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Best Gardening Tips is proud to present an interview with biologist and hobby gardener Carl Hawkins from Norfolk, who agreed to talk about his garden plot, general advice on gardening and tips how to improve your soil with us. We met him on a sunny day in April and started to talk about his garden.

Best-Gardening-Tips.com (BGT): Carl, the soil in your garden plot is quite loamy. What can one do with a soil like that?

Carl Hawkins: You have to mulch.

BGT:  Can you tells us some details? As far as I can see, the soil here is really clayey and heavy.

Carl: That’s nothing bad by itself.

BGT: In how far does your soil influence how you grow vegetables here?

Carl: The soil influences the water balance in the soil, you always have to keep an eye on the moisture. Most plants don’t like wet feet – we therefore dig trenches in summer, when there’s heavy rain. In so doing, water can flow of instead of staying in the soil – where it would cause mold. The other way would be to construct raised beds, where the plants are above the water line as well. However, root vegetables can get to wet even in raised beds if the soil is too heavy.

BGT: Wouldn’t it be ideal to grow everything in raised beds round here?

Carl: Of course, of course, but that depends on the materials you have at your disposal, and.. but what’s that?

Carl discovers an insect just some inches from his feet that seems to have made its way from the earth after a long winter sleep. After an elaborate explanation of the animal’s species and characteristics, we continue the interview.

BGT: Do you have a problem with slugs in your garden?

Carl: Yes, sadly. My general advice is to offer them as little habitat as possible, so no brush-wood, caves etc. There is of course the possibility of countering them with their biological enemy – ducks would be perfect. I can only recommend runner ducks to every ornithology enthusiast. They’re cute and tasty, and they eat snails.

BGT: What about planting mustard seed as a snail repellant?

Carl: I’m not sure, I haven’t tried that yet. Well, my mother always recommended lady’s mantle against snails. Quite a pretty flower, by the way.

BGT: If you encounter the problem that your vegetables simply aren’t growing well – do you conduct soil tests for nutritional value?

Carl: I think that that’s mostly not necessary. With a bit of experience it’s easy to discover how the plants are doing. For example, take a lot at that raised bed – stinging nettle, that’s always a sign for good soil!

BGT: What kinds of fertilizer do you use in your garden?

Carl: You know, I live by the sea, so seaweed is a natural choice. I made some good experience with it during the last two years, not only as a fertilizer, but also as an additive to the soil – finding the right additives is a way to truely improve your soil. As our soil here is loamy, seaweed and sand are great additives that we mix into the earth. At first I was afraid that were oversalting the soil, but it turned out all right. Seawater contains all kinds of micronutrients, so.. I want to emphasize the advantage of seaweed and similar additives to the soil’s structure in any case.

BGT: Do you think that erosion is a danger for your standard garden with only one or more harvests per year?

Carl: Not necessarily, although I would always advice fellow gardeners to use cover crop (as a method to retain nitrogen in the soil). You can use mustard plants, for example, even in late autumn – this way it will wither in winter before the bloom (mustard is an annual plant) and can then be plowed into the soil. Clover is a standard, as well.. Just recently, a neighbor advised me to plant rye, which I will try in the near future. Cover crops should always be applied in combination with compost.

BGT: Do you have a final fertilizing tip for our readers?

Carl: Horse manure. That’s simply the best fertilizer to improve your soil quality – if you can get your hands on it. The digestive system of horses is not as effective as that of, let’s say, cattle, therefore their manure contains some semi-digested plants with more nutrients and is simply a great reservoir that depletes much slower than chemical fertilizer. When chemical fertilizer washes away, it easily find its way into streams and ponds – the consequences are disastrous. In my eyes there’s no reason why gardeners have to contribute to this issue.

BGT: Thanks for your tips, Carl.

A happy new gardening year 2013 to all of you! The worst frost should be over by now, so we can finally get back to our gardens and make plans about which early vegetables to plant this year.

Generally speaking, one season is long enough for 2-3 vegetable harvests – if you (and that’s imperative to vegetable gardening) supply your garden with sufficient nutrients and pay attention to crop rotation; see our respective articles about fertilizing and soil preparation in early spring.

