THE LAZY LADY'S LOW-LABOR GARDEN

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To get that plant food underground, the whole garden will need to be tilled — or turned by some other method — at least twice in the spring and once in the fall. Now that may sound like a fair bit of heavy labor . . . but I know of no faster way to kill weeds and get organic matter into the soil. And, if you keep turning that earth, time-consuming composting won't even be necessary. You'll be able to simply spread vegetable wastes on top of the ground, with your other mulch, until tilling time!

It's a good idea to grow a cover crop during the garden's fallow seasons. I've had the best results with buckwheat and annual rye (neither of which will develop a persistent root system or set seed before the first spring tilling). Such plants protect the soil from erosion and supply valuable green manure besides.

When planning a "minimum intervention" garden, it's important to concentrate on soil building. Plants grow faster and stronger ( and become more insect-resistant) on humusy, fertile soil. If the earth they grow in is healthy, your vegetables will be better able to take care of themselves.

CHOOSE WISELY

Once you have decided which garden crops are likely to do best in your climate, choose disease-resistant varieties whenever possible. Most seed catalogs will note which cultivars have a certain amount of built-in insect and disease resistance. With good soil and strong seed, your "battle" will be half won.

During each winter, I draw up a garden chart for the following spring . . . making sure that the crops are rotated every year. Even if a garden is quite small, the annual movement of crops is very important . . . because many insect eggs remain in the soil over the winter. By shifting the positions of your vegetables, you can at least keep the varmints from multiplying on their preferred host plants year after year.

GIVING THEM COMPANY

Companion planting is another technique to keep in mind while drawing up your garden plan. You can prevent a lot of insect damage — and avoid extra work — by putting different varieties together so that they benefit from their proximity to each other. Interplanting can actually help mask the specific vegetable scents that insects use to locate their favorite foods! So instead of putting masses of cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and broccoli together, keep them separate . . . with patches of onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and beets.

Marigolds are particularly beneficial throughout the garden . . . both as general soil conditioners and because of their strong insect-repelling odor. You might want to try planting nasturtiums, basil, parsley, summer savory, or sweet marjoram as well . . . for the same reasons.

PLANTING TIME

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