CRETE | The Crete Woman’s Club 23rd annual garden walk  “A Day in the Country” Water Wise Gardening to be held June 25, 26 and 27 will focus on water saving tips.

According to a recent issue of the University of Illinois Extension Gardener’s Corner, “As we approach spring not only is the deep soil moisture lacking, but any upper soil profile moisture available will be quickly used unless there is adequate rainfall.”

The article suggests that gardeners compost, select drought tolerant plants and water properly. It goes on to state that organic matter provided by composting or mulching holds water but the best advantage to plants is watering properly.

“Watering at the base of a plant or using drip hose rather than using a sprinkler prevents water loss into the air or off target areas. Allowing the water time to soak in deeply will encourage plants to send roots deeper into the soil, making them more drought-tolerant.”

Selecting native plants with deep roots is another U of I suggestion for conserving water.

These and many other water saving tips will be foremost in the Crete Woman’s garden walk  in June. Illinois master gardeners will be on hand with information on “Every Drop Counts.” For more information call (708) 672-4820 or visit cretewomansclub.org.

Gardening tips for beginners

Posted: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 1:43 pm

Gardening tips for beginners

0 comments

Gardening is a rewarding hobby that many enthusiasts credit with helping them to peacefully escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Though gardening can be both relaxing and rewarding, it’s not as easy as it may seem, and the more time and effort a person devotes to his or her garden the more likely it is to be successful.

Gardening can be a little daunting for beginners who have little or no experience planting flowers or vegetables. But gardening need not be so intimidating, especially for those beginners who adhere to the following tips aimed at helping novice gardeners start their gardens off on the right foot.

* Determine what you should plant. Where you live will go a long way toward determining what you should plant. While you can plant anything you can get your hands on, the United States Department of Agriculture as well as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have determined specific plant hardiness zones that indicate which plants are most likely to thrive in given locations. Maps of these zones can be found at www.usda.gov and www.agr.gc.ca. By adhering to the maps, gardeners can significantly increase their chances of growing successful gardens. When in doubt about what to plant, consult a local gardening center or seek advice from a professional landscaper.

* Think location when beginning your garden. Beginners with large yards have the luxury of choosing the right location on their properties to start planting. When choosing a spot, consider how much sunlight a location gets on a daily basis and the spot’s proximity to a water supply. If planting flowers, try to avoid planting in areas with heavy foot traffic so the flowers are less likely to be stomped. If you’re planting flowers to accent walkways, then consider erecting a barrier around the flower bed to safeguard the flowers from foot traffic.

* Get started before you plant. Preparing the soil a few weeks before you start planting can help the plants thrive down the road. Add some organic material, such as compost or fertilizer, to the soil roughly three weeks before planting. This helps the soil retain water and nutrients, which will help your garden thrive.

* Time your planting. When you plant is sometimes as important as what you plant. Some climates allow for year-round planting, but many do not. When buying seeds, the packaging might suggest what time of year to plant the seeds. Adhere to these suggestions or your garden might not grow much at all. In addition, keep in mind that many seedlings need significant light throughout the day in order to grow, so choose a time of year with ample daylight.

* Don’t forget to mulch. Mulch can be as aesthetically appealing as it is effective. Mulch retains soil, helping roots to grow stronger, while deterring bugs and preventing weed growth. And many gardeners find mulch adds visual appeal their garden, and does so in a very inexpensive way.

* Clean your tools. Beginners rarely recognize the importance of cleaning gardening tools before putting them away. At the end of each gardening session, clean your tools thoroughly, as soil left on your garden tools can play host to potentially harmful microbes that might kill your plants.

Gardening can be a labor-intensive yet gratifying hobby. By sticking to a few simple rules, beginners can develop a thriving garden to reward all of that hard work.

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Chef and best-selling author Stephanie Alexander will bring her brand of gastronomical gardening to Garden Week today at Perry Lakes Reserve.

Running until Monday, Garden Week is billed as WA’s biggest and longest-running garden, landscape and outdoor living expo.

