WARNING: It’s too early to plant your garden. You are still in planning mode.
Recently, when I did the garden talk in Bellville, I made it clear that it is still very early to start turning the soil or planting a raised bed outside.
Over 100 years of weather records reveal that mid-May is a safe planting time. May 19 is the date in Jeromesville and Loudonville where there is only a 10 percent chance of having frost to kill your new bedding plants.
So, implementing your tilling plans is premature if you plant too early and the plants freeze.
One of the other issues you face as you start into the gardens is that many native bees are soil dwellers. If you had a ground-level soil garden, you may have had common
ground bee with the scientific name of Colletes inaequalis.
This bee dwells in the soil and finds it easier to dig its burrows in loose soil.
These ground-nesting bees can be identified by their fuzzy, tan-colored head, pair of translucent wings, heart-shaped face, large compound eyes, and two segmented antennae.
This solitary bee only works to feed nectar from flowers to itself and their young. Ground bees are the shape of honeybees. These bees are active in early spring through early summer.
By May 1 the chances of seeing these insects will be reduced. Identify the small mounds these bees dig, work with them as friends, and benefit from your little ground bees pollinating some of your flowers.
Since you have located the position for your new gardens, lay out the edges of the bed.
One of the tools I like for the edges is the edger that cuts a crisp clean line in each of the beds I make.
My horizontal hoe cuts through the roots in the soil through the sod roots and removes all the sod and the weeds on top of the soil. Breaking up the soil will allow the new roots to grow freely and access the water and nutrients.
You will add some form of compost, topsoil, or other nutrients to enhance the soil. Either leaf compost, aged manure compost, mushroom compost, or worm castings will be incorporated into the soil.
Mature roots on plants do well when the soil is loose and friable. This means the legions of microbes and soil animals who are valuable in working the soil have a better chance of accomplishing their purposes.
Lots of organic matter feeds this biota and gives them a beneficial habitat for settlement and proliferation.
The traditional form of rototilling to turn the soil breaks down soil structure and can add to soil compaction. This makes it harder for the plants to grow their roots and reduces the beneficial biota.
Rototilling can also make life hard on our soil-born insects and soil enhancers like earthworms. If we were to leave the soil alone, the worms could do their job of shredding the soil.
Even if we roto-till, we could always go out and buy some worms to get started working the soil once again. A good compost tea can also help improve soil health.
One of the worst issues to face with this rototilling is that you can bring long-dormant weed seeds to the soil surface, which given a chance will now germinate.
An alternative to rototilling is spade turning as single spade-turning or double spade- turning. You use a spade or spading fork to turn the top six to eight inches of soil.
When you must walk on your freshly worked beds, place some plywood down to prevent soil compaction and walk on the plywood.
Whether, turning your soil with a rototiller or by hand, make sure that you do not turn your soil in moist soil to prevent soil compaction.
For smaller beds or gardens hand digging is more practical. Next week we can start getting some plants in the ground; indoors.
I hope you have a great stroll through your garden this week and that as you prepare for your new garden you will remember not to get into your garden too soon.
If you have a challenge let me know and I shall help as best, I can at ericlarson546@yahoo.com.