I’m using my top green manure rotation scheme in another test plot to see if a typical garden can be nourished by green manure crops alone. So far I’m excited by the results. This may be the garden of the future. Here’s what I do:

In half of the test plot (12 by 24 feet), I grow peas and follow them with snap beans and a final crop of annual ryegrass at the end of the season. We get 75 pounds of shelled peas and more than 125 pounds of beans from these crops before tilling them in. Read the rest of this entry »

The temperature in a root cellar is always a compromise. It’s never equal in all parts of the cellar. Most vegetables never get the perfect temperature.

The temperature near the ceiling of many root cellars can sometimes be 10° F. or so higher than near the floor. This variance creates temperature zones in the root cellar. Your vegetables will keep better if you understand the temperature zones of your root cellar and store crops accordingly. Read the rest of this entry »

I blanch it with its own leaves

A thriving row of cauliflower is a spectacular sight in the vegetable garden, but few people think they can have great success with it. I think it’s as easy to grow as any cabbage family crop. Cauliflower is less tolerant to hot weather than its relatives, though, so it’s important to set your plants out very early or plan on a fall crop. If the heads mature in the heat, they’re apt to have a bitter taste or go by very quickly.

For your first crop, set out some plants 3 or 4 weeks before the average date of the last spring frost. Pinch off a couple of the lower leaves.

As cauliflower heads get to be 4 to 5 inches across, they should be blanched by preventing sunlight from reaching the heads. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s exciting to discover the first thumb-sized broccoli heads in the row and watch them grow. Sometimes they’ll get to be 6 or 8 inches wide at the top. Other times the heads will be quite small when it’s time to pick them.

The center head must be cut before it blossoms, even if it’s on the small side. How do you tell when the head is ready to blossom? A head of broccoli is a cluster of flower buds. When the head is young, its individual buds are packed very tightly. Rub your thumb over them and you will feel that tightness. As long as the buds stay tight, let the head grow. But when the buds loosen up and spread out, they are about to pop up and produce little yellow flowers. Again, pass your thumb across the top of the head—if the buds are loose, you’d better harvest. Read the rest of this entry »

I grow more eggplant than we need just to have plenty of the gorgeous purple and black eggplant fruits in the garden. I get four or six beautiful eggplants, or “eggs” as my grandson says, from each plant, but you can get lots more if you have a longer, hotter season than mine. Read the rest of this entry »

Greens are the greatest. I doubt that any other group of vegetables provides so much good eating for so little effort. From small sections of wide rows, you’ll be able to create salads of all kinds, from early spring to late fall. The long harvest is a big reason I like greens so much. They keep my garden going long after frost has nipped my last tomatoes, beans, and corn.

Greens fit in everywhere. More and more people are growing them in their flower beds, along walks and driveways, and in all sorts of containers. Read the rest of this entry »

Some gardeners are hesitant to try celery and I understand why. It needs a long time to grow—up to 4 months of mostly cool weather. Celery also demands steady water and fertilizer because its root system is near the surface. But if your soil holds water well and has plenty of organic matter in it, you’re in good shape, especially if you plant early and harvest early.

Because celery takes such a long time to grow, start the seeds indoors early. Celery seeds are slow to germinate, so you can soak them overnight to speed the process. Plant them indoors 10 to 12 weeks before the average last frost date. Read the rest of this entry »

Endive is a cool-weather salad green with a distinct clean, sharp taste. A handful of endive leaves mixed into your salad bowl adds a wonderful touch.

Endive doesn’t like hot weather, but it can take a few hard frosts. I grow it as a fall crop only, and sow it directly into the garden. You also can start endive indoors like head lettuce. Either way, plants should stand 6 to 7 inches apart. Read the rest of this entry »

Everybody has a favorite way of growing their prized tomatoes. My way is to support them with cages. After many years of experimenting, I’ve settled on caging as the easiest and best way to care for tomatoes. Tomato plants support themselves easily inside a cage. Because they receive very little pruning, they grow enough leaves to shade the tomatoes. This protects them from sunscald and helps them ripen evenly. Read the rest of this entry »

I encourage gardeners with animal problems to put a fence around the garden. Nothing beats a secure fence for keeping out rabbits, woodchucks, raccoons, dogs, and cats. It even helps to control the traffic of neighborhood kids scooting through the yard.

Get your fence up early, before animal pests make their first forays. Once they get a taste of what’s in your garden they are determined to get back in for extra helpings.

I use fences made of 3-foot-high chicken wire (1- or 11/2-inch mesh), topped by a single strand of electric wire 1 inch above the top. An electric fence is the best way to keep raccoons out of the corn patch. The jolt a raccoon gets when he grabs the electric wire convinces him to try a garden somewhere else. The only time I hitch up the battery and energize the wire is before and during the corn harvest. I run it from late afternoon until early morning. Read the rest of this entry »

Five ways to cultivate the soil

Digging is usually necessary to incorporate bulky organic materials, relieve compaction, improve drainage, improve soil texture and control growth of weeds.

• Single digging Type of digging in which the soil is cultivated to the depth of the spade blade. The most widely practised form of digging, adequate for most ordinary soils of reasonable depth which do not overlay an intractable subsoil. First, take out a trench one blade deep, then fill this in using adjacent soil, turning each spadeful upsidedown as you do. As you move in this way across the areas of ground, the trench moves with you. Soil from the first trench is used to fill the final one at the other end of the plot.
• Double digging Digging soil to two depths of the spade. Especially useful on land which has not been cultivated before or where a hard subsoil layer is impeding drainage and the penetration of plant roots. Read the rest of this entry »

Inadequate soil preparation before planting or sowing is a major cause of horticultural disappointment. Digging and the application of fertilizers and bulky organic materials are usually necessary to ensure that the soil is suited to the plants or crops that you want to grow. Drainage may also be required.

