Sunday, February 27, 2011

Called to the Herb Garden by Spring







Spring is the time to take action to protect your emerging herb garden from its worst enemy. That’s right, gardeners. Get out there and make a stand against the weeds that are ready to invade the bare spots of every garden, even your hardy, precious herbs.

It’s also a good time to get rid of the debris that may have made its way into your little patch of herbs during the winter. Insect pests and diseases often spend the cold months lurking in garden debris and the warming weather can bring these dangers out into the sunshine to wreak havoc on other garden areas if they contaminate your gardening tools.

Be careful where you walk if the garden is holding a lot of moisture from the melting snow. Walking on wet garden soil compacts it, making it harder for the roots of emerging plants to spread out and grow. This will inhibit the amount of nutrients they can take in.

If you’re adding to your herb garden this year, it’s time to get ready to start any seed herbs indoors. By the time the garden dries and the soil is warm enough to handle new seedlings, they’ll be ready to be hardened off and go into the ground.

Spring is an exciting time for the herb gardener. I can smell the aroma of a pinched herb leaf or a cup of tea freshly brewed from fresh herbs.  But the tea made from the herbs I dried last year will have to do for now.





photo used with permission from morgueFile Free License




All written content ©2011 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.

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