Around the Yard

Things to do this week:

* Don’t walk on wet soil. Other than driving an M-1 Abrams or Sherman tank through your garden, there is nothing more harmful than walking on wet or muddy garden beds. It’s the quickest way to turn good garden soil back into ordinary dirt. Stepping on wet soil will compress it, squeezing out the all-important spaces for air and water--soils will be difficult to wet in the future and will be airless (and roots need air as much as leaves).

If you must get into a garden bed, lay down boards that distribute your weight, but there is really no reason to be working in the garden when it is so wet. It’s a bad time to dig or plant, and even weeding is difficult in a really wet soil. Wait three or more days for the soil to partially dry out. The best time for planting and weeding is when soils are moist, not wet or dry.

* Fertilize fruit trees. Several weeks before they bloom is the traditional time to fertilize established deciduous fruit trees such as apples and peaches. Scatter any high-nitrogen granular fertilizer (such as a 10-3-1 or a 16-4-4) under the tree and lightly cultivate it into the soil. Make sure the fertilizer is evenly spread over the entire root surface area (roots spread at least as wide as the top of the tree). Avoid piles of fertilizer. Hope that the rains continue and carry the fertilizer into the soil, or water with a sprinkler.

It’s also a good time to fertilize citrus; use only a citrus fertilizer that contains trace elements such as iron.