Ladies and Gentlemen....Start Preparing Your Soil!!!
That would be the "Indianapolis 500" version of the "race" we can now begin to get our Fall gardens ready. The success of any garden starts with the soil. The "success" of any soil here in the desert is organic material. Our desert soils have little if any decomposed plant and or animal life in them. In order for us to create that "dark brown" soil like you had in Iowa, you must add lots of composted organic material. Be sure whether you purchase your compost or make it yourself, it is ready to use. The best way to tell is to smell it. Good compost shouldn't smell like anything but soil, If you sense any harsh or ammonia type odor or if there is heat being generated from the material it is not ready yet. Besides good organic material, Harper's recipe includes gypsum to help counteract the alkalinity and improve drainage, (you may also use soil sulfur for this or both) bone and blood meal or an all purpose fertilizer like Bradfield organics or fertilome Start-N-Grow. The amount of material depends on the size of the garden, and yes you do need to do this every year. With our heat and lack of moisture the organics just disappear over time-besides think of your garden soil like soup-it just gets better and better every time you add to it!
After the soil preparation it is all about timing! Our planting dates can be a little "backwards" here compared to the normal gardening calendar. We essentially have 2 garden seasons here,warm and cool. We are preparing for the cool season. Those plants are usually the ones that we harvest the root,stem,or leaf of. Warm season veggies are the plants that we actually pick a fruit off of. There are obviously exceptions and overlaps but that is one way to remember. Perhaps the best way is to come in or go on line @ www.HarpersNurseries.com and look at our vegetable planting guide for exact dates! We are fast approaching what the Harpers believe is the best time to plant almost anything in the valley! Enjoy it! Also remember you can hear this tip and all the banter about it this coming Saturday at 8am on 92.3fm KTAR-during the garden portion of Rosie On The House with Rosie Romero and John Jay Harper. Be sure to click on the coupon and bring it in for a %20 discount off any Gro-Well product! |
Last Chance Summer Promotions
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- Double Loyalty Points-ends 8/31/10
- Free Installation of Purchases ove $350 ends Labor Day weekend
- Landscape contest entries are due Friday the 3rd of September.
Harper's Landscape Department is still making "FREE" on site evaluations of your landscape, whether you need a one time clean up, regularly scheduled maintenance, or a complete redesign of your yard (old or new) give us a call!! If your yard is like mine it is in need of some TLC after a long hot Summer. Harpers is ready to give your yard and garden some LOVE!
Many of you have found us on facebook and twitter. If you haven't we'd love to have you join in the fun! And remember to mark you calendars now for Saturday September 18th for our first Garden Open air Market and Garden club meeting of the season. We meet every 3rd Saturday of the Month from Septembe til June!
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Well all good things must come to an end-and August too! Hope to see you this weekend as the weather looks good for gettin' er' done in the garden!! The Harper Boys
HARPER'S NURSERY & LANDSCAPE CO. |
