Gardening Page
Plant Seeds For Success With Beginner Vegetable Gardening Workshop
EMILY STEELE
URBANA, ILLINOIS
Whether you have a multi-row backyard vegetable plot or a patio with room for a few containers, now is the time to start planning for a successful gardening season. Over the past several years, there has been a surge of gardeners taking up the trowel for the first time to try their hand at growing fresh produce at home.
Dig in with confidence this spring with Growing Great Vegetables, a five-week webinar series starting February 15 that will cover how to grow a vegetable garden from seed to harvest. Participants will check in during a weekly workshop covering a new topic, engage with University of Illinois Extension horticulture experts, and receive emails with even more research-based tips and factsheets.
Growing Great Vegetables will be 6 to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays from February 15 to March 15. Sign up by February 9 at
go.illinois.edu/ GrowingGreatVegetables. The cost to participate is $10. Sessions will be recorded and made available to registered participants if they cannot attend live.
•February 15 – Where will you Garden? Build a garden using whatever space you have. Learn about traditional garden plots, raised beds, salad tables, container gardening, growing vertically, and more. This session will also cover watering, weeding, and garden tools.
• February 22 – Seed and Plant Choices: Planning, design, and layout are key elements to a successful garden. Learn about hardiness zones, frost and freeze dates, how to order plants or seeds from a garden catalog or locally, reading and selecting seed packets, and starting plants from seed. Explore the importance of soil health and learn about soil testing and amendments such as fertilizer and manures.
• March 1 – Cool Season Vegetables: Cool-season crops can be grown in spring or fall, each with its own characteristics and potential issues. Learn how to grow and harvest cool-season vegetables as well as how to manage common insect pests.
• March 8 – Warm Season Vegetables: Warm season crops grow in the hottest part of the year. This session will cover how to make vegetables such as lettuces, tomatoes, carrots, and more flourish.
• March 15 – Insects and Diseases: New and experienced growers alike are challenged by insect pests as well as plant diseases or disorders. Learn about insects, diseases, and wildlife pests and how to prevent and handle them. Then, learn how a vegetable garden can be set up to be more appealing to beneficial insect pollinators such as butterflies, bees, beetles, and moths.
Series presenters include Illinois Extension horticulture educators Jennifer Fishburn, Ken Johnson, and Sarah Vogel, and local foods and small farms educators Erin Harper and Katie Parker. For more information, contact Ken Johnson at kjohnso@illinois.edu . ∆ Emily Steele: University of Illinois Extension
Plant Cover Crops At Home For Healthier Soils
Crimson Clover can be used as a warm-season or cool-season cover crop.
Using crimson clover increases organic matter and soil fertility by adding nitrogen to the soil.
Photo credit: Pixabay
NICOLE FLOWERS-KIMMERLE
URBANA, ILLINOIS
Healthy soil is essential for healthy plants. Using cover crops in the home garden is one way to promote soil health.
Cover crops are non-harvested crops that add organic matter to the soil, transfer nitrogen to plants, and break up heavy clay or compacted soil. They are commonly used in agriculture, but also have a place in the home garden.
Cover crops are planted before a garden is planted or after harvest.
Cover crops can also be planted in areas that are unused for the season.
University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator Nicole Flowers- Kimmerle says using cover crops in the home garden has many benefits.
“Improving soil structure, drawing nutrients up from deep in the soil, and increasing soil fertility are just a few ways cover crops to improve soil health,” Flowers-Kimmerle says. “Suppression of weeds, habitat for beneficial insects, increased biodiversity are other ways cover crops work for the garden's good.”
There are two types of cover crops to consider, warm-season and cool- season. Warm-season cover crops are planted in spring or summer before the garden is planted or in a fallow area. Buckwheat, cowpeas, and crimson clover are warm-season are common cover crops used in the home garden.
Cool-season cover crops are planted in late summer or early fall after the vegetables are harvested. Oats, winter wheat, winter rye, and crimson clover can be used as cool-season cover crops.
“Keep in mind that these cool-season cover crops need to germinate and grow before winter temperatures,” Flowers-Kimmerle says.
Crimson clover and cowpeas are legumes that take nitrogen from the air and convert it to a form usable by plants. Notice that crimson clover can be used as either a warm-season or cool-season cover crop.
When planting a cover crop, there is no need to cover the seeds. Allow the plants to grow until the flowering stage. Once flowering begins, either mow or cut down as close to the ground as possible to prevent seed formation. If the crop is cut down too early, it may regrow. If it is cut down too late, it may reseed.
After cutting down the cover crop, leave the cut portion as a mulch on top of the soil or till it into the ground. Both options have their benefits. Leaving the plant material as a mulch can suppress weeds.
Tilling can help incorporate the organic matter into the soil, but it also disrupts the delicate soil ecosystem.
“Each garden is unique, so you must decide what is suitable for each situation,” Flowers-Kimmerle says.
Winter hardy cover crops or crops not killed by the mowing could be tilled into the soil. A cover crop that is killed by winter temperatures would not require tilling the debris into the soil.
It is important to follow the “mow, wait, plant” rule when using cover crops. After mowing a cover crop, leave the plant debris to sit for two to four weeks before planting anything else. The residue needs to break down and the flush of microbial activity needs to slow before new plants start growing. ∆
NICOLE FLOWERS-KIMMERLE: University of Illinois