Ely
Community
Garden

Why should you have your soil
tested?
Soil testing:
* takes the guesswork out of fertilizer
recommendations
* makes good economic sense
* ensures fertile soil without excess fertilizer
application or pollution of the environment

How to Sample:
Farm/Commercial Horticultural Fields
Divide the field into uniform areas
One sample should not represent
more than 20 acres on level, uniform
landscapes, or 5 acres on hilly or
rolling land

Sample each area
• Collect 15 – 30 subsamples
• Sample to a depth of 6-8 inches (plow layer)
for cultivated crops
• Avoid low lying areas, old fence lines, any
manure holding areas
• Make sure samples are dry and well mixed

Tests Offered
• Regular Series (phosphorus, potassium, pH and lime
requirement, percent organic matter and estimated texture
category)
• Micronutrient Series (zinc, copper, iron, manganese)
• Nitrate Nitrogen
• Calcium and Magnesium
• Sulfur
• Boron
• Soluble Salts
• Organic Matter
• Nutrient Management Phosphorus

Soil Test Form
http://soiltest.cfans.umn.edu/Scans/Cropssoil.pdf

One can extend the vegetable
growing season by sheltering
plants from cold weather and by
capturing solar heat in both the air
and soil, both in early spring and
during the fall.

Season Extending Methods
• • Tunnels
Cold frames
• • Row covers
Hot beds
• • Greenhouses
Cloches
• Hotcaps
• Plastic soil mulches
• (Shading)

Cold frames (sun boxes)
• Rely on the sun for their
source of heat
• Have no outside energy
requirements
• Relatively inexpensive
structures
• Used for cool season
crops during spring and
fall
Cold Frame

Hot bed
• Cold frame with an
added heat source
– Sash to capture solar
heat
– Strawy manure buried
beneath the root zone
– Steam carrying pipes
– Electric heating cables
– Light bulb

Cloche (pronounced klosh)
• Cloches are set out over
individual plants or
made into tunnels
• Protect plants from cold
air and drying winds
• Trap solar energy and
soil moisture (Hot caps)

Examples of Cloches
• Bell glass jars
• Boards for wind and
shade protection
• Milk jugs
• Wall-of-water

Hot Caps (Cloches)
• Capture solar energy to
warm air inside
• One gallon milk jugs
• Waxed paper hotcaps
• Wall-of-water, water
filled plastic tubes
– Plastic tubes had highest
internal air and retained
heat the longest at night

Plastic Soil Mulches
• Clear plastic
• Black plastic
• Colored plastic
– All increase soil
temperature and hold
heat during night
periods
– Black 5 – 10 degrees
– Clear 10 – 20 degrees

Floating Row Covers
• Row covers mean
earlier harvests
– Used for leafy vegetables
– Root Crops
– Starting fruiting crops
• Greater yields
• Extended fall harvests

Clear Plastic Covers
• Used to warm soil prior
to planting
• Increase soil
temperature 10 to 20
degrees F.
• Temperatures above 85
degrees F. can damage
plants

Spunbonded polyesters
• Provide 4 – 5 degrees of
frost protection to 28
degrees F.
• Opened when internal
air temperatures reach
85 degrees
• Problem with low light
transmission of 75 to 80
%
• Weed Growth

Supported Row Covers
• Also Called Low Tunnels
• Can use PVC pipe, heavy
wire
• More labor needed
• Support needed for crops
such as tomato, pepper and
summer squash
• Weed control needed
between rows

Low Tunnels

Low Tunnels
• Miniature greenhouse
with reduced air
volume
• Often one or two layer
(insulating value) of
plastic
• Used for cool season
leafy crops:
lettuce, spinach, endive

Suns Path Summer/Winter

Growing Smart
• Be innovative
• Be COST effective for net gain
• Use some of each systems described
• Experiment to see what will work for how
many months

Vegetable Varieties for N. Minnesota
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/ho
rticulture/DG1425.html#contents

Tomato Varieties for Northern MN
http://www.extension.umn.edu/inf
o-u/plants/BG474.html

Planning Techniques
Plan to use all the space in your garden. Through planting techniques like vertical
cropping, succession planting and intercropping, you can make maximum use of
the space you have.
Vertical Cropping
• Train veggies like pole beans, peas, cucumbers, squash and gourds to some type of
support to save space in the garden. Existing fences, poles, wire cages, trellises can
be used for support.
Succession Planting
• This technique involves growing a crop like lettuce in the spring and replacing it
when the warm weather hits with a crop like beans. In the late summer, you can
reverse the process and replace the beans with a cool season crop like lettuce or
radishes.
Intercropping
• Intercropping is the growing technique of planting fast growing vegetables among
slow growing vegetables. An example of this technique would be planting
radishes, lettuce or green onions among caged tomato plants.

Vertical Gardening
~maximize your space ~
Choose vine crops:
• Cucumbers
• Melons
• Tomatoes
• Squash
• Beans
• Peas

Weed Control

Mulching
• Compost
• Leaves
• Pine Needles
• Lawn Clippings
• Newspaper/Shredded Paper
• Landscape Fabric
• Hay/Straw (inspect for seeds)
• Wood Chips (course to avoid Oxygen depletion)
May need to add Nitrogen as mulch breaks down!

Hand Weeding

“The Mantis”
The best friend a
gardener could ever
hope for!
Space rows according
to tiller width

Perennials, Fruit, Others…

Asparagus
• Buy one-year old roots, if possible
• Dig a trench 8 inches deep and wide enough
to accommodate the outspread roots (about
10 inches), then space the asparagus 18
inches apart
• Don't cut any spears until the
third year after planting

Blueberries
• Blueberries present a challenge for most gardeners because they
require acidic, well-drained soils. The pH should be between 4.0
and 5.0
• The University of Minnesota fruit breeding program has released
several blueberry cultivars suitable for growing here. They include:
– Northblue
– Northcountry
– Northsky
– Northland
– St. Cloud
– Chippewa
– Polaris.

Raspberries
Raspberries grow well in most areas of
Minnesota, although they prefer sites
protected from both wind and late spring
frosts.
Of the three main types of raspberries for
Minnesota home gardens - red, black, and
purple - red raspberries are the most
popular and successful in our climate.

Strawberries
Three types of strawberries are readily available
to the home gardener. June-bearing strawberries
produce a large, concentrated crop in late spring.
So-called everbearing types produce two smaller
crops, one in late spring and the second in early
fall. The newer day-neutral plants are capable of
producing fruit throughout most of the growing
season.
Of the three types, June-bearing strawberries
normally produce the largest yield per season.