Gardening Made Easy

Water Logged Soil

2009-10-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Plants will not grow successfully in soil that is continually water logged. In water logged soils, space fills with water leaving no room for air which is necessary for proper root growth. Plants are selected to provide a succession of bloom from early spring through the first killing frost. Each is located in a setting similar to its natural habitat: woodland, wetland, flood plain or meadow. Plants selected for this garden should be able to tolerate inundation for a more extended period of time. However, as in the case of the underdrained rain garden, the surface is drained within four hours, although the soil may be saturated.

Choosing your size

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When deciding how big you want your garden to be, figure out what you want to grow first as some things take up more space than others. A basic vegetable garden is about 10 feet by 16 feet. A garden this big will be able to feed a family of four for about one summer and still have a little left over.

If you are growing extra be sure you have containers to put them so that they do not go bad. Or you may want to give some to your neighbor, a little friendliness goes a long way. Some vegetables that may produce more than one crop a season are cabbage, lettuce, beans, carrots, radishes, turnips, spinach and rutabagas. If you are planning on producing other crops than these, be sure to check the days to maturity on the seed packs or in the seed catalog.

You will want to run your crop rows north to south as to get full advantage of the sun. For a 10 x 16 Feet garden make your garden eleven rows of 10 feet of each of the following:

Peppers - 6 plants
Radish - 6 Plants
Tomatoes - 5 Plants
Zucchini Squash - 4 Plants
Lettuce - 6 Plants
Cabbage - 6 Plants
Bush Beans - 6 Plants
Chard - 6 Plants
Beets - 6 Plants
Carrots - 6 Plants

Be sure you leave one and 1/2 feet between your bush beans and lettuce. One foot between everything else.

Garden Pests

2009-07-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

A garden pest is generally an insect, plant, or animal that engages in activity that the gardener considers undesirable. It may crowd out desirable plants, disturb soil, eat young seedlings, steal fruit, or otherwise kill plants, hamper their growth, damage their appearance, or reduce the quality of the edible or ornamental portions of the plant.

Because each gardener may have different goals, a garden pest is what the gardener considers a pest. For example, Tropaeolum speciosum, while beautiful, can be considered a pest if it seeds and starts to grow where it is not wanted. As the root is well below ground, pulling it up does not remove it: it simply grows again and becomes what may be considered a pest.

As another example, in lawns, moss can become dominant and be impossible to eradicate. In some lawns, lichens, especially very damp lawn lichens such as Peltigera lactucfolia and P. membranacea, can become difficult and be considered pests.

There are many ways to remove unwanted pests from a garden. The techniques vary depending on the pest, the gardener's goals, and the gardener's philosophy. For example, snails may be dealt with through a chemical pesticide, an organic pesticide, hand-picking, barriers, or simply growing snail-resistant plants.