A Good Garden With a Lot Less Work
(Page 6 of 7)
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
The poor "backyard gardener" is, however, in a tough spot if he is not willing to keep some animals. Right now, he has a hard enough time to gather leaves, garbage, etc., etc., to make his compost and with the new "electric garbage disposal sinks" which chew up garbage and send it down the drain, he's still harder pressed.
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Almost all garden books go into great detail explaining how to build a compost heap - a method of turning waste foods, leaves, inedible garden produce, kitchen parings into humus. Building a compost heap takes a lot of time. First, you choose a shady place for the compost pile. . .build pile in 6 inch layers, keep level, wet it down if necessary every week for 8 to 12 weeks, and then cut through the pile with a sharp spade . . . build it up again, keep watering for 8 to 12 weeks more, then it should be ready to use ...but it's better after two years. Even then, when you're all done, you have an inferior substitute for barnyard manure. At our place, we don't bother much with a compost heap in the sense that we gather leaves, etc., etc. We feed surplus kitchen parings, vegetable husks, lawn clippings, etc., to the goats, chickens and geese, and in about 24 hours we have excellent manure.
However, to keep manure from losing its value as it will do if exposed to sun and rain, we pile alternate layers of manure and bedding, as shown, and cover with dirt. If this is turned once or twice during a good solid rain it will make excellent humus in six months, winter excepted.
Stake Tomatoes? Peas? In the garden books, you'll find all sorts of flossy ways to stake up tomatoes. Commercial growers rarely bother with staking. And at our place we save a lot of effort by cultivating tomatoes only once, then mulching with 3 inches of poultry litter. Tomatoes then grow beautifully, don't require weeding, cultivating or watering. A few will rot on the ground, but simply plant a few extra.
Intercropping? This is the practice of growing 2, 3, even 4 crops on the same area at one time. Quick maturing crops like radishes, lettuce, beans, spinach may be between rows, or in rows of eggplant, tomatoes, melon, okra, or other crops which utilize ground for a complete season. This is all right where your garden is small - but it's lots easier planting, fertilizing, cultivating, spraying, not to do this.
All Purpose Sprays. There are on the market a number of "all purpose" sprays which attack many types of chewing as well as sucking insects. Obviously, these save effort.
Perennials. Asparagus, rhubarb, Jerusalem artichoke and horse-radish may be left in the garden all-year and are practically self-perpetuating.
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