Prevent Problems in Your Vegetable Garden

Try a bit of preventative care in this year’s garden. You’ll increase your landscape’s beauty and productivity with less work on your part.

Improve your soil. Start with a soil test to be sure you are adding only the nutrients your plants need. It’s better for the plants, environment, and your budget. Plus, excess nitrogen promotes lush succulent growth that is more susceptible to insects and disease.

Add organic matter to improve drainage in heavy clay soils and water-holding capacity in sandy and rocky soils. Healthier plants are better able to tolerate seasonal stresses and pest attacks.

Mulch the soil to help prevent soil born fungus from splashing onto and infecting plants. Plus, you will conserve moisture, suppress weeds, and improve the soil as the organic mulches decompose.

Remove weeds as they appear. Not only do they compete with your plants for water and nutrients, they often serve as hosts, attracting insects and diseases into your garden.

A bit more information: Gardeners now have a new tool to help their plants tolerate environmental stress, insect attacks, and disease infestations. Plant strengtheners act like an immunization for your plants. Scientists found that plants under stress produce certain enzymes. They isolated these enzymes and applied them to other plants. The treated plants were better able to tolerate stress and attacks by insects and disease.