Easy Garden Anyone Can Make
(Page 5 of 6)
April/May 2008
By Lee Reich
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11 Tips for Starting a New Garden
- Minimize soil disturbance; always try to preserve the natural layering of the soil.
- Place your vegetable garden as close to your kitchen door as possible.
- Site your vegetable garden where it will be bathed each day in at least six hours of direct summer sunlight.
- Use transplants for quicker harvests of slower-growing plants, such as tomatoes, peppers
and broccoli. - Do not use transplants for crops that transplant poorly, such as carrots and okra, or those that are easy to grow from seed, such as beans and peas.
- Even if you have drip irrigation, hand water newly planted seeds and transplants until their roots grow into moist soil.
- Use only weed-free mulches, such as wood chips, sawdust and grass clippings.
- A vegetable garden can be more than functional. Put a pretty fence, low shrubs and flowers around it.
- To spend the least time weeding, do it frequently for short periods.
- Keep an eye on the edges — that’s one place weeds try to sneak in.
- Get to any weeds while they are still young because “one year’s seed is five years’ weeds.”
How to Buy the Best Compost
A cottage industry has sprouted up throughout much of the United States that recycles “waste” into compost. This bulk compost is cheaper and generally better than you can buy in plastic bags. But it’s important to do a little homework before buying, which will help ensure that you get high-quality compost.
Start your search for bulk compost in newspaper ads and the Yellow Pages. “Compost” is an obvious starting point, but purveyors of compost might also be listed under “topsoil,” “fertilizers,” “mulch,” “manure” or “mushrooms.” Another option is the Internet — visit Google and search for “garden compost delivered yard,” and the postal abbreviation for your state. Make sure that what’s for sale is compost, not just any old pile of wood chips or manure.
When you find a good source, here are some tips to consider and questions to ask:
Ask what went into the compost. The greater the variety of raw materials that went into the mix, the wider the spectrum of nutrients in the end product.
Ask about the compost’s acidity. The ideal compost for most garden plants is slightly acidic.
Be sure to get assurance that weed seeds are few or absent. You don’t want that layer of rich, brown compost on your soil to transform into a carpet of weeds with a little rain and sun. Time, temperature and mixing all have bearing on the number of viable weed seeds in finished compost. A carefully built compost pile easily reaches high enough temperatures to kill most weed seeds. Turning the pile gets it cooking again and eliminates any weed seeds that survived the first cooking.
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