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.

Onion sets (45-50 onions in a set) are here! 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 six inches apart. Once a root system is established (10 – 14 days) 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 fertilizers that work well are Ferti-lome Tomato/Vegetable (7-22-8), Hi-Yield garden fertilizer (8-10-8), 13-13-13 from Carl Pool and 10-10-10 from Espoma. Apply fertilizer when you prepare the bed. I have also used Wells Brothers “Jump Starter” or bone meal when planting. At three weeks, top dress with fertilizer 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.

Red LaSoda potatoes are also in.

Thinking about planting fruit trees in Texas? Choose carefully and you can enjoy a bountiful harvest for years to come. Of all the trees in the world, the fruit tree is close to the ultimate multi-tasking tree. They provide shade, add focal points in the landscape and provide you with something to eat. They don’t get as tall as pecan trees and there is a lot less work to eat their fruit. Like everything else in a landscape, some forethought is needed. Full sun and enough space for a mature tree are necessary. Trees like figs will use up to 500 square feet at maturity so pick the location carefully.

Selecting a specific type and variety of fruit tree is the next step. Pick healthy plants from reputable dealers in a two to five-gallon container. Please pick the ones that are adapted to our area of the planet. Planting pineapples and coconuts in backyards around the DFW area is just not a good idea. Varieties of apples, apricots, figs, peaches, pears and plums are the most common. The term “chill requirement” refers to how many hours of temperatures between 32 and 45 degrees we have annually. These chill hours are critical for proper bud and leaf growth in the spring. In the DFW area, we normally have around 800 hours. Choosing a variety that needs 1,200 chill hours is doomed from the start. Some other issues to be considered are late freezes, summers too hot, humidity too high or low, having enough pollinators and of course disease and insects. All this might sound like an iffy proposition. I will tell you that when you pick fruit off trees in your backyard it’s well worth the labor.

There are thousands of pages dedicated to choosing a plant variety for home fruit production. My recommendation for picking the right one is to get in touch with the folks at the Collin County Agricultural Extension office.