It's Never too Early to Think About Planting Your Garden
.by John Yazo
Winter is here and there is nothing that can be done about it. All we can do is just sit, wait and stare out at the garden in the backyard and dream about the lush green foliage and ripe juicy vegetables that we wish you can be growing right now. Cabin fever is a depressing time for gardeners.
Believe it or not, this can be the most productive time you have to get you garden planned out the way you always wanted it. There are allot of things that can be done that can make the winter months go by quicker. This is the best time to plan the garden, search out new varieties that you can plant, organize your supplies and put a list together of things you will need to start your garden.
Start by first drawing your garden out on a sheet of paper and making a list of the crops you want to plant. Once you have this done put a number, letter or symbol next to each crop that can be used to mark the location you want to plant on the drawing.
The next step is to decide
what your goals are for your garden, method of soil maintenance, crop
rotation and companion planting. These are three major techniques that
are greatly beneficial to an organic garden. When including these
methods you will need to make three copies of you drawing and list so
that you can put a three year plan together. Crop rotation is very
beneficial to the improvement of the soil structure and the
replenishment of nutrients back into your gardens soil.
Soil
maintenance is a very important part of organic gardening. The use of
techniques like crop rotation, companion planting and the use of cover
crop are a great way to improve the structure of the soil in your
garden.
Organic weed control is another part of gardening that can be planed out. Are you going to mulch with compost, straw or leaves that you have saved from your fall yard cleaning. Different mulches effect the soil differently. Testing your soil and having the results for that specific area and knowing what crop you are planting there will help you decide what mulch you should use for that specific crop.
Putting a good plan in place for your organic garden will benefit your garden greatly. Having a good system that improves the soil structure will also benefit in the prevention of insect and disease control. Once the plan is established stay with it. Changing from your plan half way through it wont have any benefit to you or your garden.
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