Bradford County Conservation District
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Team
    • History
    • Careers
    • Board Meetings
    • Right to Know Request
    • BCCD Earth Day
  • Programs
    • Agriculture & Soils >
      • Woodchip Barnyard Project
      • No Till Garden
      • Interseeder
      • Farmland Preservation
      • Women in Agriculture Day
    • Dirt, Gravel & Low Volume Roads
    • Education >
      • Scholarship Opportunities
      • Envirothon
      • Conservation Field Day
    • Environmental Permitting >
      • Chapter 102
      • Chapter 105
    • Forestry >
      • Spotted Lanternfly
    • Watershed Restoration >
      • Pond & Lake Management
      • Stream Crossing Replacements
    • West Nile Virus
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Contact

CONSERVATION CORNER

A weekly blog for all things conservation

Time to Start the Garden

11/4/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
By: Nathan Dewing, Agricultural Team Leader, Bradford County Conservation District
​

You heard correctly – it is time to start your garden.  This week at the Stoll Natural Resource Center, we started our 2020 no-till demonstration garden. It may be new thinking, but we suggest you think of October as the beginning of your gardening season (November is not too late).  A few simple steps now can keep your garden soil working for you all winter. Read further for a step by step preparation guide. 2019 produced an excellent demonstration garden, with very little effort as we have reported.  Forty people attended the September Open Garden evening with lots of great questions and information sharing.  A big “thank you” to Chris and Jeanette Smith from Warren Township for mentoring the gathered gardeners.  

The Stoll Center garden aims to demonstrate soil health principles applied in a garden setting.  Production farmers are rapidly learning to implement soil health improvement on a large scale.  Any of us can use the same principles in a small garden.  The keys to healthy soil are maximizing the number of days with living plants, keeping soil covered, minimizing disturbance (maintaining structure), and increasing plant diversity.
Here is one of many approaches you can take.  You may apply this in an existing garden or in a completely new location.  The main goal is Organic Matter.  Supplying plenty of organic matter will keep worms and beneficial microscopic soil critters working all winter.  The most readily available source of organic matter is often mulch hay.  Leaves and other organic matter sources can also do the job.
Start with a good layout.  Plan the size of bed areas that you can comfortably reach into from an isle way.  Lay these out so that you can minimize foot traffic in the bed area.  Maintain permanent isle ways for repeated foot traffic.  One example layout is 4 feet wide beds approximately 30 feet long with 18-inch-wide isle ways between each bed.  This allows you to reach 2 feet of your bed area from either side.
With a good layout, you are now ready to do your first gardening of the season!  For a modest size garden this preparation may take one to two hours.  If this is a new location, you can do this right on top of the grass.  If you can get some manure or compost form a local farm, lay down a healthy layer in the bed area (if you don’t have access to manure, don’t worry, you can still build soil).  Next, place a minimum of 12 inches of mulch hay over the bed areas.  Add a slightly thinner layer of mulch to the isle ways which will be the start of a weed barrier next spring.  Next, go inside and hibernate for the winter, you’re done!  The mulch will maintain higher soil temperatures for biological activity through the winter.  You may be surprised at soil conditions for planting come spring time!
You can see a fun video of us starting our garden this week on our facebook page @BradfordCountyConservationDistrict.  If you want some planting pointers for this type of garden, you may want to check back with us in the spring.  For now, smile thinking about spring when your friends will ask, “start your garden yet?”  You can say “Yea, I started it six months ago!” 
The Bradford County Conservation District is committed to helping people manage resources wisely.  You can visit the Bradford County Conservation District at 200 Lake Rd in Wysox across from the Wysox Fire Hall. Contact us at (570) 485-3144 or visit our web page at www.bccdpa.com
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Authors

    Various staff at the Bradford County Conservation District

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019

    Categories

    All
    Agriculture
    Chapter 102
    Chapter 105
    Community
    Conservation Planning
    County Initiative
    Cover Crop
    DGLVR
    Earth Day
    Education
    Energy
    Events
    Farmland Preservation
    Floodplain
    Forest Pests
    Forestry
    Grazing
    Home & Garden
    Interseeder
    Manure Management
    Native Species
    No Till Garden
    Nutrient Management
    Outreach
    Permitting
    Pollinators
    Ponds
    Riparian Buffer
    Scholarship
    Soil Health
    Storm Water
    Stream Crossings
    Streams
    Watershed
    Wildlife

Bradford County Conservation District
​​
​Stoll Natural Resource Center
200 Lake Road, Suite E | Towanda PA 18848
Phone: (570)-485-3144
Programs
Agriculture and Soils
Dirt Gravel & Low Volume Roads
Education
Forestry

Chapter 102
Chapter 105
Watershed Restoration
West Nile Virus
Quick Links
Programs Resources
Blog
Events Calendar
Get Assistance
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Team
    • History
    • Careers
    • Board Meetings
    • Right to Know Request
    • BCCD Earth Day
  • Programs
    • Agriculture & Soils >
      • Woodchip Barnyard Project
      • No Till Garden
      • Interseeder
      • Farmland Preservation
      • Women in Agriculture Day
    • Dirt, Gravel & Low Volume Roads
    • Education >
      • Scholarship Opportunities
      • Envirothon
      • Conservation Field Day
    • Environmental Permitting >
      • Chapter 102
      • Chapter 105
    • Forestry >
      • Spotted Lanternfly
    • Watershed Restoration >
      • Pond & Lake Management
      • Stream Crossing Replacements
    • West Nile Virus
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Contact