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Show Page 18 Volume I, Issue VII The Ogden Valley News April 1999 EARLY GARDENING TIPS By Charise McOmber Rainbow Cottage Organic Herb Farm Technically winter is almost behind us and we’ve even had a few warm days fooling us into thinking those thoughts. You know the kind--daydreams of rich brown dirt, ready to plant, crumbling through our fingers. Visions of juicy red tomatoes (We’ll be the first to harvest ours this year! Ha, Ha, Ha) and fragrant green herbs framed by borders of lovely flowers we started from seed. We run out and madly rototill our soggy gardens while the warmth lasts and then winter swats us playfully back to reality with twelve inches of snow. Oh, how can we beat the weather and harvest at least a few precious things from our garden when the growing season resembles Alaska? Don’t give up hope, there are a few tricks we can pull from our sleeves. First of all, raised beds are a must. Having your garden beds a nice 4 to 6 inches higher will allow greater drainage with the added advantage of helping it warm up faster. If you need to speed up the warming process for something like tomatoes or peppers, lay black plastic over the soil. (That trick will even melt snow for you.) One gentleman I know builds narrow beds 3 ft by 10 ft by using 2x12 boards and making a frame over it. He spreads pastic over each frame creating little greenhouses to warm the soil. When the soil is warm enough he plants his tomatoes and peppers, heating at night with small heaters he N o M o re Lo n g D i s t a n c e To Sa l t La k e ! CALL SALT LAKE FOR A FI XED RATE OF $15.00 PER MONTH GET HALF OFF THE SET-UP FEE DURING MARCH AND APRIL (norm ally $24. 00, now jus t $12. 00) It’s s im ple , it’s for re s ide ntial c us tom e rs, but, it’s not for Inte rne t ac c e s s. It c ove rs Og de n Valle y to Drape r and Rive rton. Ca l l a n d Ge t Se t u p T OD AY! ENHA NCED COMMUNIC ATIONS OMMUNICA 3 3 7 -8 0 0 2 O gd en All Offe rs Ex pire 5 /3 1 /9 9 Continued on page 19 |