Tiffany Crepean
WESTFIELD – As the warmer weather begins to appear and with Easter and Mother’s Day right around the corner, this is an ideal time to test soil and prepare beds to make way for a new spring garden and a beautiful lawn.
The first necessity is raking and removing lawn thatch. Removing the buildup of dead grass, leaves and twigs is beneficial in the long run for the health of the lawn and garden.
Flowers on display at Westfield Home and Garden.
“Removing the thatch allows for better water and fertilizer penetration,” said Brian Kelly of the Westfield Home and Garden.
In addition to preparing the lawn, one can start churning the soil in the garden. If the ground is not frozen, churning the soil starts to warm it up in preparation for planting things as trees or perennials.
“You just have to dig at it,” said Westfield Home and Garden employee Adrian Kunz. “The raking and churning is like a sort of rotary tilling”.
There is also the question of synthetic versus organic products.
“If you research and follow through they can be found to be equally comparable,” said Kunz, who personally favors organic pesticides and suggests using Copper Fungicide. Another suggestion is dormant oil, which is an ecological oil based pesticide used to spray on citrus trees.
“I feel safer eating when using organic products,” she said. “It’s scary some of the stuff that’s out there.”
After cleaning up and de-thatching the lawn, Kelly suggests adding lime and then fertilizer to the soil. Agricultural lime helps fertilizers become more efficient, provides plant nutrients and helps to aid in the prevention of crab grass. Agircultural lime also helps to reduce the soil’s acidity. The more acidic a soil is, the lower its pH level will be.
“Oak trees and pine trees suck the soil’s pH level down,” Kelly said. “You want to get the pH back up to 6.5 percent, which is the ideal rate.”
The Westfield Home and Garden offers free soil pH level testing, among many other services, such as garden design and equipment repair.
The Westfield Home and Garden is already prepared for the two big spring holidays, Easter and Mother’s Day. They are stocked up for Easter with bulbs and hydrangeas, and are expecting Mother’s Day items to come in next week, but there is one popular item that lasts all year round. It’s called a fairy garden, like a doll house with tiny plants and miniature furniture.
“It’s kind of addicting. You can do it with your kids and your whole family,” said Kunz. “And everyone is getting spring fever – getting into the mood to start planting!”
