The queen of mulch was Ruth Stout, author of How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back. She maintained a year- round hay mulch at least eight inches deep in her Connecticut vegetable garden. In her fifty-by-fifty-foot plot, she used twenty-five bales a year. She never turned the soil, sowed a cover crop, hoed, weeded, watered, or built a compost pile. She just mulched, making compost on the spot, for as the bottom layer of mulch decomposed, it added rich organic matter to the soil — a continuing process. Ruth didn’t bother with manures, but used cottonseed meal or soy bean meal for added nitrogen. She sprinkled it on top of the mulch in winter, at a rate of five pounds to one hundred square feet, so that snow and rain carried it down through the hay by planting time. To plant, she pulled aside the mulch and sowed the seed. Read the rest of this entry »

BROCCOLI

Side-dress when the head begins to form. It may be only the size of a fifty-cent piece when you notice it, but go ahead and side-dress. Amount needed: 1 to 2 tablespoons complete fertilizer per plant.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

I usually side-dress brussels sprouts when I harvest the first small marble-size sprouts. Amount: 1 tablespoon complete fertilizer per plant.

CABBAGE

The best time to side-dress cabbage is when it starts to form a head. In my wide rows of cabbage, that’s when the leaves of the plants are about to completely shade the row. Amount needed: 1 tablespoon of complete fertilizer per plant. Read the rest of this entry »

Beans have been the most important vegetable crop through the ages. They are the best vegetable source of life-giving protein, and today in many societies, beans are still the staple of life. Beans are also the one protein source you can keep for a long time without processing. And you can get a heavy harvest from a small amount of work.

Our family relied on dry beans when Iwas young. Every Saturday night (if not more often), the heart of our family meal, like the traditional New England Saturday supper, was baked beans. Read the rest of this entry »

Snap beans are the first beans to give me a harvest, about 45 days after they come up. I plant them early and often to get a continuous supply of fresh, tender pods. From early summer to the first fall frost, snap beans are ready to pick in my garden. I plant them every 2 weeks until about 8 weeks before the average first fall frost date. Snap beans are a good succession crop because they are so easy to plant and they sprout quickly in warm soil. When my spinach starts to go to seed in early summer, I till it under and plant a wide row of beans on the same day. A couple of weeks later when some of my early peas are finished, I till them in and plant another row of snap beans. Read the rest of this entry »

How long does a plant live? Can environmental conditions such as soil and climate have any influence and how much can individual plants deviate from the normal pattern? All these are questions which are often asked. The first is the most difficult to answer, and to do so with any sense it is necessary to look at the three broad groups into which higher plants are divided. These are annuals, biennials and perennials. Read the rest of this entry »

Too many people think head lettuce or Iceberg lettuce has to be bought at the market.

I grow wonderful crops of head lettuce and yet every year some new visitor looks at my bright green rows and says, “Hmmmm. I didn’t know you could grow that here.” Well, you can and it’s easy.

All you need is some cool weather in spring or fall. Get started early; head lettuce needs as much time as possible developing in cool weather, so the earlier you can set out some plants, the better. They will have the best chance to head up before the scorching days of summer.

Great Lakes, Iceberg, and Ithacavarieties have all done well in my garden. I start them indoors in shallow flats or pyramid planters about 6 to 8 weeks before the last expected frost date.

The most important step in early planting is to harden off the plants very well before setting them into the garden. After they are about 4 weeks old, I start giving them some time outdoors. That way they can handle unexpected cold snaps and even a light frost. Read the rest of this entry »

Potatoes need to be planted in a deep trench, and for good reason. You see, a potato plant will form its potatoes above the seed piece that you put in the ground. To get a good crop, you must provide the plant with room to form and develop those potatoes. The trick is to start low in a trench.

