According to a recent survey 44 percent of Americans plan to grow a vegetable garden this year. That is 12 percent increase compared with last year. Many of the new vegetable gardeners will be located in urban and suburban settings where the use of pea patch gardening is on the rise. The goal of my blog entry is to discuss how you can use Black Gold to transform your new patch into a successful vegetable garden. This information is also applicable to anyone that plans to start a new vegetable garden.

Soil Preparation is the most important part of gardening. It is often said that 90 percent of what happens to a plant happens below the soil surface.

Once your garden soil is dry enough that it can be dug up with a shovel without it turning into a huge dirt clot, it is time to begin the development of your garden. Your first step is to remove all the weeds (purposefully pulling the whole weed, including the roots), rocks and debris.

Now it is time to add organic matter and our secret ingredient to your vegetable garden’s soil. You can select from Black Gold Garden Compost, Black Gold Planting Mix, Black Gold Soil Conditioner or Black Gold Peat Moss. Each of these garden amendments have slightly different benefits. For more information on these products go to Black Gold . The amount of amendment you need can be determined using our amendment calculator. Now it is time to add the secret ingredient - Black Gold Earthworm Castings. A 16 qt bag will cover 15-20 square feet of garden soil. When incorporating organic matter and particularly earthworm castings it is not the time to be frugal. The more the better. Both the organic matter and the earthworm castings can be spread out on the surface of the garden soil and then the whole vegetable garden area should be cultivated (dug up with a shovel to a depth of 6″) to mix the native soil with the Black Gold amendments.

Since most of us grow multiple types of vegetables in a small space in our vegetable gardens, I suggest you wait to fertilize with Black Gold Tomato and Vegetable until you are ready to plant your garden for two reasons. First, depending on the type of vegetable you want to grow you should fertilize them differently. Please refer to the back of your Black Gold Tomato and Vegetable fertilizer box for more details. And second, Black Gold fertilizers contain both quick and soil release nutrients. If you fertilize and then wait for a week or so to plant your garden, you loose the complete benefits of the quick release nutrients.

I hope you find this article to be helpful and that you have bountiful harvests in your new vegetable garden that was developed using Black Gold gardening products.

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