With the rainy season most likely behind us, spring is an excellent time to garden. The longer days provide light into the evening hours and gardening is an excellent way to unwind after a hard day’s work. Spend some time in the garden now so that you can enjoy the summer months outside hosting a barbecue. Keep these basics in mind when planning your garden.

Mimic the diversity found in nature. Monocultures encourage pests and diseases. Plant mutually beneficial plants together (companion planting). Select naturally resistant plants that are well suited to your garden conditions. Many native plants feed and house birds and beneficial insects that eat garden pests.

Your garden is its own natural system. Work with nature’s cycles and balances. Don’t freak out over the occasional garden pest or sign of disease. If you try to eliminate something “bad” from your garden completely, you will probably end up doing more harm to the good guys.

Healthy soil makes for healthy plants. Healthy soil is home to essential microscopic organisms (microbes). Keep these little guys happy and your plants will thrive! Organic matter is key: it improves soil aeration, allows the soil to absorb and retain moisture, provides nutrients, absorbs and retains nutrients, and feeds soil microbes. Add compost and well-rotted manure to your soil on a regular basis. Rotate crops in your vegetable garden – follow plants that deplete the soil with a planting of legumes (plants that naturally return nitrogen to the soil). Mulch your garden to keep moisture and soil temperatures optimal.

Why Use Mulch?

Mulch is an important ingredient in any landscaping program. It helps conserve moisture, buffers the soil from temperature extremes, controls weeds, and beautifies any landscape. After any kind of planting – tree, shrub, ground cover, flower, or vegetable – all bare soil should be covered with at least a three-inch deep layer of mulch. Mulch is not a soil amendment mixed into the soil; it’s a covering placed on top of the finished planting bed after plants have been installed. The most popular varieties are listed here.

• Shredded hardwood bark: Hardwood bark is an excellent mulch material for ornamental planting beds. The shredded texture holds itself together to prevent washing and blowing away, while still allowing air to breathe into the soil. Hardwood mulch is the best choice to use above newly planted trees.

• Cypress mulch: Shredded cypress mulch is a good product: long lasting and very popular.

• Hay: This is the best mulch for vegetable gardens – thick 8-inch to 10-inch layers give the best results and work best to prevent weed seed germination.

• Deco bark: The large size deco bark is a good mulch to use for shrubs and ground covers. The large size of deco bark allows air to flow around the large pieces, down to the soil and the plants’ roots.

• Native tree chips: Tree chips are good to use in large areas as a natural ground cover. If ground into smaller pieces, they can be used to mulch ground covers and shrubs. Native tree chips are a favorite of the gardeners in Golden Gate Park.

• Pine bark: This is good to use as a finish mulch in ground cover and shrubs. It comes in three sizes: mulch, nugget and mini-nugget.

• Pine needles: An excellent mulch to use in most any planting bed, but they are more appropriate when used in areas where pine trees grow.

• Deco stone and gravel: These landscaping items are usually referred to as inorganic mulches. They provide the same function as organic mulches but they do not decompose or provide any nutrients to the soil. These types are more permanent and do not have to be replaced as often.

Julia Strzesieski is the Marketing Coordinator at Cole Hardware and can be reached at [email protected].