When spring, fall or summer comes around, and you have the urge to plant all kinds of seeds or plants expected to enhance your yard’s beauty and pleasure, what do you remember about last year when you had the same feeling?

Did you have high expectations, and were those feelings rewarded by a yard of the month award and praises from all of your neighbors?

Wonderful — if you were happy with your yard — but if not maybe a few unasked for suggestions can improve the results of your next efforts.

Some tips from this guy may be of some value because he is continually learning, a good many things the hard way, by trial and error.

Even though good advice has been thrown my way, I haven’t always followed good advice.

That method can be fun but also can waste a lot of time and often ends in mediocrity unless a gardener really does have a green thumb.

Start with a soil test, the results of which will tell you which plant nutritional elements are plentiful or deficient in your yard and what needs to be added, if anything.

You may also learn what type of soil is predominant because you will send in a composite sampling from all over your yard.

You should send in more than one composite sample in very large yards as the soil type may be variable, as in topland and lowland, sandy, clay, or rocky, etc.

You will also learn about your soil’s pH — acidity or alkalinity — which is more important to some plants than others, making it necessary to alter this factor in order to accommodate certain plants.

The majority of bedding plants can do well in a neutral pH soil, but others will do much better in a definite acidic or alkaline root environment.

The same goes for trees, so study their needs before becoming too involved.

Soil test kits are available from the extension office and feed stores.

We have the tendency to grow plants that we like whether they are adapted to our yards or not.

When we can’t change our minds about this, we need to use necessary amendments in those bedding areas to give those particular plants a better chance to do well.

Seeds and retail-started, potted plants usually carry labels concerning the best environment for the particular plant, including hours of sun, sun-shade, morning sun, shade only, watering, separation distance from other plants, depth to be planted, needed fertilizer and as blooming span.

You should heed these instructions.

Let me include sun and water as nutrients because without either or both, things will not go well in your garden.

Even shade plants will often lean toward sunlight.

No doubt that rain water is preferable to chemically treated chlorinated tap water.

Each of the many commercial, packaged, water-soluble fertilizers in small packs to be used in hose end sprayers will be labeled with three numbers such as 15-30-15 or 18-54-12 , etc. and may also spell out what plants do better with such mixtures.

These numbers always indicate the comparative strengths of the essential elements Nitrogen, N; Phosphorus, P; and Potassium, K.

Simply put, N is basically for growth and green, P is a bloom stimulator, and K is for root growth.

Other trace elements, all of which are important, may be included in these different, packaged mixes.

When the high P mix is used continually, iron in the soil may be inactivated, leading to chloriosis or yellowing of the greenery.

Ironite may be added to the soil to alleviate this problem.

High P may also lessen the benefit of the N factor.

Soil in much of the western part of Johnson County is already high in calcium and phosphorus, and adding more to this soil is not recommended.

Most lawn grasses within this area need only nitrogen added two or three times per year.

I would also be hesitant to use “weed and feed” lawn preparations in lawns harboring live oaks or other trees that have sprouts from their roots because the weed killer in the mixture can damage the whole tree.

Compost or potting soils should be added to beds and repeated every year as soils return to their original character in time.

Sandy soils allow faster water permeation and drainage, which means that they need watering more often than clay soils, but our hot dry summers require frequent watering in most every type of soil. Mulching of plants adapted to your yard could be the answer.

For more information visit www.jcmga.org or call Pat Kriener at 817-793-4625.



The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only. References to products and trade names are for identification only and do not imply endorsement or criticism of similar products by Johnson County Master Gardener Association or the Texas Cooperative Extension.



Monte Swatzell is a Johnson County Master Gardener Association Wildbunch Writer from Cleburne.