Which Hoe

  There are various tools that can be used for the purpose  of growing your crop. 

For working close to young plants I find the small hand weeders are best, while in between the rows a hoe should be used. 

These are of three types: The scuffle-hoe, which is pushed through the soil just underneath the surface, the operator walking backward. This is a handy tool for small gardens if the soil is not too hard, and its use gives the advantage of it not being necessary to walk on the loosened soil.

The ordinary draw-hoe is used with a chopping motion and the operator walks forward over the loosened soil. It is a good tool for getting rid of weeds, and is better than the preceding for use in hard or stony ground.

If you have long rows you will many forms of wheel-hoes which enable the work of hoeing to be done very expeditiously. They are pushed forward with a jerky motion, one step at a time, pulling the implement toward you before making the forward thrust, thus gaining momentum before the teeth enter the ground. Do not attempt to push a wheel-hoe in the same way that you would a pram—it is too much like hard work.

Start cultivating

 When your young plants appear above the soil it is time to start cultivating. First thing brake up your soil to stop a surface crust forming.

This must be done to allow the air to get into the soil, which is necessary for the roots of the plants to get at the plant food. This action will also help keep down the weeds and, most important of all, it helps to conserve the moisture in the soil.

If you have had anything to do with the cultivation of the soil, you will have noticed that when its surface is stirred up after a rain it quickly dries out. It will also have been noticed that, if any one has walked over this soil just after it has been stirred up, the soil in the footprints remains moist.

Why is this? It is simply that capillary action has been broken by the loosening of the surface, and the soil-water rises to the loosened soil and no farther. On the other hand, capillary action has been restored in those places where the soil has been compacted by walking on it, and the surface here is moist because moisture is continually being supplied from the store below. This moisture just as continually evaporates during dry weather and is lost as far as the plant roots are concerned.

Breaking up the surface soil provides a dust mulch or soil blanket which shades the moist soil below from the sun’s rays, and in a large measure prevents evaporation. Therefore, after every rain, just as soon as the soil has dried out sufficiently so that it does not stick to the tool used, the surface should be cultivated.

Transplant Your Plants

 Although it is possible to raise these transplanted crops with nothing else then your home home, it is not worth while when only a few plants are required. 

Young plants of tomato, egg-plant, pepper, and cabbage can be obtained at a small from growers who make a business of raising them that it does not pay to bother with raising them yourself.

Keep an eye  on the weather conditions when you are transplanting because your plants will feel a check if there is a chill in the air.

 The soil should be moist, but not so wet as to be sticky. The hole for the plant made with a trowel. Make it large enough so that the roots may be spread out and then press the earth gently but firmly around them. 

If the soil is dry leave a shallow depression around the stem of each plant to facilitate watering. Sufficient water should be applied to soak the ground for a depth of six inches or more, and when it has drained away from the surface, the depression may be filled with loose dry earth to prevent the moisture escaping by evaporation.

If for any reason it is necessary to do the work of transplanting on a dry, sunny day, the young plants should be shaded. This can be done by covering them with inverted flower-pots, or with newspapers weighted at the corners with stones to keep them from blowing away, or a shingle or thin piece of board may be stuck in the ground on the sunny side so that its shadow falls on the plant.

In most cases, unless they are grown in earthen or paper pots, the root system of the plants is injured in transplanting. In order to restore the balance between root and shoot it is  a good idea , to cut off part of the leaves. 

If the whole of the leaves are left on the plant they wilt and sometimes die because the reduced number of roots is unable to supply their demands for moisture.

Transplant Your Young Plants

 After the seeds are planted we are enabled to sit back and have a breathing-spell until the young plants appear, when it is necessary to proceed with thinning and cultivating.

It is the common practice, in connection with some crops, not to plant the seeds directly where they are to mature, but to sow them elsewhere at first and to transplant the young plants to their permanent quarters later.

It is best to do this when the growing-season is not long enough to get best results from such tropical plants as tomato, egg-plant and pepper if the seeds are sown outside. 

A longer growing-season is best for these plants by raising them in a greenhouse in a pot, and then transplanting them to the bed when the soil has warmed up and danger of frost is over.

Cabbage is transplanted for the reason that if the seed was sown directly in the field it would be necessary to plant much more seed than was actually needed, and because the soil can be profitably occupied with another crop while the young cabbage plants are reaching a sizeable condition. Early cabbage is also sown in a greenhouse or cold-frame in order to quicken the time of maturity.

Sowing Seeds Outdoors

  Seeds that are sownen out doors are exposed to a number of checks that are not there with indoor conditions.

Before you sow any seeds out on the land the soil must be in the right condition. That is the soil must not be so wet that it sticks to the tools and the surface must be as fine as you can get it.