Headlining is 72-year-old Alexander, founder of the Kitchen Garden Program, which now runs in 24 primary schools across WA.

Not every 11-year-old can make pasta from scratch, but thanks to Alexander’s program, East Fremantle Primary School student Rebecca Perse is an old hand.

“In term three last year, we learnt how to make pasta by hand,” she said.

“We’ve learnt all the knife techniques and we’ve learnt about hygiene and stuff like that.

“Sometimes if we really like what we made at school, we make it at home, like Vietnamese rice paper rolls.”

Alexander, who will run demonstrations with students today and tomorrow, said the program was designed to get children eating fresh, healthy food.

“If children understand how enjoyable it is to make a quick risotto or a handmade pasta, they’ll never forget that,” she said.

PA Photo/thinkstockphotos

There’s still time to give your lawn a spring boost to help it survive the worst of the British weather, says Hannah Stephenson

Gardeners who didn’t want to venture out in the freezing weather at the beginning of the month may now be looking at a moss-ridden, lumpy lawn with scatterings of bald patches, a world away from the velvet carpet of grass they desire.

But there’s still time to give your lawn a boost, even if it might look a bit forlorn now, or consider re-seeding or turfing if you think it’s beyond hope.

If you have loads of moss, it’s worthwhile applying a moss killer before you scarify, and wait a few days before raking it up.

Improve badly draining soil by aerating the lawn, driving a garden fork into the ground all over the lawn when it is moist, making holes to a depth of 10-15cm (4-6in). I once bought a pair of lawn-aerating shoes, but they kept falling off so I went back to the old faithful fork.

Others use hollow-tine lawn aerators which remove plugs of soil from the ground, but they are hard work and aren’t very good on stony soils or heavy, dry soils.

The holes you make allow air and water to get into the grass roots and should then be filled with a mixture of sharp sand and organic soil conditioner to stop the holes from closing up.

If the soil is heavy and air is forced out due to excessive rain, spread a large bucketful of sharp sand per square metre over the surface, working it into the holes with the back of a rake.

Feed the grass with lawn fertiliser available at most garden centres. This can be done by hand, applying approximately two grams per square metre, and water it in.

All lawns need good drainage and oxygenation, so scarify it with a springtine rake to remove thatch – dead grass that mats beneath growing grass – and moss. For larger lawns, it’s worth renting a petrol-driven lawn scarifier to do the same job.

Some lawn dressings incorporate a slow-release fertiliser but if this isn’t the case, add a little amount of general lawn fertiliser (not containing weed or moss killer) before applying it. Make sure you brush it evenly over the area or it will become patchy when the fertiliser kicks in.

A few weeks later, if your lawn is still patchy, oversow it lightly with a quality lawn seed.

Once it’s ready to cut, make your first few cuts, keeping the blades set quite high. If your grass is already long, give it a few cuts over a number of weeks, lowering the blades a little at a time, so that you cut the grass length down gradually.

By summer, you should be mowing weekly, stepping up to twice a week when necessary, but don’t mow the grass shorter than 2.5cm (1in) high and keep on top of weeds in the lawn. Annual weeds which emerge in any bare patches will be removed by mowing.

Of course, in the unlikely event that we have a sustained period of warmth in the summer, go easy on the mowing and don’t worry about letting the grass go brown because it will recover.

When you mow during drought, leave the cuttings on the lawn to stop the roots drying out and help keep in the moisture.

Continue to feed the lawn monthly through the summer, then you can apply a high-potash fertiliser in the autumn to keep the grass in good condition in the cooler months.

Slideshow

10 tips for sprucing up your spring garden

Click to View 3 slides

Now is the time to refresh your garden for the warmer months ahead. For many DIYers, that means making a beautiful show of pastel or vividly colored flowers epitomizing the rebirth of spring, but it also means planning for the summer heat that will follow spring’s mild temperatures. Welcome Home asked local landscape designers for their favorite ways to do both. Whether you choose to plant a colorful display of seasonal flowers or simply tend to the plantings you already have, here are 10 tips to help ensure optimum conditions for a garden of delights.

