 on how to plant your garden. So about this time Memorial Day, we like to start getting into our gardens. And the reason for that is because we start to get our soils finally warm enough in North Dakota to be able to plant our seeds. So we like to traditionally have our soil temps at least in the fifties, if we can, when we're planting our garden. So that's why we wait till it gets a little warmer outside and we wait till Memorial Day, traditionally. But make sure that depending on what kind of vegetables you're planting, you're checking your soil temps. And you can check your soil temps from your local radio, sorry, your local weather station. You can check them out at your local end on site. And you can also visit with your neighbors and see what the soil temps are. So I'm gonna first show you a little bit about the space that I'm working with. So we have a very large garden here. So your garden space and what you're going to plant will depend on the size of your garden. So in a big garden like this, you can plant a lot of different things. Whereas if you have a smaller garden, just say in your backyard, or maybe say even a container garden, you're gonna have to work a little bit with your space. So I wanna first talk about your space. And then I wanna talk a little about my tillage. So here I've just taken, and you'll need a lot of different tools for your gardening and planting your garden. So this is a great tool just to work up a certain area in your garden. Now some people will even do no-till gardens. So it all just kind of depends on what works best for your soil if you have really sandy soil, or if you have a really clay-heavy soil, you might find one method works better for you than another. All right, so now I'm gonna talk about all the different supplies that you're going to need for your garden. So first and foremost, you're going to need some seeds. Now this is just some seeds that I ordered, and they came from a particular company. And so of course, you can always order seeds from different catalogs, different companies, and get them ordered that way. You can also find seeds at your local grocery store, hardware store, or your local nursery. So just explore, do your research on what kind of variety is gonna work best for you. So next thing you're gonna want to make sure you have is some good protective clothing. So I have on a nice long sleeve short pants that keep my skin from getting dirty, and it'll keep me of course from getting sunburns. Two, that's another reason why I don't wear a hat just to keep the sun off your face. And then of course two, I have gloves for when I'm working in the dirt. So that's part of your clothing. You should always try to wear and clothes don't shoes. Next I'm gonna talk about some of my tools. So I just have a little shovel that's nice for when I'm wanting to dig up and dig mounds, maybe for potatoes or for cucumbers, those kind of things. And then I have a little claw here. So this is really great for digging up a particular area and getting just even a little spot tilled up. So that's great for that. And then of course I have my hole, which is what I will use to take and make rows in the garden. Something that I don't have with me, but is also great to have is either a measuring stick or a measuring tape, or even just take two stakes and tie a piece of string together in between the two stakes to make sure you have nice straight rows when you're planting your garden. It'll just make everything nice and easy for you once it comes harvest time. So the next part I wanna visit with you about is just a little bit what's on the back of your seed packet because that is going to help you understand how to plant it, care for it and harvest your crop. So I just have some sugar snap peas here and it tells you of course the common name and then the scientific name for this particular variety. Of course it's gonna have how many seeds are in it, what the lot number is and if there's any specific treatments to it. So you can see that this one was treated. So it has a little bit of a kind of a treatment on there to help with disease management. So as you can see there is planting instructions on here and so you're gonna want to make sure that when you are planting your seeds, no matter what kind of seeds they are, that you are following these planting instructions to a T. It's going to help you the most with germination and of course be having just a successful crop once the plants actually start growing and they won't get too crowded out and they will have the space needed to make sure they have the best production possible. So you can see here that this one, you want to have possibly two week intervals to extend your garden season and of course this one needs to be planted when the weather is still cool. So that means this is a cool season crop. There are warm season crops as well, such as tomatoes and peppers. So be careful and cognizant of that when you're looking at your crops as well and making sure that you're planting certain crops when there's cool weather and someone there's warm weather. So again, these peas prefer well-drained soil. They want to make sure that they're planted one and a half inches deep and three or four inches apart and rows that are 24 inches apart. So about two feet. So when you're planting your gardens, make sure you're following all those instructions very carefully to make sure you have the best germination possible. So when you're planting your garden, it's very easy to get physically wore out. And so when you're taking and using something like a hole where you may be a little bit taller than the implement itself, you want to make sure that you have a nice flat back and that you're taking and working up the ground like so. And this is just to make a nice row for me to plant my seeds. Now this is actually probably a little thick, probably a little too deep for my plants. So I'm gonna put a little soil back. So this is why it's important to be careful and watch your planting instructions on the back of your seeds. So now I've got my row. Now if you were doing this at home, make sure again you have a nice marker system so that you can remember exactly what you planted here because in a few days, you're not gonna know exactly what you planted. So make sure you have stakes to help mark your rows as well. So now I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna open up my packet. So if any of you have worked with snap pea plants before and pea seed, you'll know about how big and how what the size is of these pea seeds. Again, the reason why they have a little bit of a pink color to them is that they're treated seeds. So treated just means that they've been coated with a pesticide to try and help with either disease management, with insect management, and those kind of issues popping up in your garden when they're trying to grow from little seeds. So again, the back of my seed packet says to plant them every three to four inches. Now I understand you maybe you don't wanna go ahead and measure out three to four inches. So the best thing to do then is use the good old measuring system of your thumb. So your thumb is about an inch from the end of your finger to the your knuckle and then to the other knuckle is about another inch. So if I'm right here next to my pea plant, there is about two inches. So there's about three inches right here. So take and mark that spot. Put your little pea seed down. And then from here, you maybe can eyeball it just to make sure that you have each of your seeds the proper distance apart. And then I went with three because if I get a little bit farther apart, it's not gonna hurt them any. Because again, we wanted three to four inches. So that's my seeds in the ground. But now I can't just leave them like this. I have to cover them back up. So I'm gonna take and lightly brush them with a little dirt. Just to get them covered up enough to where they're not exposed to the elements. Birds aren't gonna come over and just pick them out of the ground. I can make sure that my seeds will be nice and insulated for when needing to germinate. So with that, this is my how to plant your garden video. Please always make sure that you're checking out NDSU extensions, NDSU extension, lawn, garden and trees Facebook page for more of these videos. And if you ever have any questions about how to plant a garden or just how to get started with a garden if this is your first time, please make sure to contact at your local NDSU extension office.