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By Bodie Pennisi
University of Georgia
As spring arrives, gardeners all over Georgia once again try
their best to win the “Most Beautiful Garden of the Neighborhood”
award. Many will turn to the palette of annuals to start
“painting” their masterpiece.
Here are a few suggestions that will help your annual garden turn
into a colorful paradise.
Most annuals grow well in a variety of soil types, as long as the
soil holds enough moisture and drains well. Amend heavy soils
with sand, perlite or coarse bark to improve drainage.
If you must use a poorly drained area, build raised beds. Do this
by digging furrows along the sides of the bed and adding the soil
to the bed top. Add topsoil and/or organic matter to further
raise the bed. Excess water can seep from the bed into the
furrows.
With average garden soil, use a 1 to 2-inch layer of organic
matter and a 1-inch layer of coarse, unwashed sand. Use twice as
much organic matter and clay if your soil is heavy clay. And
don’t add any sand to the sandy soil of southern Georgia.
Below-average soil
Poor subsoil can be made into good garden soil by adding organic
matter and sand each year. Peat moss, pine bark, compost, leaf
mold and well-decomposed, stable manure are all good sources of
organic matter.
Instead of burning leaves in the fall, turn them into your
flowerbed as organic matter.
Have the soil tested. A pH of 6.0 to 6.8 is satisfactory for most
annuals. Most Georgia soils are acid, and you have to add lime to
raise the pH. In the absence of a soil test, add a complete
fertilizer, such as 10-10-10, at 1 pound per 100 square feet.
Annuals seeded in the garden often don’t germinate properly
because the surface of the soil crusts and cakes, which doesn’t
allow water to penetrate into the soil.
Planting trick
You can prevent this crusting by sowing seeds in 1.5-inch-deep
furrows filled with vermiculite. Make another shallow furrow in
the vermiculite and sow the seeds at the rate recommended on the
seed package. Cover the seeds with a layer of vermiculite.
At planting, pinch the flowers and existing flower buds to
encourage more vigorous vegetative growth. Removing the flowers
and/or the tip growth allows the roots to develop faster. In
transplanting annuals, plant the seedlings no deeper than they
grew originally.
During the growing season, plan to apply 1 inch of water each
week when it doesn’t rain. When you water, moisten the entire bed
thoroughly. Don’t water so much, though, that the soil becomes
soggy. Allow the soil to become moderately dry before watering
again. A soaker hose is an excellent way of water beds.
Don’t forget mulch
Good mulch materials include pine straw, pine bark and slightly
decomposed leaves. You can spread sheets of ground cloth or weed
barrier over the soil surface, too, and cover it with organic
mulch.
Use only decomposed organic material as a soil amendment and only
loose organic matter as a mulch cover.
Fertilize established plants at 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000
square feet. Plants take up nitrogen actively from April or May
until September. Use general-purpose fertilizer, such as 10-10-10
or 16-4-8.
You can use slow-release fertilizer, organic or liquid. During
hot weather, use high-nitrate fertilizer such as 15-2-20. During
cool weather, use balanced ammoniacal/nitrate fertilizers such as
20-10-20.
(Bodie Pennisi is an Extension Service horticulturist with the
University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences.)
