{"id":16457,"date":"2021-03-23T08:51:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T12:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?p=16457"},"modified":"2021-03-23T08:51:45","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T12:51:45","slug":"soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/03\/23\/soil\/","title":{"rendered":"What should I do now to improve my soil for next summer?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Question:<\/h3>\n<p><strong>I live in South Portland. Every summer for about 10 years I\u2019ve had a vegetable garden on the same 50 x 25 ft plot. This year I won\u2019t have time for a garden. What should I do this spring, summer and fall to improve the soil for next summer?<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Answer:<\/h3>\n<p><em>Tori Lee Jackson, Extension Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This sounds like the perfect opportunity to use <a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/manual\/cover-crops-green-manures\/\">cover crops and green manures<\/a> to improve your garden soil and potentially break some pest cycles. I recommend Bulletin #1170, <a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/publications\/1170e\/\">Cover Cropping for Success<\/a> for a listing of species and purposes for each, as well as when to plant and how to kill or incorporate them back into your soil. The keys to the process are not to let your soil stay bare and not to let any of your cover crops flower and go to seed or you could end up with a years-long weed problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I live in South Portland. Every summer for about 10 years I\u2019ve had a vegetable garden on the same 50 x 25 ft plot. This year I won\u2019t have time for a garden. What should I do this spring, summer and fall to improve the soil for next summer? Answer: Tori Lee Jackson, Extension [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,202,207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask","category-maintenance","category-soil"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What should I do now to improve my soil for next summer? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/03\/23\/soil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What should I do now to improve my soil for next summer? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: I live in South Portland. 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