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93 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
93 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
# Garden Planning, Soil, and Growing Through the Season
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## Site and layout
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Vegetables want sun: 6-8+ hours for fruiting crops (tomatoes, squash,
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peppers), while leafy greens and many roots accept 4-6. Watch your space
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through a day before digging. Close to the house and a water source beats a
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distant "better" spot — the garden you walk past daily is the garden that
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gets tended. Beds about 1-1.2 m wide (reachable from both sides without
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stepping on soil) with permanent paths concentrate fertility and avoid
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compaction. Raised beds warm earlier in spring, drain in wet climates, and
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suit poor native soil; fill with a mix of topsoil and generous compost.
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## Soil: feed the soil, not the plant
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Soil is the pantry. The universal prescription that fits nearly everyone:
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add 3-5 cm of compost to beds every year, keep soil covered (mulch or
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living plants), and disturb it as little as possible. Organic matter feeds
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soil life, holds water in sand, opens drainage in clay, and buffers pH.
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Signs of trouble: water pooling (drainage/compaction), white crust
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(salts/over-fertilizing), plants yellowing from the bottom up (nitrogen
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hunger — compost, manure tea, or organic nitrogen fixes it). A simple jar
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test (shake soil in water, let it settle in layers) reveals your
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sand/silt/clay balance; a cheap pH kit tells you if you're far from the
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happy 6.0-7.0 range (add lime to acidic soil, sulfur or lots of organic
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matter to alkaline — slowly, over seasons).
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## Compost: the engine
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Everything the garden and kitchen discards becomes next year's fertility.
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Recipe: roughly 2-3 parts "browns" (dry leaves, straw, cardboard, wood
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shavings) to 1 part "greens" (kitchen scraps, fresh grass, manure from
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herbivores), kept as moist as a wrung sponge, turned occasionally. Hot,
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active piles finish in months; lazy cold piles in a year. Avoid meat,
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dairy, oils, diseased plants, and dog/cat waste. No space? Trench
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composting (bury scraps directly in beds) and worm bins work at apartment
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scale.
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## Watering wisdom
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Deep and infrequent beats shallow and daily: soak the root zone (the top
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15-20 cm), then let the surface dry — roots follow water downward and the
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plant gains drought resilience. Water soil, not leaves; morning is best.
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Mulch (straw, leaves, grass clippings, wood chips on paths) cuts water
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needs dramatically and suppresses weeds. Rain barrels under downspouts
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bank free water — see the water chapter for catchment math — and drip
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lines or a sunken clay pot (olla) deliver it with near-zero waste.
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## Spacing, succession, interplanting
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Follow packet spacing — crowded plants yield less than fewer, properly
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spaced ones. Succession sowing keeps harvests coming: a short row of
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lettuce, radish, or beans every 2-3 weeks instead of one glut. Fast crops
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tuck between slow ones (radishes among carrots, lettuce under young
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tomatoes). Rotate plant families between beds year to year (nightshades,
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brassicas, legumes, alliums, cucurbits) to starve soil diseases and pests
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of their hosts; legumes (beans, peas) leave nitrogen behind them.
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## The survival garden: calories and keepers
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Salad won't feed you through winter. Calorie and storage backbone for a
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self-reliance garden, especially in cold climates: potatoes (the top
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calories-per-square-metre crop for most gardeners), winter squash, dry
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beans, cabbage, root vegetables (carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips —
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parsnips sweeten after frost), onions and garlic, kale (survives hard
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frost and keeps producing). Add fast greens and herbs for vitamins and
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morale. Garlic is planted in autumn; potatoes from certified or saved seed
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potatoes in spring, hilled as they grow. A modest 50 m² managed well can
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supply a meaningful share of a household's winter vegetables.
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## Season extension and cold climates
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Each layer of protection buys roughly one climate zone: row cover fabric
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over hoops (also a superb insect barrier), cold frames, low tunnels,
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unheated greenhouses/polytunnels. Cold-hardy champions for autumn and
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overwintering: spinach, mâche, kale, leeks, chard. In short northern
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summers choose early varieties (days-to-maturity on the packet), start
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transplants indoors, use dark mulch or fabric to warm soil, and favor the
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protected, sun-trapping microclimates against south-facing walls.
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## Pests and diseases, organically
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Healthy soil and airflow prevent most problems. The escalation ladder:
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identify first (many insects are allies — ladybugs, ground beetles, bees);
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hand-pick and hose off; barriers (row cover, collars against cutworms,
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netting against birds and moths); traps (beer for slugs, yellow sticky
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cards); then targeted organic controls (insecticidal soap and oils for
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soft-bodied pests, Bt for caterpillars) applied in the evening to spare
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pollinators. Diseases: water the soil not the foliage, space for airflow,
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remove infected material (bin, don't compost), rotate families. Slugs in
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wet climates: evening patrols, boards as day-shelters to check, copper
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edges, and iron-phosphate pellets rated for organic use.
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