The following four vegetables are great “early starters” as they’re relatively resistant to cold – this is, of course, only a small collection, there are loads of vegeatbles that can be planted early!

I recommend you to make a plan on which early vegetables you’ll plant after the first harvest. The weather is spring can still be quite unpredictable, so better be careful about your plants. When in doubt, it’s better to pass on less cold-resistant plants until you’re sure that the cold weather is over.

Carrots:

Carrots are quite frost-resistant and can be grown circa two weeks before the last frost. I especially like to grow carrots myself as they’re way better than most carrots bought in supermarkets.

Carrots need deep, loose soil in which they can grow a robust root. Don’t plant them too early, since they will develop flowers instead

of a root if the’re grown too early (carrots are biennials, which develop flowers at the beginning of their “second” cycle). This video by Heritage Seed Library shows you some nice tips, including collecting seeds from carrots. I find it most practical to grow a lot of seeds and to pick them apart when they’re about 2 inches tall.

Beets:

Beets are simply great in salads and can be grown just about anywhere – one of my favorite vegetables for the garden. Not only the root can be eaten, but the greens are edible as well.

Beets are not as cold tolerant as plants like broccoli, but a light frost is no problem to most varietes, so beets are generally grown in the spring or fall. Beets prefer a well-drained, sandy soil; consistent moisture should also be provided.

As beets are biennial, they will only flower once their roots have are mature; this makes them plants best grown from seeds.

Onions:

Onions can be started from sets (small bulbs), transplants or direct seeding. Sets are the most common way to grow onions and can be planted even before the last frosts (covered with about two inches of soil). Pay attention to not having too moist soil (which can result in rot); you can circumvent this by raised beds – or by planting transplants instead of bulbs. You should give their roots and tops a bit of a haircut to encourage strong new growth.

Asparagus:

Asparagus is one of the most interesting early vegetables.  Their peak season is between April and May for colder climates; in fact, it’s hard to grow asparagus in warmer climates. These plants are perannials that start to re-grow after the last frosts in early spring. You should try to keep the asparagus-beds well-fertilized with manure or compost between the growing seasons.

Asparagus seeds or crowns (one year-old seedlings) can be planted in trenches (about 6 inches deep), which are then topped with soil.

Poinsettias are one of THE plants (besides holly, mistletoe and Christmas cactus) associated with Christmas, which is no wonder: Their bright, colored leaves – which in fact are not petals but bracts that attract insects – look like a bright star. As you can get poinsettias in different varieties of colors, you can match these christmas plants them perfectly with the rest of your holiday decoration. Of course, the most often seen color is a bright red.

Introduced to the states in 1825 by U.S. Ambassador Joel Poinsett, poinsettias originally come from Mexico where they’re popular as christmas plants as well. They belong to the spurge family and are “short day plants”, which means that they bloom if there are less than twelve hours of daylight. The reason for this is that they get less competition of pollinating insects from other plants this way.

Typical red poinsettias

Choosing the right poinsettias as christmas plants

If you’re getting poinsettias just now from a gardening centre or a specialist, have a close look at the plants and try to notice if there are any pests or mildew on the plant (which happens quite often if you get them from packed places). You best also check if there are disease symptoms at other plant near the one of your choice.
To get healthy flowers that keep their pretty leaves for some time, look for plants with smaller, clustered buds in the center. The buds should be green-ish and yet unopened! Best pick a plant with undamaged and crisp foliage (as an indicator of good care).

How to care for poinsettias

If you have poinsettias at home and want to display them as christmas plants, you can trigger their bloom for the holiday season by reducing the daylight hours they get: Keep them at a bright spot until about 10 weeks before Christmas and then keeping them in total darkness for more than 12 hours a day (by using a box as cover or putting them in a closed compartment).

They don’t always have to be red..

When the blooming period ends (between march and April), you should then decrease the watering to simulate the natural cycle (of dry summers in Mexico). Increase the watering later in summer in conjunction with fresh soil for new nutrients.

You should prune poinsettias each year during summer. If you decrease the number of branches, this will create a more shrubby look with big flowers. poinsettias generally prefer humid conditions; you should however be careful to let te plants soil dry between watering and not to let them stand in water (as moisture around the roots can kill them). As the plants need a lot of brightness, it’s best to place them close to a south-facing window.

