New Vegetable Garden Techniques

Essential skills and projects for tastier, healthier crops

Joyce Russell

• Publisher: Frances Lincoln
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781781318461
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Orticoltura

This book is ideal for beginners, improvers and those serious about growing tasty, healthy organic fruit and vegetables. It will empower readers to grow food for a family, and help work out how to get the best results. Many books give sowing and growing instructions for a multitude of crops, but few give space to the techniques and tips that make gardening easier and that help anyone to grow healthy, sustainable food.
Some of the techniques are developed from Joyce's own trials and observations; others are classic techniques that are still useful now. With a bit more detail, and a step-by-step project, a technique becomes much easier to follow and understand.
There's something here for everyone: whether you grow in a small back yard and want to know how to raise salad in buckets, or if you have a large allotment where you want to improve pollination, or make your own liquid feeds.
The book makes severalpromises to its readers. Firstly, by following its advice you will grow great fruit and vegetables. Next, the knowledge you gain will save you time as well as money. Third, you'll enjoy the gardening journey and the discoveries made along the way.Fourth, you'll find greener and cleaner ways of doing things, and you'll improve your skills, methods and habits.
Find out how to rotate your vegetables so they stay healthy and well-fed, to preserve choice crops for the freshest taste, to improve the soil organically and sustainably, and to produce home made fertiliser from the leaves of your comfrey crop.

2 BETTER SOIL

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR SOIL

Success in any productive garden often comes down to the soil. Understanding what type you have, its benefits and limitations, and how to improve it, will allow you to get the most from your plot.

Down to earth

Rich, crumbly soils generally produce strong, healthy crops, while those deficient in nutrients or full of stones will be less productive. Too much of a good thing can be a problem too. For example, if your soil has a high concentration of nitrogen, which bolsters green leafy growth, you may end up with tomato plants with strong, healthy foliage but few fruits.

It is also important to identify your soil type, as this will determine what will grow well in your garden. Follow the advice in the box opposite to test yours and identify its benefits and drawbacks.

Also check whether your soil is acidic, alkaline, or neutral (see here) as this also has an impact on what will grow well.

Whatever your soil type, it can always be improved.

Keys to a good soil

While your soil may not be perfect, there are myriad ways to improve it, and even new, uncultivated plots can grow great crops. Some new gardens may even be more productive than those that have been heavily used because soil often starts out with a really good texture and balance of nutrients and minerals. Each crop then takes some of this goodness from the land and, if it is not replenished, the soil becomes a little more impoverished with each year that passes.

The answer is to keep adding to the soil to provide the right balance of nutrients and the drainage that each new crop needs. It may take time to build up a fertile, healthy soil and it can involve a little work, but it’s always possible to improve your plot.

There are some simple techniques that can make a big difference, such as digging in compost and choosing the right manure. Some great soil improvers are free, too, and you can use these local resources to make a real difference. Wood ash, leaves, seaweed and cold tea, for example, will all help to improve your soil conditions. This chapter describes these and many other ways to create a rich and fertile soil.

Add potassium and make soil more alkaline with some wood ash.

IDENTIFYING YOUR SOIL TEXTURE

The simplest way to find out about your soil is to ask gardeners that live nearby what they have. There can be variations within areas, depending on topography, but plots on a large flat area of allotments, or along a level road, will usually have the same soil type.

Another good way to identify your soil texture is to feel it. Rub a plum-sized sample of damp soil between your fingers. A good, free-draining loam should crumble and barely stick together, even when squeezed. This dark-coloured mix of organic material, sand, silt, and clay, is what you aim for in a good garden bed. Few garden soils start out like this, however, and the feel test can be used along with other indicators, to reveal different soil types.

Sandy soil

This type of soil feels gritty when rubbed between fingers and usually contains no l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• 23 Projects to try
• Getting Started
• Better Soil
• Better Produce
• Better Harvest
• Glossary
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• Copyright