Garden Maintenance - Gardens |
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Maintaining a Vegetable Garden
Maintaining a Vegetable Garden
Healthy, vigorous vegetable plants produce the most flavorful and bountiful harvests. Give your garden plants the moisture and nutrients they need, and keep them weeded and harvested for tasty and nutritious crops. Tools and Materials • Hose or watering can • Organic mulch • Hoe • Fertilizer, 5-10-10 Water. Provide adequate soil moisture throughout the growing season to help fast-growing plants establish strong roots and produce fruit. The most critical times are just after planting and as the desirable edible part is forming. Keep the top 6 inches of soil moist for seedlings and young plants. Once plants become established, encourage deep rooting by wetting the soil at least 6 inches deep when the top 3 to 4 inches feel dry. Mulch. Add a 2- to 4-inch layer of organic mulch around your vegetable plants to suppress weeds, maintain soil moisture, reduce watering, moderate soil temperature, improve soil health, and keep vegetables cleaner. Pine needles, shredded leaves, straw, and grass clippings from untreated lawns work well. Avoid herbicide-treated lawn clippings, hay, and fresh sawdust and manure. Apply mulch after the soil has warmed in spring and replace as needed. Weed and thin seedlings. Pull or hoe weeds as soon as they appear and while they are small. Never allow weeds to go to seed in your garden. Maintain mulch to suppress them. Remove crowded seedlings-especially carrots, radishes, onions, and beets-as soon as possible to give the remaining crop enough space to mature. Fertilize. Each vegetable crop has unique nutrient needs throughout the growing season. Natural soil texture and fertility also play a role in when and how much additional fertilizer plants need. In general, you can fertilize transplanted vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, head lettuce, and cole crops) and corn about 3 to 4 weeks after planting. Some crops may need additional fertilizer later in the season. Fertilize vine crops (melons, cucumbers, and squash) when the vines begin to spread and again when they bloom. Use 1 to 2 tablespoons of 5-10-10 per plant or 1 to 2 pounds per 25 feet of row. Sprinkle fertilizer 6 to 8 inches from stems and scratch into the soil. Harvest. Pick vegetables when young and tender for the best flavor and to keep the plants producing. If seeds begin to mature inside beans, peas, cucumbers, and summer squash, the plants will stop making new fruits. Harvest leaf crops (lettuce, spinach, and chard) by cutting to within 2 inches of the ground to encourage young, new leaves to grow. Pull root crops as needed for meals as soon as they reach edible size. Tips To prevent the spread of disease, don't work in the garden when the plants are wet. Nitrogen encourages leafy growth, often at the expense of flowers and fruit. Don't use high-nitrogen fertilizers on tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants prior to flowering. Photography by National Gardening Association
Maintaining a Perennial Garden
Perennial gardens require less maintenance than lawns, but they do need regular care to look their best and stay healthy. The following tasks are arranged in order of frequency from weekly to annually. Tools and Materials • Scissors or hand pruners • Trowel • Soaker hose or sprinkler • Hoe with small, sharp blade • Half-moon edger or garden spade • Lawn rake • Steel rake • Perennial plant fertilizer • Organic mulch Remove spent flowers. Using scissors or hand pruners, snip off flower stems just above a leaf or bud when they finish blooming to prevent them from forming seeds. Pick off damaged leaves. Inspect for pests and problems. Look for leaves with holes or ragged edges; sticky, discolored or spotted leaves; chewed or abnormally growing flowers or buds; or damaged stems. If you discover a problem, take samples of the damaged plant to a garden center with experienced staff or contact cooperative extension service Master Gardeners in your area for identification and advice. Water. Dig into the top 2 to 3 inches of soil with a trowel. If the soil is dry, water until the soil is moist to a depth of 6 to 8 inches. Soaker hoses and drip irrigation pipes apply water more efficiently than overhead sprinklers. Avoid wetting plant leaves late in the day to prevent the spread of some plant diseases. Pull weeds. Remove weeds as you see them on your daily or weekly inspection. Use a hoe with a small, sharp blade to slice them off just under the soil surface, or pull them by hand. Edge the beds. Keep the edges between your garden and lawn well defined and tidy with a half-moon edger or garden spade. Facing the garden, push the tool blade straight down into the edge of the turf about 3 to 4 inches. Pull the handle toward you to remove a wedge of soil. Repeat around the perimeter of the garden. Compost the turf scraps. Fertilize and mulch. Early in the spring, fertilize with a granular, slow-release fertilizer formulated for perennial gardens. Follow package recommendations for the correct amount to apply. Replace or renew organic mulch, such as shredded bark or leaves. Seasonal clean-up. In cold-winter climates, protect tender plants after the ground freezes with a 4- to 6-inch layer of loose mulch. Cut back perennials to within 8 to 10 inches of the ground after the tops die back or leave them uncut for protection against the cold. In spring, cut back all dead stems to the ground and rake out the debris. Tips Keep asters and chrysanthemums more compact by pinching a couple of inches off their growing tips when they reach 12 inches tall in spring and again in mid-summer. If weeds get away from you, concentrate first on weeds with flowers or seeds, and then tackle one square foot at a time. Photography by Suzanne DeJohn/National Gardening Association
