If you haven’t started prepping yet, April is a great time to jump start your garden. According to daysoftheyear.com, April is straw hat month and also garden month. So April is the perfect time to dust off the straw hat and get out in the garden.
Garden professionals will warn you not to work the soil too early since heavy equipment may compact your soil down and make it more difficult to cultivate in the spring. If you are like me and have a small kitchen garden in the backyard, you do not have to worry too much about this since most of my garden prepping is done by hand using a small tiller. The age old way to test the soil is by fingering a handful of soil. Scoop a handful of soil and mash into a ball. If you can break up the ball of soil with your fingers or it breaks up when you drop it from 3 feet, the soil is dry enough to work.
Once the soil is ready to work, most gardeners till up the area and add compost, fertilizer or some type of soil conditioner to jump start the soil. I usually add my own compost if I have enough and it is ready to use; however, I also use a soil conditioner. I prefer to use Southland Organics’ Jump Start Soil Conditioner since it is organic and provides 72 micronutrients along with organic acids. I reapply the Jump Start every 2 to 3 months. I also like Southland’s Ultimate Compost Tea as a foliar spray once my flowers and vegetables start to grow. I find that I get bigger vegetables when I use the compost tea once a week on my plants. Since it is organic, I do not need to worry about using it around my kids, dogs or on my edibles.
Whether you are a novice (like me), a master gardener, or interested in sustainable or permaculture gardening, April is a great time to jump start your garden. So, dust off that straw hat and get out in the garden.