I plow a deep trench, at least 6 or 8 inches down, with my tiller and furrowing attachment. Then

I put a balanced fertilizer (such as 5-10-10) in a thin band along the bottom of the trench. I add a small handful of superphosphate (0-20-0) at 10- or 12-inch intervals right over the other fertilizer. This will furnish the plants with vital phosphorus as they develop their roots. I put this fertilizer at 10- or 12-inch intervals because I plant a seed piece directly above the superphosphate and I want 10 to 12 inches between my potato plants. Please note: there should be a buffer of 2 or 3 inches of soil between the seed piece and the first band of fertilizer. If the seed piece touches the nitrogen in the 5-10-10, it may burn and rot. Read the rest of this entry »

Rotate the crop each year to avoid diseases that live in the soil. I like to wait 3 years, if possible, before planting tomatoes where I’ve had them before. I never plant tomatoes where I grew potatoes or eggplant the previous season, since some diseases attack all these vegetables and live in the soil from year to year.

Plant resistant varieties. Many varieties are resistant to verticillium wilt and fusarium wilt—two troublesome diseases for which there is no cure. Some seed companies list resistance to these diseases by putting “F” (fusarium) or “V” (verticillium) after the variety name. “N” stands for resistance to nematodes, the tiny worms that plague many southern gardens andcause stunting of the plants and poor crops. Read the rest of this entry »

The best way to grow an asparagus bed is to plant 2-year-old roots which you can order from a seed catalog or pick up at a garden store. One-year-old roots may be cheaper, but the savings are not worth waiting an extra year for your first harvest. I think the 2-year-old roots are more reliable in transplanting.

If you live in the North, set out asparagus roots in the early spring. In the South, set them out in the fall because it can be so dry and hot in the summer that the plants may not make it through.

Asparagus will grow in most types of soil, but since it must have dry feet, it does best in soil that drains well. Place the plants about 2 feet apart with 5 feet between rows. Twenty-five to 30 crowns will produce enough asparagus for a family of four once the bed is established, which takes three seasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Window boxes are often impulse acquisitions. You are halted in your tracks by a wonderful display of bedding plants and there is nothing for it, you must have some. No garden? Never mind, there is room for a few window boxes….

Such impulses can be the beginning of a long and enjoyable acquaintanceship with window box gardening. They can also be the reason behind the starved and unhappy specimens you sometimes see as the summer draws on, the unwanted kittens of window box gardening that you cannot give away and that certainly don’t seem destined for a death by drowning. If your first boxes are impulse buys, or if you know only too well that you are one of those people whose early enthusiasm is liable to wane, then hold your horses for a moment and plan. Read the rest of this entry »

Cucumbers have come on a great deal since the old days when they needed expert attention to get anything other than a miserable crop of bitter fruit. There are now all-female varieties that save you the effort of removing the male flowers that produce bitter fruit and there are also bitter-free varieties. Nevertheless, cucumbers are something of a specialist crop. If you feel like trying them, buy ready-grown plants and put them three to a growing bag or singly in pots. The outdoor or ridge varieties are easiest and for a novelty crop you could try to get hold of plants of ‘Crystal Apple‘, which, for some reason or other, produces cucumbers the size, shape and colour of a large lemon. ‘Sweet Success’ is an all-female plant that can be grown out of doors in a container and ‘Patio-Pik’ claims to take up no more room than a cabbage and endure neglect yet still produce more than thirty cucumbers per plant. I haven’t tried it myself but, even allowing for a bit of horticultural hyperbole, it sounds just the thing for the window box gardener. Read the rest of this entry »

In the days when half an acre was regarded as a small garden the idea of growing vegetables in window boxes would have been a huge joke. Today, with our smaller plots and smaller families, the idea is not so laughable. Seedsmen, too, have been working for us to produce dwarfer, tidier plants that can be accommodated in boxes, tubs and other containers. There are, too, the ubiquitous growing bags so that anyone with a fancy for home-grown beans or peppers or tomatoes or other salad crops can easily indulge this. All right, you will hardly have surplusfor freezing but you should be able to enjoy good early pickings. And what a triumph, to be able to serve French beans with a real snap to them, freshly picked from your own window sill. French beans, especially the dwarf varieties that need no staking, are a vegetable particularly suited to container growing. Read the rest of this entry »

