Spring is an important time in the garden. It lays the foundation for the coming gardening season and keeps things organized.
Below are 9 tips to help you get started with your gardening season.
Stretching Guideline
1. A guideline made by stretching a length of cord between stakes will help you plant straight, neat rows in the vegetable garden. Here the gardener shows how to grip the trowel properly, pulling it forward in one quick, easy motion to make a hole. Each plant is watered at once.
Rows For Sowing Seed
2. Straight rows for sowing seed in the vegetable garden are also a must. Rows can be made with the edge of a hoe following a guideline, as in the picture at left or by laying a longboard on the ground and making a furrow along its edge.
The board also serves as a temporary walk so your feet will not sink into the soft, newly-dug earth.
Planting Balled-and-Burlapped
3. In planting a balled-and-burlapped (B&B) tree or shrub, dig a generous hole 6 inches wider all around than the earth ball and a foot deeper.
Fill in a foot of soil mixed with compost and plant food, tamp down firmly, and set the plant so it is at the same depth as it grew in the nursery (the trunk is darker above ground).
Loosen the burlap and roll it down but do not remove it. Fill in the soil level with the surrounding ground and shape a saucer-like depression to help catch rainwater.
Landscape Planting Plan
4. To follow a landscape planting plan for a flower border, outline a pattern or individual sections of the plan by making lines on the ground with lime after measuring the planting area.
Then set the required number of plants in each space. Here, perennials are being set out from paper pots that they received from the nursery.
Avoid Transplanting Shock
5. To avoid transplanting shock, grow plants like these petunias in peat pots. When planting, set the pot right into the ground with the plant, so the roots are not disturbed. Plants can be obtained in such pots at nurseries.
Set annuals 8” to 18” inches apart. Depending upon the diameter, plants will reach maturity. Water well.
Quick Groundcover
6. For a quick groundcover, set rooted cuttings of plants like pachysandra 6 to 8 inches apart over the entire area to be covered. Soil should first be spayed deeply, fertilized, and raked smooth.
As each section is planted, water slowly but thoroughly with a hose, letting water trickle on board so no puddles or deep furrows form.
Roses From Cans or Tar-paper Pots
7. Roses from cans or tar-paper pots can be set out even in full bloom. This is an ideal way to buy roses for quick results if you do not have time to set out bare-root roses during February or March.
Cut the container down the side and remove the earth ball, as shown, leaving the soil intact. Place in a large hole of prepared soil and water generously.
Setting Out Summer-flowering Bulbs
8. Set out summer-flowering bulbs like acidanthera, baby gladiolus, and other small kinds in a rock garden by digging a hole large enough to accommodate several bulbs at the proper depth.
Space bulbs and label the variety before filling in the soil. Then add soil to ground level and tamp down with palms to eliminate any large air pockets.
Root Cuttings
9. Root cuttings of perennials in a cold frame as soon as the weather is warm. A fine fog-spray nozzle connected to the hose with a time control can be set to eject spray every few minutes for quick and easy rooting.
Cuttings of many shrubs and trees root readily in this way. After transplanting, keep the cuttings well-watered. Protect in winter.
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