DIY Network

Soil Safeguards, Planning Points Soil Safeguards, Planning Points From "Fresh from the Garden" episode DFFG-126

Discover how to keep soil in great shape during the winter months and learn valuable tips for spring garden-planning....

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	To get your garden beds ready to be solarized, you need to make sure that the soil in the planting boxes are as smooth and level as you can make it.
	When the soil is ready, put your plastic in place. Use clear plastic with a thickness of 2 mm.
	When you've finished laying the plastic over the raised bed tack down one side with heavy-duty staples.
	Another way to get rid of soil problems is to dry them out. The technique requires that you turn the soil over to a depth of at least a foot every few weeks to expose dangerous bacteria and fungus to air and light.
	Create a diagram of what was in each bed this past season.
	Another important way to make your garden more successful each year is to keep a record of which plant varieties worked well and which ones did poorly in your garden.
	The seed companies put out their catalogs in late fall so that you have time to look them over and choose the varieties that are right for your climate.

• Some of the things gardeners battle every season are soil-borne problems like harmful nematodes, fungus and destructive bacteria. The "off" season is one of the times that you can have a big impact on your soil quality by going after the bad things in your dirt. One way to do this is called solarization. The basic concept is heating up your soil, over a period of weeks or months, to the point where you kill off pests and diseases that live in the soil. This process is simple. All you need is rake, water, some heavy duty clear plastic and a way to secure the plastic over the soil.

• To get your garden beds ready to be solarized, you need to make sure that the soil in the planting boxes are as smooth and level as you can make it. The process works better if the soil is all equal distance from the plastic so you get uniform heating. Next, you need to moisten the soil to a depth of 1 foot. Once the soil is wet, you can set up your solarized cover.

• When the soil is ready, put your plastic in place. Use clear plastic with a thickness of 2 mm. If it gets too thick, the light won't penetrate enough to get the soil heated up. Some people use black plastic for this process because the black color absorbs more heat. If the plastic won't actually touch the soil, as is the case here, use the clear variety. This way the light can pass through and heat up the raised bed like a greenhouse.

• When you've finished laying the plastic over the raised bed tack down one side with heavy-duty staples. Pull the plastic as tight as possible to the opposite side and staple the plastic to the wood frame. Enclose the ends the same way. Staple the excess hanging over the sides of the bed so that wind and rain can't get into the bed.

• The best time of the year to solarize a garden is during hot weather. The longer the plastic stays in place, the hotter the soil can get. When it's cold, don't expect results right away. The best time to get quick results is during June, July and August. Your goal is to keep the plastic on here over the winter and into spring until you are ready to plant next year. For now the plastic will keep the beds clean, keep weed seeds from blowing in and will hopefully heat up enough in the spring to kill off nematodes and fungus. It's important to remember that this process doesn't get rid of all soil problems forever; it has to be done on a regular basis. The outcome of this is to give your new plants a fighting chance to germinate and develop healthy stems before new bugs and diseases can find them.

• Another way to get rid of soil problems is to dry them out. The technique requires that you turn the soil over to a depth of at least a foot every few weeks to expose dangerous bacteria and fungus to air and light. By getting exposed and dried out, the soil borne diseases die or weaken. This is effective in areas where there's not enough sun to solarize and when the weather is dry or cold. The down side is that the soil has to be completely turned over every few weeks for several months.

• Careful planning is yet another very important part of garden health. You may be asking, what does planning have to do with it? Actually, crop rotation and choosing successful plant types can have a HUGE impact on the success of any garden. Pests and diseases usually affect only 1 or 2 families of plants and they tend to live in the area where they last found that plant. By moving things around and making it more difficult of pests and diseases to get established, your plants stand a better chance of producing tasty and healthy vegetables.

• Create a diagram of what was in each bed this past season. Number each bed so that you can keep them straight. For example bed #1 had ______. Once you have all of last season's plantings listed, make notes next to each one what plant could grow in the bed next year. Most garden books list good and bad companions for each vegetable. Your local extension service can also help you with crop rotations suitable for your climate.

• By rotating crops from year to year you can actually enhance the quality of the soil. Some plants like peas and members of the legume family add nitrogen back to the soil, making it healthier for the next crop.

• Another important way to make your garden more successful each year is to keep a record of which plant varieties worked well and which ones did poorly in your garden. Gardening is a moving target because there are some plants that work out well and others that take space and energy and never amount to much. Keep a diary or a chart of what you want to grow again and what new things you want to try. That way you can decide how much space you'll need and how may seeds to order for next season.

• Winter is the time to order garden seeds. The seed companies put out their catalogs in late fall so that you have time to look them over and choose the varieties that are right for your climate. By ordering early you get the best choice of plants. Seeds are limited and many of the most popular and unusual seeds sell out long before it's time to plant.