The Northern Garden Need Lime

In the Northern garden you will need lime for all vegetables except potatoes

. If you use quantities of organic matter, lime is absolutely necessary. It is both a soil food and a plant food. Lime neutralizes acids in the soil which result from decomposition of organic matter, thereby benefiting bacterial action. Heavy clay soils are made more friable and their structure improved. Lime supplies plants with calcium; a lime deficiency in the plant will mean a deficiency in food value.

A heavy soil receiving quantities of organic matter requires from 40 to 50 pounds of lime to 1,000 square feet, or 2,000 pounds to the acre. A medium loam requires 30 pounds of lime, and a light, sandy soil, 20 to 25 pounds. This refers to agricultural lime, not hydrated or builders' lime. Agricultural lime can be used with seed, manure and most fertilizers without harm. Not so the other kind. Lime is best spread on the surface of the soil after the initial working, when it is rough, and worked into the surface.

Sowing Seeds

In the milder areas, the first sowing of beets, carrots, radishes and turnips can be made now. Drills 12 to 20 inches apart are suitable. A little superphosphate in the drill will aid germination and initial growth. Onion sets or seeds can be planted now, too. Seeds produce the best onions but require a rich soil and more attention. Early peas of the smooth-seeded type such as Alaska, Early Bird and Mammoth Podded may be sown now; the wrinkled type may be sown later in the season.

March means it's time now to sow hardy annuals - sweet peas, cornflowers, larkspur and poppies.

Pruning should be finished this month.

Shrubs which bloom from July on should be pruned now. These may be cut back as much as desired. Except for the pink and blue hydrangea, it matters little where the cut is made. Prune this hydrangea by cutting off the tips of the young shoots or canes below the third or fourth bud and by cutting out a few of the older canes at the base. Rose of Sharon and the PeeGee hydrangea should be pruned by cutting into the old hard stems instead of merely cutting the tops. Better flowers will result.

Clematis should be Pruned in accordance with its habit of bloom. The fall-flowering C. paniculata should he cut back to within 3 inches of the ground unless the plant is covering a large area. Even then a drastic cutting back will produce more profusion of bloom. The spring-flowering C. montana and C. m. rubens may be pruned severely right after flowering. C. jackmani and the summer-flowering hybrids should be pruned sparingly. Merely cut out any weak, dead or very old stems.

by: Thomas Fryd

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