Newspaper Article

Season Gets a Busy Start

A Garden Journal Donna Redman For the Journal

2002

Overview

I read several articles expounding the virtues of using red sheet plastic as a mulch around tomato plants to grow healthier, more productive plants. So we got some to try. Since we water the veggies with a drip line, we put the drip line down first, then put the red plastic on top. Already I can see a couple of disadvantages to the stuff. I put a small mound of dirt around the edges to hold it down, but that is woefully inadequate. The wind made short work of my efforts. Also, we water the plants on the bank behind the veggies with micro sprinklers, and the water that falls on the red plastic puddles there. Those puddles could be inviting to mosquitoes a little later in the season. I think we're going to have to pile up the dirt a bit under the plastic so water will drain off, and find some way to secure the edges against the wind. After the garden was planted, I finally got around to cleaning out the pond. It has been doing so well, I really hated to rock the boat. All the plants were growing, the fish were growing, the water was fairly clear. But people who know about such things said the pond should be mucked out once a year and the pond plants should be repotted in fresh dirt, preferably clay. We have sand, so we scrounged some clay that had been scraped out of an irrigation ditch not far from us. IT'S A DIRTY JOB: A water garden needs some not-so-lovely work to keep up appearances.; IN FULL BLOOM; Albert Saiz gardens among clouds of roses at his home in Los Lunas on Wednesday. May is among gardeners' favorite months for what it delivers despite what it demands in the way of work. For a May to-do list and one gardener's confrontation with cutworms, red plastic mulch and pond muck, see page A6.; Photo: JOURNAL FILE; b/w; JAY FLORES/FOR THE JOURNAL; Color (Photo shown on page 1.)

• Publisher: Albuquerque Publishing Company