Unless you plan to grow some lamb’s lettuce, the gardening season is finally over (too soon, though). However, I’ve got some tips for you that are just the right thing if you

a) are feeling too active on a Saturday afternoon and want to get your hands dirty and

b) want to do something good for your vegetable garden so the next season will be even better than this.

When you’ve grown a lot of vegetables during the summer, your garden will be quite low on important nutrients. The essence of the following How-To is to provide enough nutrients from compost to your soil and to make sure that it mixes perfectly with your existing soil.

So lets get started!

Step 1: Break up the ground!

Use a spade to  break up the firm soil. Do not chop up the large  earth sods (they’ll be useful in the process). So, simply turn them around and (if possible) let columns open.

It’s no problem if individual weeds remain in the soil.

Step 2: Time to empty your compost!

Open your compost bin and sieve it’s ingredients using a coarse grid. It may seem like a lot of unnecessary work, but this process will result in extremely rich and fertile soil (compost) – you’ll reap the results of your efforts during next year’s harvest!

The remains of your sieving efforts (single branches etc.) should be put back into the compost and covered with a bit of soil to encourage the compostation (otherwise, it will simply dry out).

This grid (on the photo) is simply perfect for sieving the compost ingredients.

This is what the sieved compost looks like (the small hill on the right side):

Step 3: Cover the sods with compost soil!

You should now disperse the soil over the original soil you’ve broken up in step one. If you don’t have compost, you can use bought soil as well. Ask for organic compost in your local garden center or in tree nurserys etc.

During winter, snow and rain will flush the nutrients from the fresh compost soil into the coarse clumps in your vegetable bed.

This picture shows one of my vegetable beds covered with compost soil (on the right side) and unprepared (on the left). The only thing that remains to be done is to rake the soil in spring – you’ll have perfect, soft earth.

Most people believe that the vegetable gardening season ends in september and starts all over in April or May. While this may certainly be the time with the most agreeable temperatures – where you will spend more time outside – it isn’t true that winter is a „dead season“. Besides preparing your soil for the coming spring (what we described in this article ) you can in fact practice winter gardening and continue to grow vegetables. In this article, I will write mainly about two points: To use season extenders for extending the “warmer” season; and which crops you can grow now (in winter) to generate yields in spring.

How can I continue to grow plants even though it gets cold?

You can use so-called “season extenders” for winter gardening to retain some level of warmness for your plants and to protect them from wind and snow damage. This can be:

• Covered raised beds (with a transparent cover to allow sunlight to get in). Have a look at this site to see what I mean.
• One step further is to construct your own row covers using special lightweight fabric and a hoop framework. Use simple flexible wire or pvc pipes to construct the hoops, then cover them with the fabric.

With this later system, you’re flexible when it comes to size. You can create small row covers just large enough to cover your plants; or you can create kind of greenhouses, that you’re able to enter and work inside.
The benefits of these system are, of course, that you use the greenhouse effect to heat up the air under the respective cover. As it will get cold at night nevertheless, best grow cold-resistant plants.

Which plants are suitable for winter gardening?

There are winter gardening vegetables that can be planted even in late fall or in the winter months (alsowhen the ground is frozen). In fact some plants (so-called cold season plants) are meant to be planted rather and will not grow as well  if planted late in the year. The benefit of planting early is that a.) you get healthy, resistant plants and b.) you get your vegetable yields much more early (in spring instead of in summer).

Before planting any seeds, you should always clear your beds of all dead plant material (also autumn foliage), crack the ground open, add compost and till it in. You can use organic fertilizers if your soil has been grown heavily during the preceding year.
Typical cold-hardy plants are the following:

• lettuce
• peas
• spinach
• broccoli
• Brussel sprouts
• carrots
• radish
• cauliflower

You should not grow tubers and roots this early during the year, as they will easily rot from wetness. If, however, you combine the two tips I gave you in this article (cold covers & cold season plants), you can even grow potatoes before their time is due and transplant them into your “normal” beds once the weather gets warm again.

I hope this posts motivates you to try winter gardening yourself. I recommend to take a bottle of warm tea along if you’re feeling cold