Despite the frigid temperatures Chattanoogans have recently experienced, we are just weeks away from spring.
If you’re planning to try your hand at gardening this season, make sure your garden and soil are ready. Soil rich in nutrients will help your plants, fruits and vegetables grow.
Lauren Russek has been with Crabtree Farms for nearly a decade, currently serving as the Director of Farm Programs. She said if you have an established garden space, the first thing to do is to remove any debris or materials from the previous planting season.
Composting is a good way to get your soil ready for planting season, but Lauren said traditional composting methods need time to allow the organic materials to break down and mix.
“The ideal time to do that is between fall through early spring,” she said.
There are composting methods she said take less time.
“Mulching style composts are great,” she said. “I'm also a huge fan of worm castings. It’s a great nitrogen rich form of compost where a little goes a long way in your garden bed.”
Sheet mulching is when you place down a layer of cardboard or newspaper, top that with a layer of yard leaves or straw, wood chips or pine straw and other organic materials, and then add in the layers of fertilizer and planting soil. Worm castings are a fancy way of saying worm poop. They’re a natural fertilizer that can improve soil structure and plant health and help plants grow stronger, taller, and greener.
“I’ve also been encouraging people to try experimenting with different styles of compost tea,” Lauren said. The process involves steeping compost materials in water.
“You’re creating a brew, a style of compost that can be applied in liquid form that also has really great nutrients that you can add to the soil,” she said.
If you don’t have a pre-established garden already in your yard, there are various ways you can create your garden space.
“I think any opportunity to upcycle something is a great choice,” she said. “Being creative with any materials you have on site. Reclaimed lumber, cutting apart and reusing pallet wood is great. With any reused item or with wood especially you just want to make sure that it's not treated. Use untreated wood because anything that sits on the surface or as a part of the garden bed material could leach into the into the soil."
Lauren added, "You don't want to spread, or you don't want to be incorporating any chemicals accidentally. Here at our community garden program, we use new cinder blocks because we know where they've been and can ensure that they don't have any contaminants on them. They're a little bit more resilient to the weather. They don't break down as quickly as wood. So, if you're building for longevity, using something like cinder blocks is a good idea.”
She said many people are using elongated galvanized metal garden beds. She said the cinder block and galvanized steel gardens are also easy to move.
"Say you stick a garden bed in an area where you thought might be getting more sun than it actually does. You could move those materials in the future,” she said.
Lauren said each county has an extension office where you could send your soil to be tested. She said looking at your soil can also provide some clues.
"What color is it? If it's dark and rich brown, it's usually indicative of higher organic matter in your soil, which is important to help facilitate plant growth,” she said. “Are you seeing a lot of living roots? Are you seeing a lot of worms in your soil? Again, the more diversity that you see in soil usually indicates that your soil is rich in nutrients. When you hold your soil in addition to all the critters you're looking for and the color, you also want it to have a nice kind of crumbly consistency.”
Lauren said crop rotation is also an important factor to consider. She said certain plants provide nutrients for the soil while others remove nutrients. Each season you should rotate the crops, so the soil is replenished with the nutrients it needs.
"Rotating your crops is really good, both for ensuring the health of your soil, both the physical characteristics and structure of your soil and the nutrient balance and a great routine for pest management and disease management,” Lauren said.
If you don’t have a lot of space Lauren said there are some things you can grow in containers.
"Plants that you can get repeat harvest off of, things like lettuces,” she said. “There's a lot of styles of lettuces where you can fully cut them, and then they'll come back again. Same goes for leafy greens like collards and kale and Swiss shard.”
She said a variety of tomatoes and peppers grow well in containers too.
Lauren said you should approach gardening as an ongoing learning opportunity, and she encourages gardeners to grow the fruits and vegetables you’d eat as well as native plants that grow well with minimal effort.
If you need some hands-on learning, Crabtree Farms is hosting the beginner’s guide to growing a vegetable garden on March 13 from 6-8 p.m.
Participants will learn:
- How to create healthy soil for thriving plants.
- Tips for choosing the best location for your garden.
- Which vegetables to grow during each season.
- Simple organic pest control techniques using herbs and flowers.
- How to maximize your space with square foot gardening in raised beds.
By the end of the class, you’ll have the confidence to start your own garden and enjoy the benefits of fresh, home-grown vegetables. Crabtree Farms is also hosting their annual spring plant sale April 25-27.
Visit their website to purchase tickets at:crabtreefarms.org/ourevents/list/