Sign-up for Free Gardening Catalogs

He should stimulate growth by frequent cultivation to break the soil up mechanically. This will let in air, moisture and heat — all essential elements in for effecting the chemical changes necessary to convert the unavailable into available plant food. Long before the science in the case was discovered, the farmers had learned by observation the necessity of keeping the soil nicely loosened around their growing crops. Even the lanky and untutored aborigine saw to it that his squaw not only put a bad fish under the hill of maize but plied her shell hoe over it. Plants need to breathe. Their roots need air. You cannot expect to find luxuriant dark green leaves of a healthy plant life in a suffocated garden.

Of next importance to air, is water. You may ask what has frequent cultivation to do with water. But let us stop for a moment and look into it. Take a strip of blotting paper, dip one end in water, and watch the moisture run upwards, as it soaks itself up. The scientists have labeled this phenomenon "capillary attraction" — water that crawls up little invisible tubes formed by the texture of the blotter. Now take a similar piece, cut it across, hold the two cut edges firmly together, and try it again. The moisture refuses to cross the line — the connection has been severed.

In the same way, water stored in the soil after a rain starts to evaporate into the atmosphere. Water on the surface evaporates first, and then that that is soaked in through the soil to the surface. It is leaving your garden, through the millions of soil tubes, just as surely as if you had a two-inch pipe and a gasoline engine, pumping it into the gutter night and day! Save your garden by stopping the waste. It is the easiest thing in the world to do cut the pipe in two. By frequent cultivation of the surface soil not more than one or two inches deep for most small vegetables the soil tubes are kept broken, and a mulch of dust is maintained. Try to get over every part of your garden, especially where it is not shaded, once in every ten days or two weeks. Does that seem like too much work? You can push your wheel hoe through, and thus keep the dust mulch as a constant protection, as fast as you can walk. If you wait for the weeds, you will nearly have to crawl through, doing more or less harm by disturbing your growing plants, losing all the plant food (and they will take the cream) which they have consumed, and actually putting in more hours of infinitely more disagreeable work. If the gardening novice is not convinced by the given facts, there is only one thing left to convince him — experience.

Having discussed so much abut for the need for constant care, the question of methods naturally follows. Get a wheel hoe. The simplest sorts will not only save you an infinite amount of time and work, but do the work better, very much better than it can be done by hand. You can grow good vegetables, especially if your garden is a very small one, without one of these labor-savers, but I can assure you that you will never regret the small investment necessary to procure it.

With a wheel hoe, the work of preserving the soil mulch becomes very simple. If one has not a wheel hoe, for small areas very rapid work can be done with the scuffle hoe.

The matter of keeping weeds cleaned out of the rows and between the plants in the rows is not so quickly accomplished. Where hand-work is necessary, let it be done at once. Here are a few practical suggestions that will reduce this work to a minimum,

1. Work this while the ground is soft; as soon as the soil begins to dry out after a rain is the best time. Under such conditions the weeds will pull out by the roots, without breaking off.
2. Immediately before weeding, go over the rows with a wheel hoe, cutting shallow, but just as close as possible, leaving a narrow, plainly visible strip which must be hand-weeded. The best tool for this purpose is the double wheel hoe with disc attachment, or hoes for large plants.
3. See to it that not only the weeds are pulled but that every inch of soil surface is broken up. It is just as important to make sure that the sprouting weeds are destroyed, as the larger ones are being pulled up. One stroke of the weeder or the fingers will destroy a hundred weed seedlings in less time than one weed can be pulled out after it gets a good start.
4. Use one of the small hand-weeders until you become skilled with it. Not only may more work be done but the fingers will be saved unnecessary wear.

The skilful use of the wheel hoe can be acquired through practice only. The first thing to learn is that it is necessary to watch the wheels only — the blades, disc or rakes will take care of themselves.

The "hilling" operation draws up the soil around the stems of growing plants, usually at the time of second or third hoeing. In the past, it used to be the practice to hill everything that could be hilled, but this practice has gradually been discarded for what is termed "level culture". This is because the two upper sides of the hill, that may be represented by an equilateral triangle with one side horizontal, give more exposed surface than a level surface represented by the base. In wet soils or seasons hilling may be advisable, but very seldom otherwise. It has also the additional disadvantage of making it difficult to maintain the soil mulch which is so desirable.

Rotation of crops.

There is another thing to be considered in making each vegetable do its best, and that is crop rotation, or to rotate the planting of a vegetable with a different type at the next planting.

While this is essential for some vegetables, such as cabbage, practically all are helped by it. Even onions, which are popularly supposed to be the exception to this rule, are healthier, and do as well after some other crop, provided the soil is as finely pulverized and rich as a previous crop of onions would leave it.

Here are the fundamental rules of crop rotation:

(1) Crops of the same vegetable, or vegetables of the same family (such as turnips and cabbage) should not follow each other.

(2) Vegetables that feed near the surface, like corn, should follow deep-rooting crops.

(3) Vines or leaf crops should follow root crops.

(4) Quick-growing crops should follow those occupying the land all season.

These are the principles which should determine the rotations to be followed in individual cases. The proper way to attend to this matter is when making the planting plan. You will then have time to do it properly, and will need to give it no further thought for a year.

With the above suggestions in mind, and put to use, it will not be difficult to give these crops special attention that are needed to make them do their very best.

© www.garden4home.com