PREPARING THE SOIL
Unless your garden is a very small one, it will pay to have a rototiller or to have it plowed rather than dig it up by hand. If large enough to make it necessary, arrange the surrounding fence to make possible the use of a tractor for plowing and tilling. If there is not room for a tractor, the rototiller can do the work in very small spaces.
If however the breaking up of the garden must be done by hand, have it done deeply--down to the sub-soil, or as deep as the spading-fork will go. And have it done thoroughly, every spadeful turned completely and every inch dug. It is hard work, but it must not be slighted.
PLOWING
If the garden can be plowed in the fall, by all means have it done. If it is in sod, it must be done at that time if good results are to be secured the following season. In this latter case, plow a shallow furrow four to six inches deep and turning flat, as early as possible in the fall, turning under a coating of horse manure, or dressing of lime, and then going over it with a smoothing-harrow to fill in all crevices. The object of the plowing is to get the sods rotted thoroughly before the
following spring; then apply manure and plow deeply, six to twelve inches, according to the soil.
Where the old garden is to be plowed up, if there has not been time to get in one of the cover crops suggested elsewhere in this text, plow as late as possible, and in ridges. If the soil is light and sandy, fall plowing will not be advisable.
In beginning the spring work it is customary to put on the manure and plow only once. But the labor of double plowing will be well repaid, especially on a soil likely to suffer from drought, if the ground is plowed once, deeply, before the manure is spread on, and then cross-plowed just sufficiently to turn the manure well under--say five or six inches. On stiff lands, and especially for root crops, it will pay if possible to have the sub-soil plow follow the regular plow. This is, of course, for thoroughly rotted and fined manure; if coarse, it had better be put under at one plowing, making the best of a handicap. If you have arranged to have your garden plowed "by the job," be on hand to see that no shirking is done, by taking furrows wider than the plow can turn completely; it is possible to "cut and cover" so that the surface of a piece will look well enough, when in reality it is little better than half plowed.
TILLING
That is the first step toward the preparation of a successful garden out of the way. Next comes the tilling; if the soil after plowing is at all stiff and lumpy, get a rototiller or hand cultivator and go over the soil until it is no longer lumpy. If, even after tilling, the soil remains lumpy, get a roller somewhere, ( you can rent on at a hardware or rental store and go over the piece with that. The roller should be used also on very sandy and light soils, after the first tilling (or after the plowing, if the land turns over mellow) to compact it.
FINING.
This treatment will reduce to a minimum the labor of finally preparing the seed- or plant-bed with the iron rake . After the finishing touches, the soil should be left so even and smooth that you can with difficulty bring yourself to step on it. Get it "like a table"--and then you are ready to begin gardening.
Whatever implements are used, do not forget the great importance of making the soil thoroughly fine, not only at the surface, but as far as possible below Even under the necessity of repetition. I want to emphasize this again by stating the four chief benefits, of this thorough pulverization: First, it adds materially in making the plant foods in the soil available for use; secondly, it induces the growing plants to root deeply, and thus to a greater extent to escape the drying influence of the sun; thirdly, it enables the soil to absorb rain evenly, where it falls, which would otherwise either run off and be lost altogether, or collect in the lower parts of the garden; and last, and most important, it enables the soil to retain moisture thus stored, as in a subterranean storage tank, but where the plants can draw upon it, long after carelessly prepared and shallow soils are burning up in the long protracted vermouths which we seem to be increasingly certain of getting during the late summer.
Prepare your garden deeply, thoroughly, carefully, in addition to making it rich, and you may then turn to those more interesting operations outlined in the succeeding sections, with the well founded assurance that your thought and labor will be rewarded by a garden so remarkably more successful than the average garden is, that all your extra pains-taking will be richly repaid.
PREPARING THE SOIL
Unless your garden is a very small one, it will pay to have a rototiller or to have it plowed rather than dig it up by hand. If large enough to make it necessary, arrange the surrounding fence to make possible the use of a tractor for plowing and tilling. If there is not room for a tractor, the rototiller can do the work in very small spaces.
If however the breaking up of the garden must be done by hand, have it done deeply--down to the sub-soil, or as deep as the spading-fork will go. And have it done thoroughly, every spadeful turned completely and every inch dug. It is hard work, but it must not be slighted.
PLOWING
If the garden can be plowed in the fall, by all means have it done. If it is in sod, it must be done at that time if good results are to be secured the following season. In this latter case, plow a shallow furrow four to six inches deep and turning flat, as early as possible in the fall, turning under a coating of horse manure, or dressing of lime, and then going over it with a smoothing-harrow to fill in all crevices. The object of the plowing is to get the sods rotted thoroughly before the
following spring; then apply manure and plow deeply, six to twelve inches, according to the soil.
Where the old garden is to be plowed up, if there has not been time to get in one of the cover crops suggested elsewhere in this text, plow as late as possible, and in ridges. If the soil is light and sandy, fall plowing will not be advisable.
In beginning the spring work it is customary to put on the manure and plow only once. But the labor of double plowing will be well repaid, especially on a soil likely to suffer from drought, if the ground is plowed once, deeply, before the manure is spread on, and then cross-plowed just sufficiently to turn the manure well under--say five or six inches. On stiff lands, and especially for root crops, it will pay if possible to have the sub-soil plow follow the regular plow. This is, of course, for thoroughly rotted and fined manure; if coarse, it had better be put under at one plowing, making the best of a handicap. If you have arranged to have your garden plowed "by the job," be on hand to see that no shirking is done, by taking furrows wider than the plow can turn completely; it is possible to "cut and cover" so that the surface of a piece will look well enough, when in reality it is little better than half plowed.
TILLING
That is the first step toward the preparation of a successful garden out of the way. Next comes the tilling; if the soil after plowing is at all stiff and lumpy, get a rototiller or hand cultivator and go over the soil until it is no longer lumpy. If, even after tilling, the soil remains lumpy, get a roller somewhere, ( you can rent on at a hardware or rental store and go over the piece with that. The roller should be used also on very sandy and light soils, after the first tilling (or after the plowing, if the land turns over mellow) to compact it.
FINING.
This treatment will reduce to a minimum the labor of finally preparing the seed- or plant-bed with the iron rake . After the finishing touches, the soil should be left so even and smooth that you can with difficulty bring yourself to step on it. Get it "like a table"--and then you are ready to begin gardening.
Whatever implements are used, do not forget the great importance of making the soil thoroughly fine, not only at the surface, but as far as possible below Even under the necessity of repetition. I want to emphasize this again by stating the four chief benefits, of this thorough pulverization: First, it adds materially in making the plant foods in the soil available for use; secondly, it induces the growing plants to root deeply, and thus to a greater extent to escape the drying influence of the sun; thirdly, it enables the soil to absorb rain evenly, where it falls, which would otherwise either run off and be lost altogether, or collect in the lower parts of the garden; and last, and most important, it enables the soil to retain moisture thus stored, as in a subterranean storage tank, but where the plants can draw upon it, long after carelessly prepared and shallow soils are burning up in the long protracted vermouths which we seem to be increasingly certain of getting during the late summer.
Prepare your garden deeply, thoroughly, carefully, in addition to making it rich, and you may then turn to those more interesting operations outlined in the succeeding sections, with the well founded assurance that your thought and labor will be rewarded by a garden so remarkably more successful than the average garden is, that all your extra pains-taking will be richly repaid.
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