Original Advice For The Gardener. Part 5

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

And one more series of good, and most importantly, original advice for the gardener. This time, the information will contain a number of short notes on garden and vegetable garden care in spring, as well as recommendations on how to improve the condition of clay soil, and a proposal to carry out some summer cottage work in winter. We will start, perhaps, with them

Summer work in winter

We want to remind you that in winter there is something to do on the site for a successful summer resident. So, have you come to your garden plot for winter barbecues? Then don't forget at the same time:

• trample the snow around fruit and ornamental trees so that rodents (especially eared ones) do not get to them;

• check the binding and shelter of garden trees for the winter, whether everything is in order with them;

• against hares, coat tree trunks with carbolic acid or tar;

• renew the whitewashing of trees to protect them from frostbite, cracks in the bark;

• sprinkle under ornamental bushes and garden trees at the foot of the snow, if there is little snow this year, and especially for plants that do not tolerate frost (for example, cherries, sweet cherries);

• shake off snow from tree branches, from the roof of a country house, utility rooms, if there is a lot of it;

• update the poison for rodents, spread out in the house and on the site;

• feed and welcome birds, for example, with hanging pieces of bacon, so that by spring they gain strength and protect the garden from pests.

How to renew and improve clay soil?

Alas, plants grow poorly on highly clayey soil. Moreover, they practically do not grow on it, since plants on such soil do not have access to oxygen, it is difficult for them to break free through a dense heavy clay crust.

Test the clay soil in your area. To do this, rub some of the wet soil from it in your hands. If you managed to mold pellets of any shape from a piece of soil, like from plasticine, and rusty spots remain on your hand, then you are the owner of clay soil on the site.

Such land is difficult to cultivate. It cracks in the heat, then it sticks to the shovel in the rain, gets stuck, dries for a long time after the rains. But not everything is as bad as it seems at first glance. A number of attempts can be made to improve the condition of clay soil, dry it and make it looser. There are several ways to do this, and the more you use them, the better the result will be.

Method 1. Plant trees on the site that absorb moisture well from it. It can be ash, poplar, and alder. The method is good, but questionable, as it will give results in a few years, when the tree grows and gains strength.

Method 2. Make drainage at the summer cottage and form it (the site) correctly. A dwelling house, a country house should be built higher, or rather at the highest point of the site, so that the foundation of the buildings does not deteriorate. At the end of the site, you need to make a hole for the drainage of rain, melt water. It is advisable to make the entire plot of land in the form of a slope to this pit, so that excess water constantly flows from it to it.

Method 3. To improve the structure of clay soil, it is necessary to constantly add peat, compost, sand, humus, manure (it is better to add it in the fall), tree bark, sawdust. Such loosening agents are laid out on the ground in a layer or two, then dug up with a plow, pitchfork or a baking powder for the earth.

Method 4. Plant green fertilizers on the site in the form of, for example, lupine, add another fertilizer - nitrogen for each sq. M. 60 grams once a season.

Well, in conclusion, let us remind you of the types of garden plants that tolerate well and even love clay soil. We are talking about:

• Kalina

• jasmine

• blackthorn

• irge

• hazel

• yew

• pine

• swamp cypress

• iris (swamp)

• marigold (marsh)

• tatarnik

• chrysanthemums (large) and other lovers of moisture-retaining clay soil.

We will put the site in order in the spring

Spring is the most important time for the garden and vegetable garden. What should the summer resident not forget during this period? Let's list the "reminders". Of course, not all of them. But, perhaps, some will definitely come in handy in your spring summer cottage chores.

• Replace the vegetable and strawberry plantings on the site every four years.

• Do not plant potatoes in an apple orchard. Such a neighborhood will accumulate toxins in the ground and apples will not be born.

• Rowan and pear can be planted together, side by side. These trees ennoble each other.

• Plant geraniums next to raspberries and currants. It will scare off aphids well on berry crops.

• Plant the raspberries next to the apple tree. Such a neighborhood will be pleasant to both - rid the raspberries from powdery mildew, and the apple tree from scab.

• Do not plant fir, lilac, rose, barberry, acacia near fruit trees - they will inhibit their growth and fruit development on them.

Original advice for the gardener. Part 1

Original advice for the gardener. Part 2