Keith Hansen

This is the time of year to start getting ready for your spring garden. You might be thinking I've got my seasons mixed up. But spring planting season will be here sooner than you think.

I don't seem to have the same stamina as I did in my younger days, so I enjoy the cooler days of winter to accomplish some of the more strenuous garden chores I've been putting off.

But, that's not the main reason for preparing for spring gardening activities. Experienced gardeners know that waiting just before planting time in spring can be very risky. Why? Because success with spring gardening has much to do with timing, and Mother Nature often does not cooperate with our last minute time tables.

Quite often the weather in February and March is rainy, and one of the most damaging things you can do is to work your soil when it is wet. Cultivating wet soil, especially heavier textured clay or loam soils, will destroy its structure, resulting poor internal drainage, and in general make a big mess.

A great thing about getting your garden soil ready now is that you can work in large amounts of organic matter in the form of free tree leaves. Whether you are a vegetable or flower gardener, or getting a spot ready for a hedge of shrubs, the number one thing you can do to improve the soil is to add organic matter. By working leaves into the soil now, they have time to break down before spring, resulting an excellent medium for plant roots to quickly grow and become established.

An easy way to incorporate leaves is to spread a 2 or 3 inch layer of leaves over the surface of the soil and till them in about 5 or 6 inches deep. Don't try to add too much at one time or the tiller won't do a good job of blending them with the soil. For even better results, shred the leaves with a mower before spreading and tilling. If you have a source of manure, add and blend in a layer of that also. In essence, you are composting right in place.

Another way of improving your soil is to sow a "green manure" - a thick planting of a fast-growing cool-season plant that will be shredded and incorporated in later winter or early spring. These are also called cover crops since they provide a living, protective cover over the winter time, helping prevent erosion and the growth of other weedy plants.

Some options for a winter green manure include clover, vetch, bluebonnets (all legumes that add nitrogen to the soil), mustard, and cereal rye (which also helps suppress nematodes, a microscopic soil-borne enemy of summer vegetables and flowers).

Cover crops need plenty of time to grow in order to produce the bulk of material, both top and root, that can work to improve soil health. And, they need to be shredded and incorporated several weeks, perhaps up to two months, prior to planting. So, they are best used in spots that will be used for a late spring or summer planted garden.


RAINS WILL COME

As I mentioned earlier, springtime can often be very rainy in East Texas, making it not only difficult to cultivate the soil, but also to find a window of time where you can plant, whether flowers or vegetables. One tip is after preparing the soil, to create raised beds now, even just 4 to 6 inches high, to provide increased drainage.

These raised beds will dry out quicker after a heavy rain, resulting in all-important aeration for young, tender plant roots which detest water-saturated soils.

Another advantage to raised beds is that they warm up faster in a cool spring and give your newly sprouted or transplanted plants better growing conditions for quicker establishment.

Now is also a prime time to get your soil tested. Many of our East Texas soils are quite acidic, and plant growth is greatly improved by neutralizing that acidity with the addition of agricultural limestone. The problem is that you cannot tell whether lime is needed by looking or guessing, and adding limestone could push the soil pH above a desirable level if the starting point not acidic. Soil tests can be submitted to private testing labs, and Texas Cooperative Extension in College Station and Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches have soil testing labs where you can send samples. Every county extension office has the forms and information on submitting soil tests to these university labs.

Testing in the winter and applying any recommended ingredients now will give them time to react with the soil prior to planting time.

Finally, take advantage of the abundance of leaves and needles at this time of year by gathering and spreading a protective blanket over your future garden.

They will not only protect it from erosion from hard, driving rains, but also suppress weed development over the winter time. Any excess leaves can then be gathered into large piles or bins and composted into a rich soil amendment for the garden soil next year.



Keith Hansen is Smith County Horticulturist with Texas Cooperative Extension. His Web page is http://EastTexasGardening.tamu.edu His blog is http://tceblogs.tamu.edu/mt/etg. Texas Cooperative Extension educational programs are open to all individuals without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age or national origin.

Keith Hansen
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