Long weekend gardening tips

“If we get some cold weather… that could be a problem for any bedding plants,” vanDuyvendyk said, adding shrubs and trees can also be planted.

Gardeners looking to get a head start on their gardens can still buy bedding flowers and above ground vegetables, and plant them in pots. VanDuyvendyk suggests keeping them in the house, putting a light cover over them at night or bringing them inside when the temperature drops. He said any plant should be acclimatized before being put in the ground.

“When you buy a plant from a green house, the plant is like being in Florida, so you don’t want to put any plants from a green house straight outside anyway,” he said.

Soil moisture is also something to watch out for because of Saskatchewan’s dry spring. VanDuyvendyk said keep the soil moist – not wet – to give plants a head start.

For those who use potted plants and gardens year-round, vanDuyvendyk said it’s important to use a slow release fertilizer to replace lost nutrients.

“That’s what a lot of people forget about. They think about putting them in the pot and watering them but they forget about the food part,” he said.

Crop covers can be used on all plants and left on throughout the day. Light will still be able to penetrate the white cover but heat will stay trapped overnight to warm the soil.

panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @lkretzel

by Lasia Kretzel

Long weekend gardening tips

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