Lazy gardeners argue about compost. Some insist nothing can take the place of a shovelful of compost mixed in planting holes for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and members of the cabbage family. Melons, cucumbers, and squash need its richness to send out strong, healthy vines. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

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 »

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 »

If you’ve harvested peas and turned under the plants while they were still green and tender, you have put green manure in your soil. Any green plant spaded or tilled back into the soil can be called green manure. Some green manure crops are grown just to be plowed back into the soil while they are still green and rich in organic matter. Alfalfa, buckwheat, and annual ryegrass are a few examples. There are many others.

You might hear green manure crops being called “cover crops” or “catch crops.” These names indicate two of the jobs of a green manure crop:

1. To cover bare soil at the end of the season. This protects it from erosion over the winter. Read the rest of this entry »

Nitrogen is a nutrient that plants require in great amounts. Commercial nitrogen fertilizer is an energy-intensive product, and it accounts for about 32 percent of the energy budget for Midwestern corn. At Rodale, efforts are being directed toward using natural, less energy-intensive sources of nitrogen. Legume plants like soybeans, alfalfa, and clovers are well known for their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. But what about such strange- sounding plants as azolla and anabaena? Azolla is a water fern and anabaena is a blue-green algae. Both are found in the rice paddies of Vietnam. Their association seems to be synergistic—that is, when they are planted together, nitrogen fixation is greatly enhanced, thus benefiting the associated rice crop. Rodale hopes to grow these plants in the greenhouse and use them for fertilizer. 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 »