greennewsdaily

One of the questions we hear all the time is, “What can I do in my garden this time of year?”

People come into the nursery during the heat of summer or the middle of winter wondering what they should be planting or doing in their gardens. The truth is, these off-peak times are some of the best times to get your garden ready for the next growing season.

This is the perfect opportunity to clean up your garden beds, pull weeds, remove old plant material, and add fresh compost or quality garden soil.

Gardening Seasons in Central Texas

Here in Central Texas, we basically have two main gardening seasons: spring and fall.

Spring gardens typically include tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, melons, and other warm-season vegetables. Fall and winter gardens include cabbage, broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, and other cool-season crops.

Both counties near us have planting guides available online through the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension offices. These guides are an awesome resource for knowing what to plant and when to plant it throughout the year, especially if you’re new to gardening.

It All Starts With the Dirt

Whether you’re starting new garden beds or revitalizing existing ones, it all starts with the dirt.

There’s an old saying in the green industry: “Invest in your soil.”

We hear horror stories all the time from people whose gardens just aren’t doing well. Many times, they tell us they filled their beds with bags of soil from a box store and expected great results.

A healthy soil with a good compost blend is the foundation of a successful garden.

Although there are newer trends toward no-till gardening, we have always had good results from adding fresh compost to our soils. We also prefer a blend of different composts rather than relying on a single compost source. Different compost materials provide different benefits, creating a more balanced growing medium. It is important to note that compost percentages should be maintained around 30%-40% maximum compost to other component ratios.

So, What Makes Great Garden Soil?

You want soil that’s weed-free and made from high-quality materials. A good garden soil should have proper airspace, drain well, and contain multiple sources of finished compost.

Many of the bagged soils you see on the market are heavily peat moss-based. In our experience, these types of soils don’t always produce the best results in Central Texas gardens.

Our soil mixes are made from a blend of several different products. We use high-quality screened chocolate loam, sand, a pine bark blend, and finished composts.

We’ve worked on our soil recipes for years, adjusting and improving the blends based on real-world results. Today, we have soil mixes that perform extremely well in Central Texas gardens.

At the end of the day, you can buy the best plants, use the best fertilizer, and spend hours working in your garden—but if you start with poor soil, you’re already fighting an uphill battle.

Invest in your soil. Your plants will thank you for it.

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