Independent gardening advice for real gardens, balconies and windowsills.
Practical guides on soil, composting, watering, seeds, pests and the everyday skills that make a garden thrive.
The seed-bed, as it is called, is the surface prepared to receive the seed, whether for a patch of radishes or an acre of onions. For crops to be sown directly where they are to go, the chapter on Pre...
I describe the three systems most valuable for the home garden: (1) the hill, (2) the matted row, and (3) the pot-layered. (1) In the hill system the plants are put in single rows, or in beds of three...
_Sowing date:_ As soon as they'll germinate outdoors: at Elkton, May 15 to June 1. Thin to a single plant per hill when there are about three true leaves and the vines are beginning to run. _Spacing:_...
For the first years that I experimented with dry gardening I went overboard and attempted to grow food as though I had no running water at all. The greatest difficulty caused by this self-imposed hand...
Unwatered spring-sown bulbing onions are impossible. Leek is the only allium I know of that may grow steadily but slowly through severe drought; the water-short gardener can depend on leeks for a fall...
Under leaf crops are considered also those of which the stalk or the flower heads form the edible portion, such as celery and cauliflower. Asparagus Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Cauliflower Celery Endive...
To a very small extent garden vegetables get their food from the air. The amount obtained in this way however, is so infinitesimal that from the practical standpoint it need not be considered at all....
Spring-sown market kohlrabi are usually harvested before hot weather makes them get woody. Irrigation is not required if they're given a little extra elbow room. With ordinary varieties, try thinning...
1.--_Covered boxes:_--These are usually made of half-inch stuff, about eight inches high and covered with mosquito netting, wire or "protecting cloth"--the latter having the extra advantage of holding...