Dividing Perennials When an established perennial produces fewer flowers, or the center of the plant looks sickly while the margins thrive, it could be time to divide the plant. Or even if the plant is healthy, perhaps you'd like to share it with a friend by splitting off a piece. For one reason or another, most gardeners will need to divide their perennials at some point. The best time to divide plants depends on your region. In cold regions, early spring is usually the best time. The new divisions will have a more time to become established before the challenges of the long, cold winter. On the other hand, in climates with mild winters and hot summers, high temperatures pose a harsh threat, so fall may be a better time to divide, giving plants the mild winter to get established. Here are some guidelines for dividing perennials. Tools and Materials • Shovel • Garden forks • Pruners • Trimmers • Sharp knife • Tarp Prepare the Plant. Choose a cool, cloudy day to divide and replant. If the ground is dry, begin by thoroughly soaking the soil around the plant. Let it drain while you gather your tools: shovel, garden fork, pruners, and sharp knife. Then trim back the leaves or stems to 6 to 8 inches to make handling easier. Dig In. You have two options when dividing perennials. You can dig up the whole clump, then separate it into several smaller clumps, or you can simply use a shovel to slice down and remove sections of the plant, leaving part of it intact. Generally, it's better to dig up the whole clump and carefully split it into sections. Divide the Plant. Place the entire clump on a tarp in a shady spot, and check to see if any sections naturally split off. Some perennials have roots that are easy to separate; others are such a tangled mass that you'll need to tease or pry them part using two garden forks back to back. Still others have fleshy roots that you'll need to slice into sections. Prune away dead and damaged tissue, and make sure each section has a portion of roots and leaves. Replant the Divisions. If you are giving the divisions away, place them in containers and pack moist soil around the roots. Water them and keep them in a cool, shady spot. Plant divisions as soon as possible. When replanting in the holes you've prepared, set the plants at the same depth they were in the original bed. Water the new divisions well, and keep them well watered throughout their first year. Tips Some plants don't need dividing and resent having their roots disturbed. These include monkshood (Aconitum), false indigo (Baptisia), bleeding heart (Dicentra), lupine (Lupinus), peony (Paeonia), and poppy (Papaver). If possible, divide perennials just before a rainy spell is predicted. Cool temperatures and gentle moisture will help the plants recover from the stress of dividing and replanting.
Photography by Sabin Gratz/National Gardening Association
Preparing Perennials for Winter Tools and Materials • Pruners • Shovel • Compost • Mulch or row cover Dig up Bulbs. After the first frost has struck and foliage begins to yellow and die, cut back the foliage, dig, and store tender perennial bulbs such as dahlias and gladiolus that can't survive the winter in the ground in a cold climate. When digging, be careful not to damage the underground bulb or tuber. Water and Cut Perennials Back. In dry-winter areas that don't freeze or have little snow, water perennials once a month to keep them alive and healthy. In all other areas, cut back on watering to help plants harden off in preparation for winter. On perennials that have finished for the season, cut back stems to 6 to 8 inches from the ground. Feed Plants. Fall is a good time to feed perennials by working in a 4- to 6-inch-thick layer of compost around the beds. The compost slowly breaks down, releasing nutrients to the plants and improving the soil structure. Mulch. After the ground freezes, remove old mulch and replace it with hay, evergreen boughs, or floating row covers. This extra layer protects tender perennials and helps catch and hold snow, which will also insulate the bed. Tips In cold-winter areas, stop fertilizing perennials by midsummer to encourage them to slow their growth and harden off for winter. In warm-winter areas, fall is a good time to plant perennials. However, in winter check for signs of disease, especially during wet periods, since the plants are growing slowly and conditions are right for rotting to occur. After a season of enjoying the blooms from your perennial flower garden, late fall is the time in cold-winter regions (USDA Climate Hardiness Zones 8 and colder) to prepare the beds for winter. Taking good care of beds in fall will help them thrive next spring and summer. Gardeners in warm-winter areas where frost and snow are rare need only to keep the beds cleaned up and replace diseased or worn-out plants as needed. Gardeners in all other climates can follow these steps.
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Maintaining Gardens
