Gardening season is right around the corner. Things you need to know are the square footage of the garden and what’s in the soil, nutritionally speaking. If you don’t know, then do a soil test. For gardens, I recommend a soil test every 18 months to 2 years. The reason is different crops use nutrition at different rates. Since most folks grow 2 to 4 crops a year testing is critical. Wells Brothers sells soil test kits and also does soil testing. Once you have the results, picking amendments become easier.

Next, you need a good crop rotation plan. Farmers have been moving crops around their fields for more than a millennium. Even so, I still talk to folks that insist on planting the same crop in the same space year after year and expect the same results. You might get lucky for two years but not for three. In the past, I have had excellent crop rotation plans and I have had some that really stunk up the garden. Like the saying goes, “You have to have a plan before it fails.”

Onion sets (50 onions in a set) are usually available by the second week of January. Their arrival will be posted on Facebook. Plant onions as soon as they become available in full sun and well-drained soil that is loose to about eight inches deep. Onions should be planted deep enough to hold up the plant and about four to five inches apart. Once a root system is established (about three weeks) pull some of the dirt away from the top to expose the bulb to sunlight. Don’t let them get thirsty. Onions require good moist soil during the first part of the growing cycle. Once the bulbs start to form, moisture becomes less of an issue.

Onions require more fertilizer than most garden crops. They really enjoy moderate nitrogen (1st number) and high phosphate (2nd number) fertilizers. The two fertilizers I use are Espoma’s 10-10-10 and 5-10-5. Apply fertilizer when you prepare the bed. I have also used bone meal and Wells Brothers “Jump Starter” when planting. At three weeks top dress with nitrogen and then again when the bulb starts to grow. I also fertilize every three weeks or so until the end of April. You should be harvesting onions towards the end of May.

Now is the time to begin preparing garden beds for spring. First off, make a plan. Before you set a budget, draw up plans or buy materials, here are some things to consider, that may help, or muddy up the decision-making waters. Beds for annual color and veggie gardens are different from (hopefully perennial) shrub beds. The most expensive are shrub beds so I will start here. The 20-year plan for a shrub bed is trimming for shape and adding mulch every year or two. Basic rules include picking the correct plants for the sun exposure of a given area and our current or potential water situation. Space the plants at their mature size, even if you think it looks weird. You can use annuals to fill in the gaps for a year or so. Leave enough room behind the plants for maintenance of the bed, the house, shed or whatever.

I do not amend the entire bed with compost, expanded shale, volcanic sands, the eye of newt or whatever. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) Spend the money and effort around the plant and not on bare dirt that will be covered in mulch. 2) The plants will have to live in the native soil so amending the hole gives them a good start. Installing landscape or weed barrier fabric will help keep most of the unwanted growth from coming up through the bed for years. Once the fabric is in place and the plants are staged in the bed, the shovel work starts. Dig the hole about two to three times as wide as the pot and not too deep. It is better to be on the shallow side than the deep side. The sides of the holes should be rough, not smooth. A third of the backfill should be compost and expanded shale. I also use Wells Brothers “Jump Start” in the hole. In the past, I have also used lava and green sand, corn meal, dried molasses, peat moss and Eye Of Newt.

Adding 3” to 5” of mulching is the last step but one that cannot be skipped. Mulch aids in weed suppression and most important, moisture retention. You can do everything right but if the plants dry out they are goners. The two most popular types of mulch are hardwood and cedar. Hardwood comes out of the bag black but will fade in relatively short order especially in full sun. Cedar comes out of the bag faded but smells better. I give the edge to cedar mulch due to its insect repellent properties. You can also find cypress, pine bark, rubber, and dyed mulches. Nothing wrong with cypress but if you must use pine I would rethink your plant selection. Dyed mulches are used when a particular appearance is wanted. For me, the rubber mulch is what they do with old tires and serves no use in a landscape unless you have plastic or metal plants.

And here comes the shameless plugs. We sell lava and green sand, corn meal, dried molasses, 4 types of compost, expanded shale, and Jump Starter, hardwood and cedar mulch plus shovels, rakes and other types of garden hardware. We do not carry cypress mulch, pine bark mulch, rubber mulch or eye of newt!