Greetings gardeners!

Wow, in the Chicago area, we are in a terrific weather pattern! This should continue
until about April 20th, and then gradually shift to cloudier conditions and above normal
rainfall through the month of May.

It's a great time to work the soil, but it's still too early to put out most plants. It's ok
to buy the plants now, while the selection is good, but don't plant them until well after
Mothers Day, or better yet, close to Memorial Day. The cool season plants, like pansies,
are fine to put out. They enjoy this weather. Same with the cool season veggies. Trees
and shrubs can be planted now, but actually autumn is a better time. Planting in the
spring brings more top growth, and planting in the autumn brings more root growth.

Grass seed is the same way. It's ok to seed now, but the seeds will become two month
old baby grass plants going into summer, which is really hard on them. The root system
will be poorly developed because spring is a top growth season. Also, it takes twelve
months for grass seed to mature its roots and shoots. If we seed now, it's normal for
some of it to die off during the summer. It's normal to lose as much as 50% of the new
grass, but, well, it's 50% more than you had before! Just touch up the seed again in
September and THAT grass will probably make it. Autumn is definitely the best time
for planting and seeding but it's hard to look at a bare spot all summer! Just don't feel
bad and blame your black thumb if plants die in the summer.

A word about mushroom compost; DON'T USE IT!! It makes trouble everywhere it goes.
Mushroom compost is aged horse manure and is sky high in sodium and phosphorus.
Both of these will make a lot of trouble in our soils. The high sodium will dry stress
the plants in summer as well as encourage a lot of diseases. Roses will get more black
spots, phlox will get more powdery mildew, annuals will get pythium (rot), tomatoes
will get verticillium wilt and on and on and on. It ain't nuthin but trouble. All the
manures have this effect. I put goldfish water on my house plants and THEY got
mealy bugs and brown spots on the leaves! As soon as I stopped, the bugs went
away and the brown spots stopped spreading. Composting manure has to be done a
certain way or it makes a lot of trouble. Sure we get great growth, but not health.
The high sodium makes cells that are waterlogged but poorly mineralized and this
invites the diseases and insects.

Also, when phosphorus becomes excessive in the soil, it grabs micronutrients and
locks them up and won't release them. We need the micronutrients to give deep
green color to the leaves (iron and manganese) and also for the plant's own immune
system (copper, zinc and boron) to fight diseases. Without the micro's we're in
a heep of trouble!

So what should we use for a soil amendment? Aged wood chips (mulch) are the
best. It makes great crumbs in the soil. Just add some alfalfa and bone meal for
food value and now we are looking at some really happy plants! The best wood
chips to use are pine bark (fines), hard wood mulch and the free chips from the
tree companies. Some times the tree chips are available as double ground, which
means they are run through the chipper machine twice -- that stuff is great. Here,
in Wheaton, I can get double ground chips for $15 per yard plus delivery. Good stuff.
In the Chicago area, aged pine bark fines are available in bags called "Black Forest
Soil Conditioner". Black Forest makes potting soils as well as soil conditioners and
all their products work extremely well. Email me if you have trouble finding some
in your area. Please stay away from cedar and cypress mulch. It is not good for
the soil.

I see dandelions are coming on like freight trains so we will talk about them next
time. And it's not what you think!

Happy gardening!

Bill