Ramsey County

May 6, 2009

Howdy!!!

A little cloudy today., but we will take it anyway.  The temperature is finally conducive to be outdoors and the most obvious site is all the walkers showing up.  That is my indicator of time to be in the garden.  Last week I talked about early to rise and early to the garden, well that happened to me this week as I did get my potatoes, corn, half of our peas and onions planted.  I grew up with a grandfather needing to be the first in the field each and every spring, in fact I can remember one year (not the year; however) where grandpa had a field of durum planted the second week of March and ended with over 2 feet of snow before the crop actually started to grow.  We had neighbors that were always early starters and in my farming days I would generally wait another week.  Well in my garden case I am not trying to be the first in the garden but my garden is located on top of a big layer of sand with very good black soil on the top.  It is also located in a very sunny location and on the south side of some very big spruce trees, which does attract more heat from the sun.  So, so with being said, I am usually a little earlier than most gardeners. 

There seems to be a lot of lawns, this spring, that appear to be slow growers.  This is especially true for our area as soil temperatures have not warmed enough to take the grass plant out of full dormancy.  Be patient and make sure to rake those areas once your lawn has dried enough to be out in it.  My yard is in good shape for moisture and will hold a pickup as I drove across it last night.  Like I mentioned last week, I am going to need better notes, as I cannot remember if I talked about it or not as radio has also started.  I spread approximately 3 pounds of grass across my lawn each spring along with 8 pounds of a urea based product.  I really don’t mind mowing grass every week.  It always looks so good upon completion of the task. 

We also have small areas of grass in our lawns that are showing signs of dying or something wrong.  I will talk about this subject on the radio tomorrow.  One last thing I would like to mention is the planting of any garden or flower bed and that being on how to determine what is too wet.  If you would take a handful of dirt and squeeze it and that handful stayed in a clump or oozes out of the side of your hand, you had better wait for another week.  On the other hand, if you grab a handful of dirt and the dirt flows out of your hand like powder you have other issues to deal with.

I have postponed the gardening Saturday and am planning on having a couple of evenings of gardening discussions.  Stay tuned.

524 4th Ave NE #5, 2nd Floor Ramsey County Courthouse
Devils Lake  ND  58301
701-662-7027
email - NDSU.Ramsey.Extension@ndsu.edu

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