A Good Garden With a Lot Less Work
(Page 3 of 7)
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
In the summer when the garden is planted, manure can be used mixed with straw or bedding, etc., as a mulch. But take care not to let it come in direct contact with plants. Leaves, straw, hay, garbage - anything that will decompose should be dumped onto the compost heap and after ripening worked into the top soil. Don't bury this humus material by too deep plowing. If you are making a garden in sod land and must plow deep - then plow twice - once in the fall, then in the spring plow again and bring your valuable top soil back to the surface.
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Your soil test will undoubtedly show a deficiency in one of the three basic fertilizers - nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash. The relationship of these has been worked out for the requirements of various types of vegetables. You can buy various combinations of these three elements - called commercial fertilizers - and work into your ground as you plant. A small application of commercial fertilizer usually brings a greater percentage gain in your harvests than a large application. Remember, commercial fertilizer is only a supplement to barnyard manure. Your soil test will supply you with directions as to the amount of commercial fertilizer you should use. Oftentimes, only super-phosphate is needed when you use barnyard manure. Incidentally, hardwood ashes contain potash; up to 50 pounds per 30 x 60 plot should be mixed into soil annually.
On richly fertilized land plants grow faster and are superior; incredible as it sounds, production of a given amount of vegetables may then take 1/5 as much land - likewise the time required may be cut to 1/5. Insects, too, find it more difficult to ruin healthy plants grown in rich soil.
2. Buy Suitable Varieties of Seeds and
Plant According to Specifications
This needs no further explanation. Get seed catalogues in the winter - plan exactly what you want. (See chart on page 24) . You can start some seeds, requiring an early start, growing in February or March, either indoors, or in a hot frame. Originally, we found spring so busy with our baby chickens, kids, geese, and young pigs arriving, that we bought tomato, cabbage, peppers, etc., from our local nurseryman as plants. Plants, of course, cost more than seeds. Now we are growing our own plants in our "Harvest Kitchen" greenhouse window.
Most vegetables require warm weather to grow. Don't be in too much of a hurry to plant early; once a seedling is stunted it will never attain normal growth.
Mark rows with a string to get them straight. Make a shallow trench - depth according to seeds - with a hoe. Scatter seeds evenly, cover with fine soil, pat down firmly with back of hoe.
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