Get off my lawn!

And get off my beds!

Rainy day in winter - rain and snow.

As much as you are itching to start working in the garden, DON’T!

Don’t even step foot on the lawn.

You’ll be doing more damage than you think and it will take far more effort to fix than you’d believe.

Right now the ground is super saturated with water - from all that snow and rain. It’s basically mud. But, if you leave it alone, it will drain and eventually dry out*.

Unless you step on it.

When you step on it, your weight will compress the soil and squeeze it together. And there is no springing back. It stays compressed.

Compressed soil is bad. Very bad. There’s no room for roots and whatever roots are there are starved of oxygen. The squishing of the soil, squeezes out room for air and water to reach the roots.

This is why your lawn looks like crap when the kids and dog run all over it, day in and day out. You can have kids/dogs or a great looking lawn. Choose wisely.

Worse is that that simple act of stepping can take magnitudes of effort to fix.

* When the soil is compressed, it doesn’t behave well - it won’t absorb water well and it will pool on top. And in the heat of summer, it get baked and act more like concrete than garden soil.

So how do you know when the soil is ok to work? Simple. Dig up a trowel’s worth. Squeeze it. If it crumbles friable) after you release your squeeze, you are good to start planting. If it stays compacted, leave it and come back and try again in a few days.

So, how do you manage working in your garden and reaching the back of the beds? Stepping stones! They keep the damage contained.

How do you fix soil compression? You will need to work in organic matter and amend the soil as needed. Get a soil test to tell you what’s needed. Don’t get the big box store - use your state university’s county extension dept. For a small bed, this could be a simple-ish fix. For a lawn, it could take years and lots a resources.