Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
Practical advice on growing food and flowers, improving soil, and making the most of small spaces. Start anywhere — the garden will meet you.
In general, legumes are more valuable as cover and green manure crops than non-leguminous plants, because as a rule they are more rank growers and more deeply rooted, as well as because they add nitro...
The common tillage practice in the sections where it is most followed is to plow either in late fall or as early as possible in the spring. Whether fall or spring plowing is best depends on two things...
There are two general types of picking ladders, the rung and the step ladders. For large trees the rung ladders are the best. They may be obtained in lengths to suit the height of the tree. Lengths of...
The question of intercropping a young orchard is one to be carefully considered. As it is often practiced it is very injurious to the orchard, but it is possible to manage crops so as to be of very li...
It is a common saying among farmers who have grown apples on their farms for many years that there are many more pests to fight than there used to be. How often we have heard a farmer tell of the perf...
Of the many insects which affect either the tree or the fruit of the apple, the nine selected probably inflict the most damage and are the most difficult to control of all those in the Northeastern St...
Having given the reader an idea of the probable cost of bringing an orchard to bearing age, it may be well also to give the cost of producing apples in a mature apple orchard. Our bearing apple orchar...
The general method of pruning the old trees and the ideal in mind for it will also influence the pruning of the young tree, especially the shaping of it. Once determined upon, the ideal should be cons...
Another method of arrangement of the trees which is becoming more and more popular is the hexagonal or triangular system. More trees can be planted on an acre by this plan than by any other, it being...
Moreover, it should be further noted that this falling off in the apple crop has been in the face of the heaviest plantings ever known in this country. During the last ten years old fruit growing regi...
Apples are practically never allowed to ripen on the trees but are picked and shipped green. By "green" we mean not fully ripe, not ripe enough to eat out of hand. This is necessary for all fruit whic...
The old custom of picking and laying on the ground in the orchard is a poor one and should not be followed, as it causes unnecessary handling and bruising. Moreover, fruit should be packed and hauled...