If you propose to can or freeze surplus produce, remember to choose varieties that process well. For data on canning or freezing greens, contact your county Extension office by calling ASK-UGA1. Try to keep away from areas infested with johnsongrass, nutgrass and different troublesome weeds; areas with rock ledges; and areas underlain by a hardpan or exhausting shale. Locate the garden close to your own home so you can observe it frequently. Being near your garden will assist you to notice insect, illness and weed problems and allow you to take necessary control measures earlier than they can cause serious injury.
Manure, leaves and other materials can be added directly to the garden and labored into the soil throughout fall backyard plot preparation. The seedbed and potting soil should be sterilized to guard towards dangerous soil-borne insects and disease-causing organisms. Treat small lots of soil can by placing moist soil in a shallow pan and baking it for 1 hour in an oven at 210º F to 215º F. You also can place soil in a canning retort and steam-sterilize it for 1 hour at 15 kilos strain. Resistance to leaf- and soil-borne illnesses in addition to nematodes is out there in some varieties. Resistance is a crucial consideration the place these problems are known to exist or where proper prevention measures may not be taken.
Gardening Improves Psychological Clarity
Too a lot could injure or kill the desired crop whereas too little gained’t kill something. Accurate utility equipment is a must but isn’t usually obtainable for the home gardener. Contact your county Extension agent for more information about using herbicides. Label suggestions should be followed precisely to get the specified outcomes safely. Use small items of brush or other available materials to shade plants until they are nicely established. If you did not plow or spade the backyard soil within the fall, flip the ground in the spring as quickly as it is dry sufficient to work. To see if the soil is dry sufficient, mold a handful of soil into a ball.
Cover Crops
When all the tops are dead, pull the onions and spread them in the solar for a day or two to dry. After they’re dry, cut off the tops an inch above the bulbs and retailer in slatted crates or mesh bags in a shed the place air can circulate. Okra is a very tender crop and doesn’t do well if planted earlier than the soil warms up. It may be carried via the summer time whether it is stored fertilized, watered and properly picked. See UGA Cooperative Extension Circular 941, “Growing Okra in the Home Garden,” for extra data.
The winter is a time to reflect on the successes and disappointments of last 12 months’s backyard. Spring is the time for getting a head begin by preparing your garden for the summer bounty. While fall is the time to start out clearing up and getting ready the backyard for winter.
Summer squash is a young vegetable that can be grown throughout the summer season and eaten at an immature stage of development. There are numerous varieties, together with yellow crookneck, yellow straightneck, scallop and zucchini. Water is crucial when blossoms are forming and must be added if the soil is very dry. Ridge some soil around the base of the vines to cover the tubers and prevent greening quickly after blossoming or if growth could be very heavy before blooming.
A handy location may even let you spend brief durations of spare time tending to garden chores or harvesting the fruit. When potential, locate the garden in full sunlight, close to the home, on good soil and near a water supply. “We’ll come out in the end and hopefully everybody will be consuming higher and gardening more and more self-reliant,” she stated.