Okay, this is just a quick post with a few tips on gardening/growing things.
If you can try to buy heirloom varieties, I know they aren’t conventionally pretty or perfect, but if you get into the habit of drying the seed they can bring you wonderful, unique and tasty plants , year after year.
Don’t dump fresh poop on your garden, I know you just went out and got a load of manure for your garden, and that is great, but fresh manure can often be too nitrogen rich and can burn your plants, let it sit at least a few days until it starts to get dried out/flaky looking..you can make a big pile and turn it every day if you are just dying to play in the poop. Horse, cow, bunny, and chicken poop can all improve your soil quality, just make sure to blend well with your regular garden dirt, and please, wash your produce before you eat it..nobody likes eating poo..and if you do..check your vitamin levels..otherwise, that is just unhealthy and gross..
In the southern states this seems to work, I look forward to feedback from other areas: For tomatoes and like plants , run a piece of pipe ,or old garden hose, cut in about 1 ft to 1 1/2 foot lengths about 6 inches away from but parallel to and at the same depth as your roots , this allows better water delivery to your roots and helps saturate more than just the surface around your plants during rain.
Got bugs? Try diatomaceous earth, it’s a great way to get rid of pests without killing your family too, just be sure to use enough of it in the affected areas. It seems to help with most common garden insects.
If your water is city water and you notice plants looking brownish around the edges, your water may have too much chlorine, consider a rain barrel, or if that isn’t an option, try filling a suitable size container up 24 hours before you water and letting it sit exposed, sometimes the chlorine will evaporate /mellow out after the water sits in open air for a while. If you do either of these, consider putting old screen or tulle, or whatever is open and meshy that you have handy over the opening to keep the skeeters and water-boatmen out of your garden water.
If you plan on planting beans,corn, and squash in the same garden area, consider planting them together, the squash leaves are usually wide and keep water in low to the roots of the corn/beans, the beans can use the corn as a runner, this method seems effective as long as corn is monitored to make sure the beans don’t choke it.
I look forward to adding random tips as I get them from local farmers/gardeners..I wish to give special thanks to my friend Darlene for her help.
If you have other useful gardening tips for small hand hoed gardens or medium size tractor hoed gardens, leave them below.
Victorian Living 