Are You Ready For Spring Planting?

Top 3 tips to get you ready
By Rocky Tassione

It’s finally Spring which means it’s time for Spring planting! Are you ready? Let me give you three tips that will set you up for success.

TIP #1

Turn Your Beds. Soil building is important! Spring is when you want to turn over your soil (one foot deep). It’s important not to till your soil until it is dry enough. How can you tell? If you can form a ball of soil in your hand and it doesn’t easily fall apart, the soil is too wet. You will want to wait until the soil easily crumbles in your hand.

TIP #2

Organic or Chemical Sprays. There are insects and mites that attack Harvest landscape plants and our garden beds. It’s important to be aware and to apply insecticides properly and at the right time of year…which is now! If you don’t use insecticides, you can expect to see caterpillars, spider mites, and aphids. As with all pesticides, take care when applying to food bearing plant as well as handling and storing of the pesticide. Always be sure to wash all produce well before consuming!

TIP #3

Fertilizer. The best method of pest control for your plants and garden is to keep them healthy so they don’t attract bugs. Fertilizer adds nutrients to the soil that might not get there any other way. We are fortunate at Harvest to have Dr. Robert Moon, Horticulturist, who created a recipe for our Harvest yards using soil samples as a guide to feed our plants. This plant food is all natural and environmentally balanced to improve overall plant vigor, enhance root health and stimulate all yard and garden plants. Turf, trees, shrubs, ground cover, perennials, vegetables and color will all thrive with this plant food in the Harvest soils. It is safe around kids and pets while encouraging microorganism activity in the soil. This plant food will not pollute the environment and over 95% will be utilized by the plants.

Join me on Saturday, March 28th at 9:00 am at the Harvest Garden as Dr. Moon will be hosting a fertilizer clinic. Afterwards, we will move the seeds that were planted a few weeks ago from the greenhouse to the garden. 

There will be a lot of activity happening around the garden in the coming months. Here’s what you can expect to see:

·       New garden plots for Harvest residents

·       Sunflower field planted by the Farmhouse

·       Planting of sweet corn and melons

I hope you will find these tips helpful as you start your Spring planting! Be sure to Follow and Like us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay up-to-date on all things Harvest!  

Organic Gardening Tips

Growing organic fruits and vegetables may sound like a daunting task, but in reality it’s not much harder than normal gardening. If you plan to eat foods from your garden, then organic gardening will certainly pay off in the long run. It’s much healthier for you and helps you to cut out many of the pesticides that currently plague the foods we consume. Here are five tips from the pros that even the beginning gardener can follow.

1.      Prepare your soil
Pack your soil with organic material such as composted manure or yard and kitchen scrap compost. Organic materials are full of nutrients for your plants. The more organic material you add to the soil the less fertilizer you need. Here’s a tip, coffee grounds are great for mulch around acid-loving plants.

2.      Consider bugs and insects
Since you’re going organic, you will need to consider the various plants that repel insects, invite them, and the plants that bugs like to eat. Many people utilize ladybugs because they provide a natural form of pest control.

3.      Layout is important
When planning the layout of your garden, make sure to keep your plants fairly close to each other. If your plants are close, their leaves will block the soil from direct sunlight. By keeping the soil shaded, you will cut down on weed growth and help the soil retain water. You must leave a little space in between plants though, because you don’t want them to grow on top of each other, this will cause fungus and disease.

4.  Relocate your plants

Change up your plant locations after each growing season. Relocating your plants cuts down on soil depletion and disease. Beans put nutrients back into the soil that can be used for the next crop. You will avoid disease by relocating plants because organisms that infect one plant tend not to harm others, so rotating will prevent disease from spreading.

5.      Control your watering
Make sure when you water your plants that you go deep. If you do frequent, shallow watering then your plants’ roots will stay near the surface and become week or deprived of water.

Harvest Live Smart is a master-planned community in North Texas focused on healthy living and getting back to the land. Be sure to connect with us on Facebook and Twitter for even more gardening and sustainability tips!