  • 1. Out with the old — Just as we perform spring cleaning in our homes, the best place to start in the garden is with a good cleanup. Remove fallen twigs and sticks, cut back dead wood and trim spent blossoms. Trimming will allow you to see things better, visualize new ideas, make room for new growth and help prevent insect problems.

  ”I like to give everything some elbow room,” says landscape designer Kim Alvarez of Alvarez + Basik Design Group. “Give everything a good haircut, except for things about to bloom.”

  While many people like to clean out the leaf litter left from winter, landscape designer Matthew Ponseti of Ponseti Landscaping calls fallen leaves “nature’s free mulch.” He likes to use them as a layer of insulation beneath a top-dressing of mulch.

  • 2. Take stock of conditions in your garden — Once everything is clean, it’s a good time to assess challenging areas. Before planting, you need to know whether your soil is healthy, if your flower beds drain and how much sun exposure there is wherever you plant. Landscape designer Kenny Rabalais of the Plant Gallery advises digging 6 to 8 inches for a handful of soil from below the surface, then taking the sample to a good nursery for advice. (Healthy soil is a loose, dark-brown mixture; clay-like soil, sandy soil and soil that hasn’t been touched in years will need some conditioner). Rabalais also recommends checking the amount of sun in the garden at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m., so you’ll know what vegetation will flourish there. Also make sure flower beds are 3 to 6 inches above the lawn line for proper drainage. Rabalais says you always should check the information on plants to determine whether they are sun-loving or shade-loving and how much water they need.

  • 3. Make a plan — Whether drawn on paper or simply conceived in your mind, a plan will reduce the chance of costly mistakes and will help you determine what you need to purchase. Ponseti recommends drawing of your yard to scale to avoid unorganized planting that fails to make a statement. Landscape designers emphasize the a plan should go beyond what looks good and include considerations such as the maintenance required, how large plants will grow and any placements that could be problematic. For example, crepe myrtle trees are beloved in New Orleans, but landscape designers don’t recommend them near driveways or pools because they shed their blossoms and make a mess. Likewise, trees like magnolias, which have shallow root systems, and oaks, which become huge over time, shouldn’t be used around driveways, patios and other areas where roots can cause concrete to crack or shift.

  • 4. Mulch flower beds — “Everyone’s least favorite thing to do is buying and spreading the needed amount of mulch, but it’s the best thing you can do,” says Ponseti, who favors processed pine needles over other mulch choices and waits to put down new mulch until the oak trees have have finished dropping their leaves. In addition to keeping weeds at bay and retaining moisture, mulch gives a garden a finished look.

  • 5. Look for variety — “There are a hundred different shades of green, and different greens and different textures look good together,” Rabalais says. “Different leaf structures, variegated and nonvariegated, different sizes (of leaves) and different colors give character to a garden.”

  • 6. Work with layers — Using layers in your garden will create a lush look. Rabalais suggests starting with the tallest plants in the rear and moving forward with increasingly smaller plants. As a rear layer, Rabalais usually chooses an evergreen because they never defoliate and can hide a fence, brick wall or raised portion of a house. Ponseti recommends using grasses as one of the layers in a less formal yard and boxwood for a more formal look. Alvarez is fond of the contrasting textures achieved with coarse-leaf plants like fatsia coupled with ferns, which have a softer appearance.

  • 7. Group flowers together for impact — Planting a flat of impatiens all together will create a stronger impact than spacing them apart. Groups of single colors also pack a punch. Alvarez suggests planting flowers in groupings to accentuate focal points like areas near a front door or places where you spend time in the backyard.

  • 8. Fertilize — Fertilizing during your spring spruce-up will benefit seeds and bulbs that already have come up as well as new plants you’re installing now. The right fertilizer will make your flowers more abundant, and they’ll last longer. The key is to make sure the fertilizer comes in contact with a plant’s root ball.

