Spring has sprung!
|
|
March 28, 2014 |
By Cindi Kimball
Moose Valley Farms
It is that time of year that all of us plant
addicts love. Spring. The buds swelling, the sun
shining, the floods subsiding, are all
indicators that spring is upon us. It’s time to
get those fingernails dirty and break out your
gardening tools!
I could write a 100 page thesis on spring
preparation, but instead, I am going to focus on
simple, easy to do tasks that every experienced
garden and novice alike can be doing with all
that eager energy that has been bottled up all
winter.
Top priority: Spray your trees before their buds
break - especially fruit trees. Now is the
perfect time. This may seem silly to some – but
it is the optimum time to help rid your trees of
any problematic issues it had last year.
The most basic spray would be a “dormant” or
horticultural oil spray combined with a
fungicide such as lime sulfur or copper. The oil
smothers out residing insect eggs and even
brutally tough bugs trying to overwinter. The
fungicide helps prevent the re-occurrence of
issues such as leaf curl, leaf spot, etc.
There are organic and non-organic options
available, you should be able to find these
products at any of your nurseries. Moose Valley
carries a wide variety for you to choose from to
suit your needs.
Pruning - Before the trees go into “full on
growth mode” – nip those annoying branches that
just don’t look right, or that have been damaged
or nibbled on by our native creatures.
Also, trimming back fruit trees helps increase
fruit production.
Contact me and I can email you pruning
guidelines, or the University of Idaho Extension
Outreach can help you as well.
Just make sure to sanitize between cutting each
species (especially if you’ve cut off some
decay/diseased branches). A 10-percent bleach
solution works well, or traditional rubbing
alcohol.
Soil – time to add that much needed compost. Get
some from your neighbor, grab some bags, or we
even have some black magic compost in bulk at
Moose Valley. Work it into your soil and get
your gardens all ready – planting season is
soon!
Gypsum is useful to help break up some of those
heavy clay soils, and if you need to adjust the
ph of your soil – especially for blueberry crops
–do so now! Ammonium sulfate and sulfur work
nicely for this. If you have the opposite
problem – and need raise your ph – lime works
for this.
Seed Starting ... Ready, set, go!
You can go ahead and start your peppers now!
They take so long to grow that they can be
started early. Plus, they don’t get too leggy
and overbearing like other plants (squashes and
tomatoes ... not to name names).
Cole (Cold, as some refer to them) crops are
good to go too.
Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale. They’ll
tolerate the colder weather and can be put
outside sooner, especially if protected. We are
now selling our Moose Valley line of seeds “Grow
what we Grow” – so if you haven’t ordered in
your pepper or tomato seeds yet, we’ve got a
great selection at great prices!
Potatoes, onions, garlic, asparagus roots and
strawberry crowns. Typically, these could go in
fairly early. I don’t know about you, but my
soil is still the perfect situation to place
some spuds to get rotten, so I am personally
going to hold off for another week or two.
Spring is for planting, right? Planting trees –
If they are native and acclimated, or bareroot
–and you can dig the hole – have at it!
Bareroot trees are easy and economical to plant,
but the earlier you get them in the ground, the
better!
Weed control – whatever your method, it’s best
to attack those tricky suckers, the sooner the
better – whether it’s Round-up, corn gluten,
Organic Weed Impede, or crabgrass preventer –
your best offense is a good defense! Attack
early!
If you have any question – large or small – do
not hesitate to email me. I tend to be flitting
around the Moose Valley compound this time of
year, but I respond to my emails quite rapidly.
Again, for those of you that do not have it, it
is
cindikimball@moosevalleyfarms.com.
THINK SPRING THOUGHTS! |
|
Questions or comments about this
article?
Click here to e-mail! |
|
|
|
|
