Spring Clean-Up
4/13/2021 | 3m 21sVideo has Closed Captions
Spring clean-up gives our gardens the jump start they need for a great growing season.
Spring clean-up gives our gardens the jump start they need for a great growing season. In this episode, we focus on natural ways to do this. A great garden begins with healthy soil, so we look at ways to build a healthy soil ecosystem.
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Let's Grow Stuff is a local public television program presented by PBS Wisconsin
Funding for Let’s Grow Stuff is provided by American Transmission Company, Ganshert Nursery and Landscapes, Willy Street Co-op, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
Spring Clean-Up
4/13/2021 | 3m 21sVideo has Closed Captions
Spring clean-up gives our gardens the jump start they need for a great growing season. In this episode, we focus on natural ways to do this. A great garden begins with healthy soil, so we look at ways to build a healthy soil ecosystem.
Problems with Closed Captions? Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Greetings from the garden, and welcome back to Let's Grow Stuff .
My name is Ben, and today we're talking about spring garden clean-up.
So let's jump in and get started.
[upbeat electronic music] Well, spring clean-up is all about giving our gardens the jump start they need for a great growing season.
And today, we'll be focusing on natural ways to do this.
A great garden begins with healthy soil.
Soils are complex ecosystems teeming with life, from fungi and bacteria to insects, mammals, and more.
With this in mind, we recommend focusing on building a healthy soil ecosystem, and this can begin in spring.
Use a digging fork to aerate your soil.
Push your digging fork straight down and wiggle it back and forth a couple times.
Repeat this every six inches or so.
This helps air, water, and organic nutrients penetrate deep into our soil.
After aerating, add a layer of mature compost, between one to two inches, on top of the soil.
Mature compost is mostly weed-free and fully decomposed, with no visible trace of the original raw ingredients.
Try to avoid walking directly in your garden beds, especially in early spring because the ground is thawing and typically wet.
Use a piece of plywood or lumber to help you access your beds when needed.
If you're growing veggies, practice crop rotation.
So for example, don't plant your tomatoes in the same place more than one year in a row.
Crop rotation helps reduce the occurrence of harmful pests and diseases which can linger in soil from one year to the next.
Healthier soils also mean our plants will be better equipped to fight back pests and diseases on their own.
If you're gardening with ornamental plants, consider that there is no natural mechanism which cleans out a forest or a meadow or a prairie every year.
With this in mind, we want to try and reuse as much plant material onsite as we possibly can.
An easy way to keep this organic material onsite is a new spring gardening practice that's becoming more popular, and it involves mowing our perennial gardens each spring.
Set your mower to its highest setting and wait until your soil is thawed and no longer muddy, typically mid to late March.
Make sure the mower is set on the mulching setting.
Everything you chop down and chop up will become mulch for your garden, breaking down and feeding your plants and soil.
The mowing method doesn't work great for big ornamental grasses like Miscanthus or Pennisetum.
You'll still need to break out the hand tools for these.
You may think it looks rough to mow your perennial gardens, but consider that in just a few weeks, new leaves and flowers will begin to emerge.
Well, there you have it.
When we garden with nature rather than against it, we make our job as gardeners a little easier.
It does involve changing our perceptions and behaviors just a bit, but the rewards are well worth it.
Well, don't forget, there is more to learn at pbswisconsin.org/letsgrowstuff.
And there, we have more videos, tips, tricks, and a blog to help you grow a better garden.
So until next time, happy gardening.
- Announcer: Funding for Let's Grow Stuff is provided by American Transmission Company, Ganshert Nursery & Landscapes, Willy Street Co-op, Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
Support for PBS provided by:
Let's Grow Stuff is a local public television program presented by PBS Wisconsin
Funding for Let’s Grow Stuff is provided by American Transmission Company, Ganshert Nursery and Landscapes, Willy Street Co-op, the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.