There are three ways of sowing out doors: Broadcast, Drills, and Hills. 

Broadcast is sowing the seeds over the soil by hand and then raking them over....not very handy if you only have a small garden.

Seeds planted in hills means they are sown in such a way that the resultant plants are in groups of three or more standing the same distance in the rows as the distance between the rows.  

Sowing in drills is made up of  of shallow trenches, or just a line in the soil from one-half inch to two inches deep, and you sow your seeds in the soil and cover the seeds over with soil or compost. When the young plants come up you thin them out so that they are an equal distance apart from each other. This method will give you straight rows and a tidyer looking bed, which will make it easyer to hoe for weeding. The seeds shoud be sowen straight after making the drill before the soil has a chance to dry out.

Do not sow too many seeds as you sow, because not only is it wasteful but in will result in extra work in thinning out the crop.

 Make sure the soil is firm. If you are sowing large seeds like beans or peas you can place them where you want the crop to grow.

 To compact the soil, use the back of a rake along the row, you do this to make sure that the seeds and the soil are in contact with each other. Doing so, also ensures that the moisture is drawn up to the surface and so setting off the “ growing prcess “

After this, it is just a question of sitting back and wacthing.

Testing Your Seeds

 First, off, do not rush it. Just because the BBC says it is spring, does not mean that it is time to sow seeds.

Watch your grass, is it tuning a brighter green? 

Are birds nesting?

Garden centres make a lot of money selling plants and seeds at Easter, only to resale at Whitson because the Easter plants have been killed off in the frost.

When you look in your seed box, remember that, almost all  seeds, with the exception of carrot, onion, parsnip, and parsley, will grow fairly  well even if they are more than one year old, so that left-overs from the preceding year may be planted with good results. I never sow seeds that are three years and over, because what you lose is time when they do not germinate very well, if at-all.

If you look around on the internet you will be able to find seed that are cheap enough. I never pay more than 99 pence for a packet of 500 seeds. I use a company called  :https://www.seedparade.co.uk/. 

They post the seeds off the same day.

If you want to test your seeds before you throw them out, you will find it quite easy to do. 

Count out fifty  of the seeds, and sow them in a small box of sand . Put them in a fairly warm room (temperature about 60° Fahr.) keep the soil moist but not too wet. In a week or ten days, make a note of the number which have sprouted, this will give you the percentage of good seeds and some idea of the quantity you will have to sow in order to get a good crop. For example, if only 50 per cent of the seeds germinate it means that you will be need to sow double the seed to make sure of having a enough plants to have a good crop. 

A quicker way of testing seeds is to count out 50 seeds on a damp cloth  with s plate over them to make sure that it does not dry out, leave for a week to ten days ( making sure the cloth is kept damp ((  use a hand held sprayer ))) then count how many germinate.

Neither of these methods of testing  your seeds will give you an absolutely accurate trace of what will take place when they are sown in the garden, because seeds sown outside are open to many more risk than indoor sowing.

That is why I never sow seeds into the soil. I always sow in to a “plug” and transplant into the ground. I get better plants and can also have more growing time.

The Value of Foods

  Those who are interested in dietetics, may wish to choose their vegetables on the basis of their food value.

 In terms of the calorie, the unit of energy as applied to food, it has been found that 1 ounce of dried beans (seeds) and 8 ounces of string-beans are required to produce a hundred calories. 

Of green maize 3.2 ounces are needed; 

Of potatoes, 5.3 ounces;

 Of onions, 8 ounces; 

Of beets, 9.6 ounces; 

Of cabbage, 13.3 ounces; 

At the end of the list comes celery, of which 23.7 ounces are required to produce a hundred calories. 

It is misleading, however, to take a list of vegetables with their caloric values and decide, that because 6.4 ounces of peas contain one hundred calories, while it is necessary to have 10.1 ounces of carrots to produce the same amount, nothing but peas shall be grown in the garden. 

The proper basis on which to make a decision along these lines is on the amount of calories that can be obtained from each square yard of ground. 

A considerable area is necessary for the production of a pound of peas, while a similar weight of carrots could be produced in a much smaller space. 

Furthermore, it must be remembered that the human system demands a certain amount of bulky foods, and these are supplied by vegetables low in caloric values.

There are a number of crops that can easily be preserved or stored for winter use, and this should be considered when deciding what kinds of vegetables to grow. 

String-beans are easily preserved by pickling them in vinegar, and there is no difficulty whatever in caring for the dry-shell beans when they are not infested with weevils. 

All of the root crops—carrots, beets, parsnips—can be easily stored in sand or soil in the cellar, and potatoes are one of the easiest of crops to care for.

 Onions easy carried over into the winter, all you need is a cool, airy room.  Note that all of the crops just mentioned are fairly high in food value.