  Rabalais’ favorites are a time-released capsule dropped into the soil before putting in a bedding plant, or a liquid fertilizer that requires a little more work but gets into the root system the same day you water your garden.

  Ponseti’s recommendation for spring is zero-nitrogen fertilizer for the short term and a 15-5-10 blend of fertilizer once your plants begin to grow more aggressively. He also suggests an herbicide for lawns to control clover and dollar weeds.

  • 9. Incorporate sounds and scents — Truly spectacular gardens are a feast for the senses. Along with using beautiful displays of springtime color, these landscapers suggest bringing in fragrant plants like gardenia, citrus trees, jasmine and herbs, which lend themselves to side and backyards more than front spaces. The sight and sound of a water feature brings a peaceful, personalized touch to a garden, but landscapers caution that fountains must be regularly maintained. What to look for: a gold filtration system and a base that’s large enough to hold an adequate amount of water without it splashing over the side.

  For those who want to go maintenance-free, Alvarez recommends a small wall-mountable fountain that can be plugged in and provides instant sound with no hassle.

  • 10. Make the most of your gardening dollars — Rabalais suggests dividing a 6-inch or 8-inch English ivy into three sections (use a kitchen knife to slice it apart), then planting the sections around the base of a pot of spring flowers.

­­  Ponseti suggests buying potted plants at least 4 inches tall, because anything smaller doesn’t have an adequate root system. He says gardeners also should look for double-seeded plants because they are fuller and have a better survival rate.

  Alvarez says you can find good deals on plants at local farmers markets. If you have a green thumb, plant one or two different types of seeds instead of just using plants purchased from garden centers. Two of Alvarez’s favorites to start from seed are nasturtiums (they’re easy to grow and are edible) and moonflowers (they’ll bloom by late spring or early summer, and their white flowers open in the evening).

LONDON, April 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ —

We’ve had our first glimpse of warmer weather, so it won’t be long before we’re dining alfresco, holding family BBQs and having outdoor parties. If you’re planning on entertaining in your garden this year, now’s the time to get your gardening gloves on and start making your outdoor space the perfect spot for relaxing with friends. Online garden centre Plant Me Now has put together their top 10 tips to get your garden summer-ready:

Lawn gardens

1. Choose granular feed to slowly feed your lawn over the summer months, but if you have an important event, use a soluble feed a few days before for faster results.
2. Edge your lawn to give a nice, clean line between the lawn and the flowerbed – an easy way to make your garden look much tidier!
3. If moss has been a problem, use a moss killer then simply rake it out. You can then over-seed (or re-seed) to thicken the lawn and fill in any empty patches.
4. Large spaces are perfect for growing a wild flower meadow and various mixes are available to attract different kinds of wildlife (butterflies, ladybirds, bees, etc.) To ensure fresh growth next year, simply mow at the end of the season.
5. Plant perennials in your flowerbeds for beautiful colours that come back year after year; then fill in any gaps with summer bedding plants.

Patio gardens

1. If you don’t have flowerbeds or a big space to work with, fill pots and containers with beautiful summer bedding plants in a variety of colours
2. Give dirty patios a good scrub or blast with a pressure washer to remove moss and dirt, ready for welcoming your alfresco dining guests
3. Make tired wooden garden furniture look as good as new by treating it with teak oil – there’s no need to splash out on a new set of chairs and tables.
4. Place solar lights around your patio for a fantastic, eco-friendly way to light up your outdoor space when the sun goes down.
5. Plant some climbers – they’re perfect for covering unsightly old fence panels or walls.

Plant Me Now is the UK’s leading online gardening centre, specialising in perennial flowers, bedding plants, bulbs, garden accessories and tools for adults and children. A dedicated team of horticultural experts are the backbone of the business, producing nursery bedding plants on site and sending them directly to your garden to cut out the middle man. This method ensures quality and value is maintained, as well as minimising transportation to reduce their carbon footprint. 

