This gardening season I want you to take a few things into consideration.

Start the season off right with a test and a vow of stewardship.

First of all, if you haven&8217;t had your soil tested in a year or two, get a soil test now.

It takes a while for some soil amendments to work their way into the core of the planting areas, so the sooner you get this done, the better prepared you will be for gardening in 2007.

The other thing I mentioned is stewardship.

Make it our responsibility to monitor and maintain the frequency and amount of insecticides, herbicide and fertilizers we put into our soil.

Though some of you depend on service providers to apply these chemicals to your lawn and garden, it is still the responsibility of the homeowner to make sure that the proper amounts are applied.

One thing that will help you if you outsource these chores to a lawn care provider, is to make sure their licenses are up to date and make sure the company has all of the proper certificates that are required by law according to the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.

Your service provider is also required by law to have the name of the business on any of the vehicles used to conduct business in your neighborhood.

Get references. Make sure you are dealing with a reputable company.

Double check the company&8217;s technician&8217;s work to insure that the proper chemicals are applied at the proper rate and at the proper intervals.

If your lawn care technician recommends double amounts of any chemical for any reason, ask to read the label on the chemical container to make sure they are using the proper application technique.

Ask your lawn care professional if the chemicals being applied have a deficiency in effectiveness if applied during the rain or drought.

Remember, it&8217;s up to us to help decontaminate and save our planet … they only gave us one Earth to play with.

For more on these and other gardening tips log on to Home Grown Tomatoes at http://HGTradio.net