Growing vegetables: cultivation
Vegetable Garden Tips
In winter, harvest your vegetables before the weather gets too cold. Or, use season extenders such as floating row covers or cold frames to keep the plants growing late into the season.
Renee’s Garden writes about a Three Sisters Garden, in which corn, beans, and squash are grown as companion plants. A very old concept, from native American legacy, this is a plan I want to put in my vegetable garden again. A garden seed company, Renee’s has a convenient Three Sisters Package of seeds.
Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb. Beans fix nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of the plot by providing nitrogen to the following years’ corn. Bean vines also help stabilize the corn plants, making them less vulnerable to blowing over in the wind. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating, thereby improving the overall crops’ chances of survival in dry years. Spiny squash plants also help discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans. ~Renee’s Garden
A companion plant cheatsheet, or a good book on companion planting, the classic “Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening
cute but destructive
Good soil produces good vegetables. Add lime to most soils, vegetable plants generally like a sweet soil. Add blood, fish, and bone meal, seaweed,well-rotted manures. Read more in:
Got voles? I chased mine away by spreading used clay cat litter (lumps removed) over clump and around it. It worked. -Ken Druse advice
Some people try castor oil granules as repellent for rodents.
If you have small circular holes in your garden ground it is a likely sign of voles.
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