SOURCE Plant Me Now

SOME days there’s just not enough time to get everything done let alone keep everyone happy and on those days the garden takes last place on the to-do list.

To help anyone else who has my sort of time crunch, here are a few of my tips and tricks designed for the out-of-time gardener.

Tip 1: Weeding has to be the least enjoyable and most time consuming task in garden maintenance. To avoid weeding I keep all of the soil in the garden mulched year-round. I even mulch my containers to avoid having to weed them which also help to prevent drought stress. I use wood chips for mulching which I obtain from my friendly neighbourhood arborist.

When wood chips are unavailable, I use leaves from my own trees or those found during fall in the nearby city park. The trick is to make sure that every last inch of earth is covered with a thick layer of mulch so weed seeds cannot germinate.

Tip 2: Lawn cutting for some people is a form of therapy. For me lawn cutting is work. So I have eliminated the time most people spend cutting lawn down to zero. How? I killed all of the lawn in the front yard and installed planting beds interwoven with a bluestone patio and walkway. In the backyard, there’s a small patch of lawn that I refuse to cut, so my wife cuts it. The trick is to change the design of the garden to a less labour intensive style and if that does not work, then delegate.

Tip 3: I like growing veggies but much of my garden is dedicated to hardy ornamentals, so I grow veggies in containers. Veggies grown in pots take half the time to plant and maintain because there are no veggie planting beds to maintain. I can also change my veggie selections each year and move them around the yard as desired. Yes I do need to obtain or grow new soil for my veggie pots each year but that is what compost piles are for. When planting veggies in pots, bigger and deeper pots are best to provide a deep, cool root run. A pot the size of a washing machine is ideal but hard to find. Try upcycling or repurposing a pot from some other sort of container. One tip for planting pots, do not add shreds of foam, broken pots or any other manner of shrapnel to the bottom of the pot for drainage. Adding shrapnel to the bottom of the pot is a myth and those pieces simply perch the water table higher and deny plants the full depth of soil.

Tip 4: Solving pest or disease problems can be difficult, time consuming and often the problem persists from year to year. Some plants are important and worth fighting for, some are not. To avoid pest and disease problems I use the following pest and disease strategies: Firstly, avoid the use of chemical fertilizer because it forces soft lush growth that predisposes plant to pest and disease attack.

Secondly, choose the right plant for the right place, not the right plant for the place I want it to grow. Thirdly, plants that have a chronic pest and disease problem are ruthlessly ripped out and thrown into the compost or green waste bin. A case in point, I recently found that thrips were overwintering on my hellebores. Thrips are tough, persistent and cannot be killed in one year by any means. So I dug out all of my hellebores and tossed them in the green waste bin. The tip: a good gardener knows how to kill plants as well as he or she grows plants.

Chalet Landscape, Nursery Garden Center
3132 Lake Avenue
Wilmette
www.chaletnursery.com

Seminar:
“Tomatoes!”
April 19
10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Tony’s Tips:

Spring is a time of new beginnings and a welcome return to garden season. Enjoy some new plans and tools for the 2013 spring gardening season!

Check out new plants that debut this year, including the hardy Senetti.

New garden tools include a special shovel for women that fits best with their ergonomic needs and body structure.

Welcome spring with new garden accessories, like a colorful tote, a Dirty Dog Doormat perfect for muddy paws.

Have fun experimenting with new seeds this year.

Guide to gardening: Experts offer 13 lawn and garden tips for northeast Oklahoma

By BRAVETTA HASSELL World Scene Writer on Apr 13, 2013, at 2:25 AM  Updated on 4/13 at 7:57 AM

In arriving to a new place, there’s much to do: find your way around town and not get lost on your way home; secure just the right people for everything from hair care to lawn services; build new relationships; set up house; acclimate to a new setting, and, if you are a gardener, orient yourself with your yard.

Two local gardeners, Tulsa Garden Center Director of Horticulture Barry Fugatt and Stringer Nursery’s Jeff McCants offer some advice that may be helpful to the new northeastern Oklahoma gardener and even be gentle reminders to those who are rather familiar with Green Country.

