Getting Ready For Spring Vegetable Gardening
There is something exciting about the warming days of spring. The earth is waking up from its winter slumber and home owners are busy bustling about in anticipation of spring vegetable gardening. If you are like most gardeners, you spend the cold and snowy winter days dreaming of spring vegetable gardening and thinking about just what you will plant. Follow these tips to get your spring vegetable gardening off to a great start.
Start Your Spring Vegetable Gardening In The Fall
Spring vegetable gardening actually begins in the fall. Plan for the following year by pulling out all of your plants after you are finished bringing in the harvest. When you let you spent plants winter in your garden you create a breeding ground for insects that can hurt your next year’s crop.
The fall is also a great time to work on compost for spring. Add the fall leaves that you rake to your compost pile and mix it with grass from the last time of the season you mow your lawn. If you don’t have a compost pile, you can still turn your leaves into soil gold. Simply rake a large pile of leaves into a black, plastic lawn bag. Add a handful or two of 10-10-10 fertilizer and leave the bag in a place it will receive sun. In a few short months, you should have a nice bag of compost to till into your spring garden.
Work On Your Spring Vegetable Gardening All Winter
You can save a lot of money and get a jump on your spring vegetable gardening by starting seeds inside during the winter. You can usually buy one package of seeds for the same amount of money, or often less, than you would pay for one pony pack of transplants at a garden center. Another bonus in seed starting is that your plants are healthy and ready to go into the garden long before your local nursery is carrying seedlings. When you get a head start on spring planting, you get a head start on the harvest.
Simply plant seeds in peat pots and keep them warm by placing them on a seed mat or under a grow light. You can nurture your seedling indoor garden all winter until it is time to plant them in the spring. Just make sure that you harden the plants by letting them spend a few hours outside each day come warm weather. If you don’t harden your plants in the spring, they will go into shock when you transplant them in the garden.