Four fertilizers that supply all the major foods.

There are certain fertilizers that supply all three of the principal foods required by plants: nitrogen for leaf and stem growth; phosphorus for good root growth; potassium (potash), which helps to form and ripen flowers, fruits and seeds.

• Blood, fish and bone Slowly releases nitrogen, phosphorus and potash; use before sowing or planting, or around established plants.
• Fishmeal Dig in before planting or sowing in spring. Read the rest of this entry »

These are the essential tools, used during soil cultivation, sowing and planting.

• Fork For digging heavy soils, breaking down rough-dug soil and for light surface cultivation. The head of a full-size four- tine fork measures 30.5 x 19cm/12 x 7¹/2in; that of a small border fork measures 23 x 14cm/9 x5 1/2 in.

• Hoe For surface cultivation, particularly to eradicate weeds between rows of plants. There are two basic types: the Dutch Hoe, which cuts horizontally through the soil; and the Draw Hoe, which is used with a chopping action (particularly recommended for stony or heavy soils, and also for making seed drills). Both have 1.5m/5ft handles. Read the rest of this entry »

Raising your own plants is much cheaper than buying from a nursery or garden centre. Although a greenhouse is helpful if you want to raise tender plants, a cold frame also has plenty of possibilities for propagating plants.

Six propagating aids

Apart from a greenhouse and cold frame, there are various other tools and materials which you will find useful for the successful propagation of plants.

• Cutting compost Used for rooting cuttings. Made at home by mixing equal parts by bulk of moist sphagnum moss peat and coarse horticultural sand. Alternatively use equal parts peat or coco fibre and perlite. Read the rest of this entry »

Virtually all shrubs can be propagated in this way. The following respond particularly well.

• Azalea Peg down shoots into a peaty soil. Roots form slowly, taking about 12 months.
• Camellia Best rooted in peaty soil. Takes about 12 months.
• Lilac (Syringa) Roots in about 6 months in sandy soil.
• Magnolia Takes 12 months to root. Peg into peaty soil and keep moist.
• Rhododendron Best rooted in peaty soil. Roots form slowly, taking at least 12 months. Read the rest of this entry »

Success with this method depends upon providing the right conditions. Warmth and humidity are essential for good results in every case.

• Alpines Take small cuttings as soon as ready in spring. Best rooted in greenhouse.
• Chrysanthemum Outdoor and greenhouse kinds. Remove 5cm/2in-long cuttings from as close as possible to crown of plant. Root in greenhouse.
• Dahlia Start tubers into growth in heated greenhouse early in year. Take 8cm/3in-long cuttings from the tubers and root in warmth and humidity.
• Delphinium Remove 8cm/3in-long shoots from as close as possible to crown of plant in spring. Root in greenhouse. Read the rest of this entry »

If money is no object you can now have a greenhouse or conservatory that looks after itself, with the plants watered automatically. On a more modest scale, garden frames and cloches are extremely useful (andcomparatively inexpensive) pieces of equipment: they are of particular value on the vegetable plot for extending the growing season at either end.

Eight types of greenhouse

Today greenhouses come in all shapes and sizes to suit every need and site.

• Span-roof greenhouse The traditional greenhouse, with pitched roof (each side of equal size and shape) sloping down to the eaves. Normally has straight sides, although there are models with sloping sides which result in better light penetration. The glass-to-ground types are ideal for growing plants at ground level, such as tomatoes in growing-bags; those with solid sides (to about 90cm/3ft) are good for pot plants, as they retain heat better than all-glass houses. Framework available in aluminium alloy or timber (such as western red cedar). You can now obtain span-roof greenhouses with curved eaves. Read the rest of this entry »

These are widely planted small trees which you could include in a shrub border to give extra height; or, if you prefer you could use them as isolated specimens, although none of them has a particularly distinctive shape.

• Autumn cherry (Prunus subhirtella `Autumnalis) An extremely useful deciduous tree for winter interest, as the small, semi-double, white flowers are produced, on and off, between late autumn and early spring. 6m/20ft. Any fertile soil is suitable. Sun or partial shade.
• Crab apple(Malus floribunda) Popular and beautiful deciduous spring-flowering tree. The arching branches bear masses of white flowers, from red buds. Later, small yellow and red fruits appear. About 4.5m/15ft. Sun or partial shade, fertile soil. Read the rest of this entry »

Birds usually create the biggest problem, but you should look out too for mites and weevils.

• Apple blossom weevil The small white grubs of this tiny brown beetle eat the central parts of apple flowers. Infested blossoms fail to open. Spray with permethrin as the buds are forming or fenitrothion as the buds burst open.
• Big bud mites Tiny mites that live in large numbers inside the buds of blackcurrants. Infected buds are swollen and round, and usually fail to come into growth. Pick off and burn; spray with benomyl fungicide in spring and early summer. Read the rest of this entry »

Climbing roses will grow in tubs. Choose climbers rather than ramblers, as climbers grow more circumspectly and are less prone to mildew and other problems. The list is endless, but I would not like to be without ‘Zephyrine Drouhin’, despite her tendency to mildew, ‘Handel’, which is cream with rosy pink edges and has handsome bronze foliage, or ‘Maigold’, which is double yellow and beautifully scented. Some roses will flourish only on south walls while others are happy in a west or east aspect and others will even tolerate a north wall. Then there are those that are scented and those that are not, those that have one magnificent flowering and then call it a day and others that flower less prolifically but throughout the summer. Read the rest of this entry »