The vernal equinox is on March 20th, which marks the first day of spring. The warming weather, sunshine, and emergence of beneficial insects makes this a perfect time to start preparing your garden for planting. While your garden beds might look barren right now, they hold lots of potential. Here are some tips to help you prep early, and maximize your yield this summer and fall:
Add Organic Matter
This is the foundation of your garden. Soil quality is crucial for the health of your garden.
Still have dead plants in the garden from last season? Good! You’ve already got a head start to a thriving garden.This debris provides many benefits to the health of your plants. The debris houses valuable insects, like ladybugs and lacewings, that can contribute to pest control and pollination.
There are many ways to add organic matter to your garden. Some popular choices include compost, manure, or mulching, but there are many more possibilities, depending on your budget and goals for your garden. Did you know that you can buy bags of worm castings to fertilize the soil?
Hardware or garden stores have compost, fertilizers, and mulch.
Hardware or garden stores have compost, fertilizers, and mulch. Some local options include Soil Dynamics and Oma-Grow, which produce their gardening materials with local waste.
Plan your beds
There are lots of resources out there to help you plan out your beds! You can find free garden layout plans online, including more specific plans such as layouts for raised beds and plans based on specific plants. It’s important to pick out your seeds and decide how they will be arranged. While doing research on your plants, you might end up discovering that certain plants don’t work well together, and others make a great pair! One popular combination is tomatoes and basil. Basil not only acts as a pest control agent for tomatoes, but that it actually improves their flavor!
Another reason researching your plants is important is that you might find out that certain plants need to be planted at specific times. Some plants, such as cabbage and cilantro, like to be in the soil the second the last frost is over, and others can take months to provide a yield, so it is crucial to find out when you should plant.
Here is a Nebraska-based guide on when to plant certain crops!
Start seeds indoors
Another strategy to kickstart your garden this year is to start your seeds indoors. Several common garden plants do fantastic starting from seed indoors during winter, then being transplanted outside when the weather improves. This applies to many long-season plants like tomatoes, onions, or peppers - if you want to try growing any of those this year, try starting them from seed now! Here is a list of vegetable cultivars selected specifically for Nebraska’s climate.
Don’t forget the trees
Spring can be a good time to prune certain trees. You can remove dead branches and leaves, but make sure you aren’t trimming anything with buds or new leaves!
It’s hard to believe spring is already here. Birds are returning, the sun shines longer every day, and everything is slowly beginning to turn green. Let these things be a sign to get your garden started now, so it can bloom along with the rest of spring!
References:
Landscape Design for Home Yards
extensionpubs.unl.edu/publication/g1896/2008/html/view
Seasonal Planting Guide for Omaha Gardeners | Mulhalls
Monthly Garden Guides | Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County | Nebraska
GRO Big Red – Gardening Resources for Nebraska from Nebraska Extension
