The summer arrives and so comes the time to plant your veggies. If you’re someone that grows vegetables, this article is a must-read.
April and May are the best months to plant your vegetable seeds. Thus, many of you may be ready to plant those vegetables. Appreciate the eagerness, but is your garden bed ready?
Most people that grow vegetables aren’t too experienced. They seed their crops without paying too much attention to the garden bed. This leads to their crops coming out okay. But just okay.
To perfect those crops, you need to pay attention to the garden bed. For that, this article has you covered. The below tips will make sure your garden bed is perfect for seeding.
1. Remove weed and pesticides
The worst enemy of farming land is weed and pesticides. Getting rid of weed is easy. You can just pluck it out. Pesticides are the hard part. They slowly accumulate from leftover fertilizers from previous crops. They swell up and become more of a danger to crops.
There is a treatment. We recommend you do one of the following every new season:
Spray saltwater on the crops:
Saltwater removes most of the common pesticides. Farmers lightly spray saltwater onto the garden bed and let it rest. It takes about 24 hours for the salt to kill the germs.
Spray vinegar on the crops:
Vinegar has the same effect as saltwater. A mixture with 20% vinegar and 80% water should do the trick. Spray this mixture onto the garden bed and let it rest. Let the crops rest for 24 hours before planting.
2. Fertilize the area
The garden bed needs to be healthy. This means to fertilize it. There are quite a few ways to get this done. The best ones are mentioned below:
Trim the surrounding grass:
Garden beds are mostly kept with a little bit of grass. The grass acts as a backup source of food for crops. But having too much grass can backfire. The grass will overpower the crops and the garden soil will suffer. To avoid this, you must trim the grass, especially before seeding. This is done by using a lawn mower at high setting.
Fertilize gently
Applying fertilizers is a given that everybody knows and does. Where people go wrong is in the choice of fertilizer. Fertilizers mustn’t be severe, as in the ones that claim to increase fertility in a day. Those fertilizers have a very high concentration of phosphorous. The phosphorous become excessive and start destroying the greenery.
Use worm castings
This is a relatively new concept. Worm castings are essentially worm poop. The nutrients in that poop is very beneficial for crops. It is recommended to add worm castings over sifted garden soil. The concentration should be around 1 pound per square feet.
Conclusion
Garden beds are very sensitive and require loads of attention. You need to be very careful when prepping it. A good practice is to make sure worms are starting to live in the soil. If they are, you know the garden bed is ready.
Paul Petersen is a seasoned home improvement expert and DIY enthusiast with over 20 years of experience in the industry. He began his career as a carpenter, honing his skills in woodworking and structural design. Over the years, Paul expanded his expertise to encompass a wide range of home renovation projects, from kitchen remodels to landscape design.