Springtime brings out green thumbs

With spring comes flourishing foliage and blooming flowers that may just be in your garden. For green thumbs who are itching to get going, staff writer Trevor Stokes talked with Dwight James, owner of Coldwater Seed and Supply in Tuscumbia, about spring planting.

Q: What do people need to know about springtime planting in this area?

A: We have late frost, typically sometime in April. Everybody gets a little anxious to plant and should try to watch the weather and look at the eight- to 10-day forecast and plan accordingly. Typically, some time between April 10 and April 16, the weather gets favorable and the ground gets favorable. Typically the first part of April we have a frost.

Q: When can people plan to plant in springtime?

A: You got two seasons for gardening really; you got your early spring season that you can start planting cabbage, onions, broccoli, Brussell sprouts, cauliflower, Irish potatoes. They really thrive in cool weather because they are cold crops. But anything else in the garden basically you need to wait until the middle of April to do some planting.

All the later-season crops, such as squash, peas and butter beans, can be planted anytime in the latter half of April.

Q: What about flowers?

A: I wouldn't risk planting any flowers right now, mainly because 99 percent of the flowers coming into this market are coming out of greenhouses and they're really soft and tender. Until they've been hardened off and had some cool weather on them, they have a tendency not to do real well until it warms up. Anytime after April 15, you're pretty much safe for flowers.

Q: What would you recommend for landscape beds?

A: The best thing to use is some type of landscape fabric. It will suppress the weeds yet let the water flow through the landscape fabric.

They are a loose weave fiber that is tight enough that won't let plants germinate under them, and yet they'll let water go right through them. They're black and unfortunately tend to heat up so most people put those down first and then mulch.

They tend to be smooth on one side and rough on the other side; and the rough side goes up to hold the compost and mulch.

Q: What other recommendations do you have for flower and vegetable gardens?

A: The one single recommendation that will make the difference between a success and a failure in any kind of flowers is to put some good soil amendments in their bed.

Flowers tend to do really well in good rich soil; we tend to have a lot of red clay in north Alabama.

In vegetable gardening, the most important thing is to pull a soil sample and to see what level of fertilization and lime your garden needs.

So many people garden and never pull samples and never add anything to their gardens but fertilizer and fertilize every year.

The salt content of your garden tends to increase, so you need to add lime on a regular basis to keep the soil sweet.

That's a real big secret to successful gardeners is keeping the pH right.

(James said that soil sample kits are available at the county extension service.)

Q. What are the new trends for this year?

A. You're seeing a lot more drought-resistant perennials for the home landscaper. Drought-tolerant plants seem to be in vogue this year after most of the country suffered from a record drought last year.