By Pat Dray
The Garden Spot
Pat Dray.
Early March is when many of us get serious about planting a garden – be it for vegetables, flowers or both. Much of the time we look at a swath of turf and make decisions about how to make areas more interesting through the creation of some new beds, either as borders to create privacy or to hide and distract from an undesirable feature.
The first step to successful gardening is to take a survey of your property. Is it hilly or flat? How many hours of sun does the area you want to use get? What is the soil like? What is the drainage like? What’s been growing in the area already? Based on these questions, you can determine what you can plant and any changes you need to make before planting. Plants are very competitive for their key resources—nutrients, water and sunlight.
One of the most important things you can do as part of your planning is to have a soil test performed. The soil test will give you important information regarding the health of your soil and what amendments, if any, need to be made. One important part of the soil test is the soil pH. Different plants do better with a certain pH range, because pH impacts the availability of plant nutrition.
What nutrients (generally nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) are lacking? What is the quality of the soil (sandy, clay, or mix of loam)? How compacted is it?
Please don’t waste your money and time by adding chemical products it you have not had a soil test in the past three years. The soil test will specify what and how much of anything should be added.
The second key resource for plants is the availability of water. Plants generally need about one inch of water a week to thrive. If there is no rainfall, how will you manage watering? If your garden is far from a water source, are you planning to move hoses and sprinklers from one area to another? If you do need to water, remember that plants drink from the roots, so overhead sprinklers are water wasters since most of the water is deflected by the plant leaves. Use of soaker hoses that can be connected to the regular garden hose are the most efficient. Also consider planting drought resistant plants.
The third critical resource is sunlight. Remember, just because an area is full sun now, it won’t be once the tree canopy fills in this spring. Most vegetable crops will not produce in less than eight hours of full sun. If you’re planning a shrub and or perennial garden you have a wide variety of specimens to choose from, from sun lovers to shade lovers. What has thrived in the area already? Be aware that the root zones of trees are far larger than their overhead spread when you consider your planting areas. There are even trees, such as the Black Walnut, that exude chemicals from their roots that will kill other plants!
For more information on soil testing, visit soiltest.uconn.edu/sampling.php.