Organic Matter

If you find you have a problem soil, the best conditioner you can get is organic matter, such as compost, peatmoss, sawdust, leaves, rotted dead weeds and plants removed in cleaning up the yard (avoid any diseased materials). Lawn clippings, wood chips, kitchen scraps, barnyard manures, and green manures which include crops such as winter rye, buckwheat and legumes are turned under to rot in the soil. Humus opens the clay and encourages earthworms to be more active helpers. The earthworms in a single acre of ground may pass more than 10 tons of dry earth through their bodies annually. They mix organic matter with the subsoil. They also build up topsoil and their burrows aerate the earth.

Don't add sand to a claylike soil to loosen it. The result may be a concrete-like mixture harder than the original clay. Limestone has a loosening effect on a heavy clay soil, coagulating the fine particles into larger ones, allowing air and water to pass freely. Ground limestone or dolomitic limestone can be used. Ground limestone is less expensive and is easy to apply. Dolomitic lime has 20 to 30 percent magnesium, plus 30 to 50 percent calcium, and is available in both hydrated and ground stone types. Since magnesium is another element needed for plant growth, many prefer dolomitic limestone.

Any form of lime can be used, but remember the more concentrated forms such as the hydrated or burned lime forms should be used in lesser amounts. The big problem most gardeners run into is using the 3 forms in equivalent amounts. Roughly speaking, 100 pounds of ground limestone is equal in action to about 74 pounds of hydrated lime or 56 pounds of burned lime.

Fertilizer: A good well rotted compost pile is a valuable adjunct for any gardener. We have already mentioned how it breaks up a heavy soil. It also adds nutrients to some degree but it cannot be counted on to feed vegetables all the necessary nutrients. Any balanced fertilizer with the big three (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash) can be added to the garden in fall or spring before you plow. Many gardeners use a liquid plant food, usually applied at planting time and again two or three times during the growing season. If a regular dry fertilizer is applied for a mid-summer snack, take care that it doesn't touch the plants. It can be applied as a side dressing a few inches away so that it can be washed into the soil near the roots, but if it touches the plant in the dry state it will burn plant tissues.

Many slow release fertilizers on the market can be applied at planting time, and because of the rosin cover over each particle they will be released at intervals during the growing season.

Pesticides: Don't douse your vegetables with sprays or dusts so thickly that it takes many washings to get them clean enough to eat. Most small gardens are easily de-bugged by handpicking each day. Vigilance is the watchword. A few minutes each day checking your vegetables will usually be all that's needed to keep out bad bugs.

Remember that only 10 percent of all bugs are bad. Our natural predators, including beneficial insects, birds, frogs and toads will eliminate most pests if we don't kill them off with sprays. However, should an infestation get the best of you, check it with the latest control methods recommended by your county Extension agent, State university, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Crop Rotation: Farmers for centuries have found it good business to shift their crops around each year. Home gardeners cannot rotate their crops that easily because of limited space. But with careful planning, you can maintain a certain amount of rotation. Some diseases such as root knot, clubroot, fusarium wilt, and cabbage yellows will build up in the soil if one crop is planted in the same spot year after year. Another advantage of shifting crops around into different spaces is that vegetables such as peas or beans are legumes and can take nitrogen out of the air and put it into the soil.

Corn is a gross feeder and takes a large quantity of nutrients from the soil. However, you might have to compensate for this deficiency by extra feeding, since corn plantings may need to occupy the same area year after year since they might shade shorter vegetables if moved to a different location.

Radishes, cabbage, tomatoes or lettuce can easily be rotated with beans and peas, alternating their locations each year.

Many disease problems can be prevented by practicing good sanitation. Plant parasites often overwinter in refuse from last year's crops. Pulling vines, stalks and overripe fruits is an effective way to control plant diseases and bacteria. If these parts of plants show any disease they should not be put on the compost pile but sealed in plastic bags and sent to the disposal.

Planting calendar helps in working out succession planting schedule for garden.