Landscape Ideas: The Home Garden
By Charles French
The garden should be near the home and away from trees. If it's some
distance away from the home, it will not be as well looked after, nor
will most use be made of vegetables grown. Vegetables near trees cannot get
full sunshine; even more important, tree roots will rob them of water and fertilizer
they need to do their best.
One landscape idea is to move the garden spot every 10 years or so
to help keep down diseases. Proper rotation and use of disease-resistant varieties
will help, but sooner or later the old garden spot becomes so full of various
disease spores and nematodes that you cannot grow a good crop of many vegetables
without use of special soil fumigants.
Soil should, of course, be well drained. Few vegetables can stand "wet feet."
A sandy loam with a clay subsoil is best. Heavy clay soils may be made quite
suitable by adding heavy quantities of stable manure or compost, or by turning
under cover crops, preferably legumes such as vetch, clover soybeans.
Since the best quality quantity of vegetables cannot be duced on anything
but a fertile soil, do whatever is needed to make it fertile.
Requirements for growth.
- Proper degree of heat.
- Moisture.
- Oxygen in the air is essential for seed germination and good growth.
English peas, for example, will sprout when soil temperature is only a few
degrees above freezing, while seed such as tomatoes will not germinate at all.
Landscape Ideas: Home Garden
To start these tender vegetables for early crops, artificial heat, as in hotbeds,
is needed. Otherwise, for early crops, buy plants from commercial growers, or
from local growers who produce them with artificial heat. Tender vegetables
that do not transplant such as melons, cucumbers, cantaloupes, and squash, should
not be planted outdoors until soil has warmed up. These may, however, be started
earlier in small pots in a hotbed.
Another landscape idea to make the most out of your gardening efforts, take
time to do some planning. Also keep a record of whether you had too much or
too little of certain vegetables at any time during the season for a continuous
supply. Don't trust it all to memory.
Things to consider when planting.
- How much of each vegetable to grow to supply your family needs.
- Which vegetables are most need for good health.
- How much extra to plant for storage
- Which varieties are best to plant.
- When to plant for continuous growth and supply.
- Which pesticides are best for control of insects and diseases.
- Supplies needed such as, sprayers, dusters, tools, fertilizer, or mulching
material.
Jotting this down on paper, plus any notes made during the season about special
pest problems or how a new variety or practice turned out, will be valuable the
next season when planning and planting time roll around.
Author: Charles French Use of article requires an active link to http://www.decorating-country-home.com
Charles French, freelance writer and webmaster for Decorating Country Home
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
Chicago, Ill
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