Early Season Garden Tips
By Mary Ann Heaney
Thin Seedlings

If you have not yet thinned your seedlings, early season is the time! Thin these plants when they are a couple of inches tall. This gives them plenty of room to grow. In general, gardeners want to thin so that three fingers fit between the seedlings.
Natural Pest Control

The Louisville Community Gardens are organic so no chemical pesticides! Don't worry. There are many plant-friendly choices for chasing pests away. The easiest is to incorporate plants that pests do not like. Consider adding Marigolds, Nasturtiums, Onions, Garlic, or Chives to the perimeter of your plot. Add one (or more) of these to the middle section if you are gardening a large plot.
Water Wisely

Watering is a big challenge here in Colorado. Too much?
 Too little? A good rule of thumb is to water DEEPLY when the top two to four inches of 
soil is dry. Stick your finger in the soil. If it comes up dry, 
then it’s time to water. Typically, gardeners might water
twice a week early in the season when we are getting rain
and temperatures are cooler. You will need to water more
often as summer heats up.
How to water? DEEPLY. Train your plants’ roots to grow
deep into the soil. Hand water with a slow flowing hose
while you are working in your garden. You want the water
to soak in slowly down to about six inches or more every 
time you water. (No quick sprays on the top of the plants.) Check again with your finger in the soil after watering the next couple of times and you will get a feel for the flow, timing, and frequency. Easy Peasy.
Mulch

Lastly, retain that water in the soil as long as possible so plants can drink it up. Grass clippings or straw are cheap, effective mulches to place on the soil around plants. Best to completely cover your plot, but not so deep that it gets slimy or you see mold on it. Every few weeks, as the mulch decomposes, throw more grass clippings on.
Happy gardening!
Flea Beetles
By Heather Stone
Hello Gardeners! It's that time in the season (early June) where we might begin to see, if you haven't already, the signs of flea beetle damage. If your plants are already a good size it is less likely you will see real damage. There are a few things you can do to protect your small seedlings.
1. Insecticidal soap sprayed on plants.
2. Diatomaceous earth sprinkled around the bases of plants. This will need to be reapplied after watering or rain.
3. Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap (1 tablespoon per quart of water) sprayed every three days for a while until plants grow a little bigger. This is a repellant, not an insecticide.
Here is a link for an article in The Old Farmers Almanac. There are pictures of flea beetles and the damage they cause.
Happy Gardening!