced out where the larger plants such as squash, tomato, brassica, or turnip, will be transplanted. To water, simply fill each can once or twice, depending on the weather.
Start composting. You need two bins. Clean out the remains of plants that you overwintered and place them into your first bin.
Summer Time Activities
Inspect your garden at least once every two days. If leaves are wilting, water. If you discover insect pests, deal with them. Insects and other pests will be covered in my next article.
Weed and thin when the weeds or vegetables are small. The best time is just after a rain when they are easy to pull out. Thinning will boost your production dramatically. For example, you will increase your production of carrots by five times if you thin carrots to four carrots per foot instead of twelve per foot.
Read the weather reports and adjust your schedule accordingly. For example, be prepared to water more often on hot days. It is possible to have a frost in June or late August; have coverings available to be used to protect your plants from frost.
Mange your rainwater. Add household water if your rainwater runs out.
In early July, turn over the compost from the previous year into a second bin and start the next batch.
Container Gardening
Containers have many advantages. They can be started early in the season, they can be moved around to take advantage of the sun or shade, they are easy to water and weed, and they can take advantage of balconies, driveways, patios, and odd spaces in your yard.
Size the container to the plant. Tomatoes or peppers need at least a 10-gallon pot, herbs a much smaller pot. You can grow one cabbage in a 10-gallon pot, or a few carrots or beets. Lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and kale are ideal for containers.
Container soil should be about 10 per cent garden soil, 30 per cent compost, 20 per cent vermiculite, 35 per cent potting soil and 5 per cent peat moss. If your garden soil is mostly clay, you may want some sand as well. Once the plants are tall enough, add a 2-inch layer of mulch.
Plants need water at their roots. There are two ways: an open reservoir connected by a tube from the surface, or a tall tin can with the bottom removed, that goes down at least 6 inches. Fill the can and the water gets to the roots. You can add fertilizer to the can before you fill it. The type of fertilizer will depend on the plant.
Use a moisture meter to determine when to water, usually every two to three days in normal weather.
Fall Time
In early September, empty the second bin of almost composted material and spread a layer of one to two inches on your garden.
Prepare your beds in the fall for next spring by removing weeds, broadforking, and adding and incorporating the compost into the top 6 inches of your bed.
Empty rain barrels before it freezes.
Charles has written a book based on his experiences – Urban Gardening, Planning to Preserving, available on Amazon.
