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PLANTING
To ensure a successful garden crop or the survival of landscape material, proper planting techniques should be used. In some instances, special techniques are necessary. Spring is the best time to plant material in the north. This ensures good root growth before winter sets in. Fall planted material tends to suffer from winter damage to a great degree. This is especially true with evergreens. The time from leaf drop to freeze up is very short in the north and does not give sufficient time to dig the material, ship it, plant it and ensure good root development before winter, which in the north can be as early as October. This results in insufficient root mass to offset the water loss due to drying winds and is the cause of most failures when fall planting. There are some exceptions, though. Certain perennials are best planted in the fall. These include peonies and hardy lilies, which move best in mid-September and up to mid-October for lilies; and bearded iris, oriental poppies and bleeding-heart which prefer early August.In the vegetable garden, the key to success is to start planting the hardy and cool season vegetables as soon as the ground can be worked. They will then have sufficient time to mature. For the tender types, they must be started indoors and transplanted out after all danger of frost has passed or else special techniques and equipment used to ensure their survival should frosts occur. I will cover these techniques and equipment later. Seeding of hardy vegetables can sometimes be started as early as late April in the north but the second week of May is the average. There are still people who think that nothing can go in the ground before the 24th of May weekend. Most cool weather crops prefer the early start and should mature before the heat of summer for best crop results. Some people seed onions, parsnip and carrot the previous fall for early germination. Fast growing vegetables should be sown at intervals of 10 to 14 days to ensure a long crop season. Planting varieties that mature at different rates also spreads the harvest over a longer period of time. To increase soil temperatures, especially in permafrost areas, use ridging or terracing when planting. Ridging can raise the soil temperature by 2.2°C (4°F) and combined with poly mulches will increase the temperature by up to 9°C (16°F). This can facilitate earlier planting of most seeds and is especially good for plants who do not tolerate cold feet such as potatoes. Adequate moisture should be available at planting time for germination. In the early spring, soil moisture is usually higher than later in the spring if rainfall is low. This is another reason to plant as early as possible.
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This page by Pat
updated August 18, 2000
