Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
Everything you need to plant, prune and harvest apples in a home orchard, from rootstock choice to variety selection.
Pruning is not an entirely artificial operation as one might at first thought suppose. It is one of nature's most common processes. Nature accomplishes this result through the principle of competition...
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...
When there is an abundance of food and conditions are otherwise favorable, any animal or plant will thrive better than when the food supply is scarce and conditions unfavorable. As long as apple trees...
With these fundamental principles in mind we may safely outline a method of pruning an apple tree. As the desired end is different so will the method of pruning a young tree differ from that of an old...
The method of setting or the arrangement of the trees will greatly influence the number of trees which may be put upon an acre and the distance apart of the trees in the row. The most common method in...
The ordinary sod culture which is practiced in so many orchards should not be confused with the sod mulch system. The one is a system of neglect, the other of intention. In the sod mulch system the gr...
In general, the apple prefers a rather strong soil, neither very heavy nor very light. Subsoil is rather more important than surface soil, although the latter should be friable and easily worked. The...
But one rule as to where to buy trees can be laid down. Buy where you can secure the best trees and where you can be sure of the most reliable and honest dealers. Beware of the tree agent, who has bee...
Having decided that under certain conditions the planting of an apple orchard will prove a profitable venture, and having ascertained that those conditions prevail on your farm, the next step will be...