Get Your Garden On: Maintenance

 Now that you are prepared to plant your garden successfully, here are a few quick upkeep tips that will help keep you busy over summer break. The two activities of focus here are weeding and hoeing (knowing my generation, I am sure some of you are snickering at this point).

The most important thing you can do to maintain a healthy, bountiful garden is to remove any, and all, weeds that will undoubtedly sprout up during the course of the summer. If you do not, then an army of weeds will eventually take hold and compete with your plants for vital water and nutrients. While there are a variety of chemical herbicides sold that one can simply spray, I recommend soaking up some rays and removing weeds the old fashion way, by hand.

There are a variety of garden hand tools that can be used for this task such as a miniature handheld spade shovels or you can also try to simply pull them out with your bare hands. However, you have to make sure you get all of the weeds' roots out of the ground, which can be tricky to do by hand. I recommend using a hand tool and digging down around the base of the weed to loosen the hold of its roots and then scooping the weed out. Again, be sure that you have removed all of the weeds roots, or it will grow back almost immediately.

The second task must be undertaken regularly. In order to maintain a healthy garden, you have to hoe your garden bed. You can do this with a hoe, which is where this task derives its name, or you can use your bow rake. As the summer progresses and rainy days come and go, you will notice that after it rains your garden bed will be hard and cracked-looking once the hot sun returns.

If this occurs, you are going to want to take your hoe or rake and break the hard, cracked layer of soil up so that your dirt can once again be scooped up easily in your hands. When you are hoeing you should also break up the soil mounds around the base of your plants, since they too will become hardened like the rest of your garden after it rains. Be sure to rebuild fresh mounds around your plants before you call it a day. If you fail to hoe your garden, the hard layer of cracked soil will prove impenetrable to any further rain or watering, denying your plants much needed hydration during the long hot summer.

If you would like tips on individual plant care check out The Independent on the web (www.neiuindepdent.com) and post your questions as comments to this story. All questions will be answered in a timely manner.