Although the standard Cymbidium is still more widely grown than the miniature varieties, we will discuss the smaller type first because they require less space and can be grown more easily in the home. The miniature hybrids have been produced from a limited number of species which are small in stature and which will produce flowers from a plant in an easily accommodated pot. The first miniature Cymbidiums were produced some sixty to seventy years ago, but at that time created little interest. They were, in fact, in advance of their time and in the last twenty years their popularity has increased enormously. The earliest hybrids were produced by crossing the species Cymbidium pumilum. This delightful little plant produces flower spikes about 10-12 cm (4-5 in.) long, carrying somewhat insignificant blooms. Read the rest of this entry »

When it came to the job of making paths I discovered that this was a subject on which Walter had very strong views, and I had many lectures on how to achieve perfection. He felt that there was nothing to beat a good gravel path, and a good gravel path was so hard that nothing would spoil the surface and weeds would find no foothold.

Turning the barton into a well-made drive, big enough to take a dozen cars, was a big operation. We were lucky in being spared the problem of drainage. There is a big slope from the malthouse to the gate—as friends have discovered when they have not braked their cars properly!

The first thing we had to do was to level the surface, and then dig out the foundation. A good foundation is the secret of a good drive, we had it and there has never been any trouble since. I often wish we had taken as much trouble with our lawn as we did with the drive. Read the rest of this entry »

I went through some dreadful times when I first started planting. In spite of all my efforts quite a lot of clay was left in the soil, and the harsh March winds whipped it into hard nodules which made the most uncomfortable homes for my newly planted creatures. I know better now and, though I have improved the soil immeasurably, I always use a mixture of sand and peat when planting, particularly with small things. Then I see that the roots are spread out and every little fibre has close contact with this good rooting material. Such treatment makes them feel snug and at home and they hardly know they have been unrooted from one place and transported to another. The worst thing you can do to a plant is to permit an air pocket anywhere near its roots, and this is what I am ashamed to say I did when I first began gardening. My planting was so insecure that the plants lurched about in the bed and were blown this way and that by the wind. Like a woman holding on to her hat they were too busy trying to keep a foothold in the earth to give a thought to anything else. Firm planting is one of the first essentials, and it is a good idea to give a little tug to anything that is just put in to make sure it is firmly anchored. I always test my cuttings in the same way, though not quite so vigorously. Read the rest of this entry »

I learnt a great deal from Walter that first year of gardening. The first thing I learnt was that he knew a great deal more about the subject than I thought he did. I was a complete novice, and I thought that he was too. I knew he had had gardens and gardeners, but I assumed that being very busy he had left all the planning and work to them. I may say I got very tired of one particular gardener during that first year. He was quoted at me morning, noon and night until I came to hate his name. Everything he did was perfect, he never neglected anything and he always did all the jobs that needed doing at the right time. It was no good for me to tell Walter that I had to sandwich my gardening between housekeeping, household jobs and a certain amount of social life. In his opinion there was no excuse for not getting things done at the right time. Read the rest of this entry »

No garden should be without Salvia uliginosa or S. azurea. When most of the other flowers in the border are calling it a day these lovely creatures will produce their swaying heads of intense blue high above their dying compatriots. Those tender shrubby salvias, S. Grahamii and S. Greggii, will go on blooming till frost puts an end to their succession of bright crimson flowers, but one must find a very sheltered niche for them.

Belladonna lilies and nerines come in September and October and go on flowering till mid-November. They love a southern aspect, and nerines do best if planted about ten to twelve inches deep. For me they flower more consistently than the lilies, who sometimes sulk for a year, then relent and push up their very naked buds, without a vestige of green clothing, when you least expect them. Read the rest of this entry »