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 »

“Please, please tell me how to keep weeds out of the asparagus patch,” pleaded one frustrated gardener.

“My Dad had the ideal solution for weeds in his asparagus patch,” a grower explains. “He built a fence around the bed, and after the harvest, when the spears had grown up tall and lacy, let his chickens loose inside the fence. They ate all the weeds, kept the asparagus beetle under control, and fertilized the soil with their droppings.” Read the rest of this entry »

Get a head start on newspaper mulch in winter. As you finish reading today’s paper, staple it to yesterday’s. Make strips of newspapers as long as a garden row, roll them up and store until spring. When you need mulch, unroll on the garden.

When I was a young, newly married gardening novice, we lived on the sea shore. A violent December storm drove high tides within a few feet of our front door. When the waters receded, a huge pile of eelgrass and seaweed ringed our home. Too lazy to cart it away, we raked the debris a few feet closer to the house and stuffed it under foundation plantings. Read the rest of this entry »

I maintained a year- round hay mulch at least eight inches deep in her Connecticut vegetable garden. In her fifty-by-fifty-foot plot, I used twenty-five bales a year. I never turned the soil, sowed a cover crop, hoed, weeded, watered, or built a compost pile. I 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. I 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, I pulled aside the mulch and sowed the seed. Read the rest of this entry »

“Black plastic has freed me from hours of weeding. I never used to finish that chore,” explains a Massachusetts gardener. “I resisted black plastic because it looks so awful, but we put dirt along the edges and scatter some on top, and that helps. We use three‑foot-wide rolls in our entire vegetable garden. We plant a row, lay the plastic, anchor the edges with dirt, plant another row, and so on. The weeding always had hung over me. Now I just hand-weed in the row itself, and we have more time to canoe or play tennis.” Read the rest of this entry »

If weeds are growing around the perimeter of your garden, scattering seeds into the garden, cut those weeds with a scythe, then add them to the compost pile. The scythe is a remarkable and efficient tool in the hands of an expert. An able hand doesn’t flail at the weeds with the scythe. He holds it loosely, comfortably, and moves the blade by pivoting his body, keeping the blade parallel to and close to the ground. He stops often to sharpen the blade. The scythe doesn’t actually get dull that quickly, but frequent sharpening is a good way to relax shoulder and arm muscles. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have a root cellar, keep it cool in the fall when it’s full of produce by opening ventilators on brisk nights and closing them on warm, sunny days. That’s an easy way to keep the temperature and humidity at ideal levels.

Choose to grow thin-necked varieties of onions rather than thick-necked ones, and you’ll have less incidence of onion-neck rot in storage. Cure them in sun for a week or two after harvest, then lay screens in the rafters of your garage or attic and spread the onions one layer thick. Leave them there for a month or so. Make sure onion necks are thoroughly dry before clipping to an inch or two. Store in a cool, dry place with good ventilation. Read the rest of this entry »

Every garden needs a little mulch. Mulch is a thick blanket of material laid on the ground near plants or in the walkways. It blocks sunlight, keeps weeds from growing, holds moisture in the soil, and keeps the soil temperature steady and cool. Mulch is a must for many dry-country gardeners who are trying to cut down on their watering, and for folks who haven’t got the time to stir up the soil every week to stop weeds from getting started.

People use all kinds of organic matter and material for mulch—grass clippings, bark chips, peat moss, pine needles, leaves, sawdust, black plastic, and so on. Read the rest of this entry »

The only things I worry about with succession crops are getting seeds to germinate in hot, dry weather and keeping transplants watered so they’ll root quickly with no moisture stress.

When it’s hot and dry and the soil doesn’t have much moisture, seeds can start to germinate only to run out of moisture. That kills them.

To avoid this, plant seeds a little bit deeper, an extra 1/4 to 1/2 inch for small seeds, an extra 1/2 to ³ inch for larger seeds. The very top of the soil may be dry, but you’d be amazed at how well seeds use the small amounts of moisture beneath the soil surface. Also, I time my succession crops so that they’re sown just before or just after a rain. With clay soil it’s wise to plant before a rain. 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 »

It’s not necessary to prune tomatoes. However, in my garden all the tomato plants get a little pruning. Staked and trellised plants need the most because you want them to grow only one or two main stems which will make the plants easier to tie up.

Pruning means pinching off the shoots, or “suckers,” that grow out from stems right above leaf branches. By restricting the vine growth somewhat, you’ll get bigger tomatoes. If you let these suckers grow, each becomes another big stem with its own branches, blossoms, and fruits— even its own suckers. I prune my plants in cages and those growing freely early in the season, and then I let them grow. You should go on sucker patrol at least twice a week during the heavy growing season to keep your staked plants from getting hard to control.

In a very hot, sunny area, you can let some of the suckers put on a couple of leaves and then pinch out the top to stop its growth. The extra foliage will help the plant manufacture food and will help shade tomatoes. 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 »

Keep your berries weed-free. Mulching is the best way to beat weeds in a strawberry patch. Build up a 4- to 6-inch layer of a weed-free mulch such as wheat straw, chopped cornstalks, or a late cut of hay.

Place a little mulch around the young plants early in the season and add more as it packs down. A 2-inch layer of composted mulch should do the job of keeping the weeds down and still allow daughter plants to root.

In early summer, shallow cultivation between rows will get rid of small weeds. If you spot large weeds next to the plants, pull them carefully so that the berry roots are not disturbed. Read the rest of this entry »

Watering was another garden job on which Walter had very strong views. Nothing annoyed him more than to hear that overworked bromide ‘You can’t start watering unless you go on doing it every day. His theory was that people who have to go on doing it every day don’t water properly. They give a pleasant little sprinkle which damps the ground and makes it smell delicious, without even beginning to get down to the roots of the plants, in fact it tempts the roots to come up to the surface to get a drink, and they get burnt up unless that little sprinkle is repeated every day. If you scratch the ground after a so-called watering you will usually find that the water has hardly penetrated below the surface.

Walter’s way of watering was thorough in the extreme. He had lengths of hose with which he could reach every part of the garden, and it took him several days to do the job as he thought it should be done. This, of course, was in the days when one was allowed to use a hose and there was no restriction on watering from main supply. Read the rest of this entry »