Jumping on the gardening bandwagon in 2021? Read these tips from local gardeners DON’T FORGET TO TILL NEW SOIL If you’re going through sod, you’ll probably need to till the area a couple of times, says Lorraine Farley, a member of the Mendota Garden Club. If you’re having someone else till the garden, she suggests cutting your grass as short as you can in the area you want tilled, so there’s less of a chance of the grass re-rooting. FIGURE OUT WHICH SEASONS TO PLANT THE CROPS YOU WANT If you’re interested in planting vegetables this spring, some good options are potatoes, onions, and cabbage, as those foods don’t like the heat of the summer, Farley said.
CUT OFF DEAD BLOOMS It’s best if you cut off all the dead blooms on flowers, said Margaret Frick, member of the Mendota Garden Club. She said she learned the term “deadhead” from the garden club. When you cut off dead blooms, the flower will continue to bloom again. LEARN TRICKS FOR EACH PLANT YOU’RE GROWING For instance, Frick is a fan of peonies and has a whole bed of them. Her grandmother taught her there’s one main bud for a peony, and if you pick off the little buds around it and keep the one bud, it makes a great, big peony.
PLAN FOR THE SPACE YOU HAVE Plants need room to grow and don’t do well when they are crowded out. Plan for the needed space in your garden, so that there’s adequate space for your plants to grow, Farley said. USE SNOW FOR NEW TREES Consider putting snow around newly-planted trees and shrubs to provide some extra water if the spring starts out dry, said Farley. But don’t do this for the garden, as it will pack the dirt down and make the ground hard. JOIN LOCAL GARDEN CLUB GROUPS AND ASK QUESTIONS This is a great way to learn, Robbin Keenan, a member of both the Utica and Ottawa garden clubs, said. New gardeners can find the answers to almost any question they have by asking more experienced gardeners in the club. REMEMBER THAT EVERY YEAR IS DIFFERENT Just because your garden thrived one year doesn’t mean it will the next. Nature is always throwing out curveballs. Keenan remembers one year when none of her tomatoes ripened. She had a surplus of green tomatoes and had to search for recipes so the harvest didn’t go to waste. Some years are wetter, so you get mildew on things or a mold that kills off a whole family of plants. REMEMBER TO TROUBLESHOOT Keenan said if someone has a bad year, they can relocate the plants next year or try to figure out what caused the problem. She never figured out why the tomatoes didn’t ripen, but she knows the same problem happened to others, so the cause may have been the weather.
PHOTO BY SCOTT ANDERSON
Steve Lauer uses steel wool on the front part of a garden hoe in his garage. TAKING CARE OF YOUR TOOLS IS IMPORTANT Maintaining tools will lead to an easier, better job when gardening, said Steve Lauer, president of the Mendota Garden Club. He wants to maintain his tools, so he cleans them, removes rust, and oils them to prevent them from rusting again. He does not clean his tools after every use, though.
10 February 2021 | Illinois Valley Boomers | A NewsTribune Publication
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