Preparing the garden bed

Steve Davison looks over the many plants prepared for planting in one of the four greenhouses on the Perennials Etc. property on U.S. Highway 62 east of Garfield. See more articles in this week’s Home and Garden insert.
Steve Davison looks over the many plants prepared for planting in one of the four greenhouses on the Perennials Etc. property on U.S. Highway 62 east of Garfield. See more articles in this week’s Home and Garden insert.

— A good foundation is as essential to a yard and a garden as it is to a house, according to Steve Davison, owner of Perennials Etc.

“Go out in the garden and check out the plants,” Davison said, referring to the first stage of preparing for spring planting. “If there are moles, get rid of them.

“The only way to get rid of them, is to kill what they eat - grubs.”

Davison and his wife, Susan, own Perennials Etc. on U.S. Highway 62 between Garfield and Gateway.

He said many products are sold that will kill grubs and there are many philosophies for ridding a yard of moles, but he believes having a dog or cat is one of the best, in addition to destroying the moles’ food source.

Check the condition of the soil - determine what to add, he said.

“In this part of the country, you have to amend the soil. Make sure it’s good soil.”

Remove all the weeds, a prevalent one here is chickweed, he said.

Once the foundation is prepared, planting can begin.

Davison recommends plants that thrive in the conditions present and says lighting is an important factor. Some plants prefer shade, others prefer full sun.

When planting in pots, Davison recommends using broken pottery chips for the first layer to allow drainage. He said gravel will stop the hole in the bottom of the pot.

“You need well-drained potting soil with organic matter in it. We prefer to fertilize organically,” he said, citing choices such as manure tea, bone meal and blood meal.

To make manure tea, Davison said to half-fill a pot with water, add one-fourth manure and let it steep for about a month, then fill the rest of the way with water.

“You can use it the same as you can commercial fertilizer - about one tablespoon to a gallon of water,” he said. Rabbit, cow, sheep manure all work. He warned against chicken manure because it’s “too hot - too high in nitrogen.”

After the perennials and shrubs are planted, it’s time to mulch and there are a variety of options including finely ground pine bark and cocoa bean hulls.

Cotton seed mill is a good source of nitrogen as a fertilizer.

“Don’t fertilize azaleas until after they bloom,” he said.

Editor’s note: For more information on Perennials Etc., see the Home and Garden insert in this week’s edition of The TIMES of Northeast Benton County.

News, Pages 1 on 04/28/2010