Hey Y’all! Welcome back!!! Happy Spring!! It’s spring you know what that means!! Opening the garden, let's talk about all the ways to do it!! Opening a garden, just means that you are mending the garden to make it suitable for growing plants! Let’s learn about all the ways to do so!
Feed and Mulch
The name is pretty much self-explanatory, but this method is basically where you feed your garden with a good all-purpose fertilizer, be sure to mix it in well and add some compost or soil on top. After all is mixed in and you have a new layer of soil on top, add a thick layer of mulch. This will help you in the long run with moisture and weeds, depending on what you use, it can help smother weeds!
Cover Crop Chop
This is for my peeps who used a cover crop for their overwintering method of closing their gardens. Cover crops have many benefits, but now that spring has sprung, it is time to chop. I recommend a weed eater, and chopping all vegetation down, now you have green mulch. But that isn’t it, if there are no pre-annual plants in your garden bed, you should cover it with a tarp or black plastic to be sure the cover crop doesn’t sprout again! After you are sure there is no more cover crop coming back up, mulch over with your choice of mulch to help with moisture and protect the soil. For the cover, you can also use cardboard!
Compost and cardboard!
This method is by far the easiest of all the methods. It is just where you add compost and cardboard to the garden bed. For the cardboard be sure to use cardboard that doesn’t have a plastic coating on it, it will not break down. You can use any cardboard other than the ones that are covered in plastic. After laying down the cardboard add a layer of compost. Be sure you are using high-quality compost either from your backyard compost or a trusted brand of compost. This step is optional but once again I would add a thick layer of mulch over the garden bed for protection from the sun for the soil.
What is your desired method?
After reading about all these different ways to open a garden, what is your preferred method? Do you use a different method? Do you mix parts of each? I would love to hear! Happy Gardening everyone! Happy Spring!!!
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