No. 1 Don’t be hasty ushering in spring

This past week has shown us that it’s not yet time to put in your warm-weather crops. “We have had frost in the first week of May,” McCants said, advising gardeners to quickly plant their cool weather crops if they haven’t already but wait a day or two past April 15 – our average frost date – to get in your annuals. Even then, “don’t dilly dally.”

No. 2. Walk your neighborhood

It can offer inspiration for what you may want on your property and also show you which plants appear to thrive in your area. Fugatt also recommends visiting Woodward Park to check out the many trees and shrubs growing in the arboretum and in the Linnaeus Teaching Garden before going to the nursery to buy plants.

No. 3. Know your soil, work with your soil

“We’re blessed, or cursed, with many different types of soils, some great for growing just about anything – the sandy types along the Arkansas River corridor – and very poorly drained clay types that make growing many plants a challenge.” When gardening in a clay zone, think about using raised planting beds.

No. 4. Get involved with Tulsa’s active garden community

From February until about November, there is a gardening class or other horticultural events around Tulsa. Many events are free, others may have a small cost, and all offer valuable information and people excited to help answer gardening questions.

No. 5. Be skeptical of plant tags

McCants said that while the plant tags are helpful in giving basic information about a plant and what it needs, the insight they offer falls short of what a knowledgeable nursery professional’s guidance on the type of sun exposure an individual species takes. A plant tag may recommend full sun for a plant, “which may not necessarily be true since our full sun is hotter than it is in the rest of the country,” McCants said. Also, the tags often under-rate the mature size on a lot of plants, and it’s common to find plants completely mislabeled, so talk to an expert before leaving the store.

No. 6. Mulch, mulch, mulch

It keeps weed competition down, keeps soil cool and retains moisture.

No. 7. Amend your earth

Adding organic matter such as compost to your planting bed area will tremendously help your garden work, McCants said. The incorporation of amendments shores up sandy-type soil, helping it better maintain water. For clay soils, in adding the matter, you’re loosening up the ground and letting in air, which your plants roots will need.

No. 8. Arm yourself with info

In addition to Tulsa’s Master Gardeners, Linnaeus Gardeners and local nurserymen, a wealth of information on gardening topics can be found online, as well as at any Tulsa City-County library.

No. 9. Seriously consider native plants

Many a seasoned gardener will recommend them to those who are experienced and those who are new to gardening especially in Tulsa’s climate. Native plants are hardy – tolerant of the area’s unpredictable weather and even its periods of drought. They require less water than exotics and are plants that are well-adapted to the region and how it’s changed over time.

No. 10. Know your common Okie plants

By now, you’ve fallen in love with those wine, lavender and white-blossomed trees that are showing beautifully in your neighborhood and just about everywhere in Tulsa right now. They’re Oklahoma Redbud, Floating Clouds Redbud and Texas Whitebud trees, respectively. McCants said the dwarf redbuds do extremely well, if you’re interested in bringing a couple closer to home. And if you were to ask him about some of his favorites to consider, dogwoods are on the list. “It’s a wonderful tree,” McCants said, adding that establishing transplants can be a little tricky but to not let that discourage you. Other trees bursting in bloom right now include crabapples, ornamental pears and really any nature of fruit trees. And who can mistake the yellow brilliance of forsythia.

No. 11. Visit your garden

Gardening is not a one-and-done hobby. It’s something that requires regular work and attention to yield anything you’re proud of. McCants said it is important to take some time to walk through your yard. Observe your plants. Don’t just check for weeds, also check for pests. Be weather conscious and be cognizant of how different weather conditions may be affecting your plants. “Get a feel for what your plants are experiencing,” McCants said.

No. 12. Diversify as much as possible

Gardening with only one type of plant – or a monoculture – is a sure way to throw all the time and money you’ve invested into your yard and garden down the drain if it falls prey to a pest that likes exactly what you’ve been nurturing. Not only will plant diversity ensure that you won’t sustain a total loss if disease takes hold, but also it creates an interesting yard and garden to look at, enjoy and call your own.

