1.   A dressing of sand around the base has been shown to be beneficial when growing lavender because it warms the soil and keeps water away from the leaves.

2.   Not only will this help warm the soil, but it will also prevent the vines from sending down additional roots as they sprawl across the ground.

3.   Seeds need warm soil to germinate but grow so easily and quickly they can be sown the garden in spring for summer bloom about nine weeks later.

4.   Some gardeners warm the soil with black plastic to get an earlier start, but that takes lots of plastic.

5.   Somehow we think all of nature lies dormant throughout the harshness of winter and waits for the sun to warm the soil before any life begins to stir.

6.   Black polyethylene also warms the soil and therefore makes a good mulch for some of the heat-loving crops such as melons.