No. 13. Try, try, try again

“Don’t fret or give up on gardening when a few plants die,” Fugatt said. “It’s all part of gardening. If you don’t occasionally kill a plant or two, you’re not really trying.”

---

Handling henbit

The blanket of purple-blossomed weeds in your yard right now may make you want to reach for some herbicide, but Tulsa Garden Center’s director of horticulture and Stringer Nursery’s Jeff McCants says not so fast. Soon enough the henbit will die back on its own, McCants said. If it’s really a bother, mow it down or pull them out.

The biggest concern, their seeds, can be taken care of in the fall with some pre-emergent weed control. Putting it down then will catch the seeds in their germinating season.

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Bravetta Hassell 918-581-8316

bravetta.hassell@tulsaworld.com

Home Garden

Garden calendar: SpringFest Garden Market set for Saturday

Did you know that in the 1600s,
northern Europeans referred to the
tomato as a “wolf peach” and suspected
it was poisonous? Or that the
debate over whether the tomato was
a fruit or vegetable was settled in
1893 when the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled it was a vegetable?

Russell Studebaker: Try colorful, tasty patio peaches

Who doesn’t delight in eating a tasty, fresh, ripe peach or some piping hot peach cobbler? Oklahoma’s peach capital at Porter, about 35 miles from Tulsa, is the state’s major commercial production of peaches. A peach orchard’s faint fragrance and mass of pink flowers is a wonderful sight to experience.

Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.

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The time has come to get vegetable gardens ready for planting, and the ongoing drought could mean more work to prepare soil.

Thorough and even soil moisture could make all the difference in a successful garden. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension educator David Lott recommends testing the soil and maximizing water transport to ensure that the soil will yield healthy crops.

“When we think of vegetable crops, we have critical periods that we have to have adequate moisture,” he said. “So we have to be thinking about a two to three week period before harvest and then right at harvest.”

This time is critical for plant and vegetable crop development and maturity, Lott said. If the soil moisture is inadequate, produce may not develop correctly or uniformly. Expected size, uniformity and taste may not be achieved. In some cases, inadequate moisture can lead to the drop of blossoms and early developing produce.

Before making any changes, gardeners can test the moisture in their soil with spades, screwdrivers, rebar or other similar items. Insert the item into the soil and mark the level at which it hits dry soil. If the ground is moisturized at a minimum of six inches deep, it should be ready for planting. Lott said that moisture at levels as deep as one foot would be even better in most soils.

“People think they’ll just let the water run everywhere for a few minutes and they’re good,” Lott said. “But the big thing is infiltration level.”

Lott said it is crucial to get moisture moving through garden soils, particularly following a year as dry as 2012. Sandy soils or clay do not transport water efficiently, so gardeners should incorporate some organic matter such as compost or decomposed hay or straw with a spade or potato fork. In clay soils, adding this material will break up the soil’s density and increase drainage. It will also increase the water holding capacity of sandy soils.

Consistent and even watering is also key to healthy vegetables. Too much variation in soil moisture throughout the garden can result in disease like blossom end rot in tomatoes. Refer to NebGuide G1752, “Blossom End Rot in Tomatoes,” available at a local UNL Extension office or online at ianrpubs.unl.edu/sendIt/g1752.pdf, for more information on preventing this disease.

For soil that is sufficiently saturated, mulch or row covers can cut down on weed pressure and moisture loss. Gardeners should also pay attention to the spacing of their plants.

“We want to maximize growth but also have a decent plant canopy because that will reduce soil temperature and moisture loss,” Lott said.

Recommended spacing for lettuce, for example, is 10 to 14 inches within a row and 16 to 24 inches between rows. For potatoes it is six to 12 inches within a row and 30 to 42 inches between rows. Lott suggests referring to “Knott’s Handbook for Vegetable Growers” by Donald Maynard and George Hochmuth for spacing recommendations