| Healthy vegetable gardens do more than provide a | | | | hoe is essential for a large vegetable garden, but it will |
| beautiful area in your yard. They repay your labor with | | | | also save much time and effort in a small one. |
| nutritious food and a healthy varied diet. Vegetable | | | | However, a simple scuffle hoe is effective in small |
| gardeners are in tune with the environment, giving back | | | | spaces as well. It takes less storage space and |
| to the soil what they take from it. Abundant vegetable | | | | cultivates the soil effectively. |
| gardens start with healthy, rich soil. Compost and mulch | | | | Preparing your vegetable garden properly before you |
| contribute to that natural wealth. | | | | plant vegetables is well worth the investment in time |
| About 11,000 years ago, the first farmers began to | | | | and labor. Keeping your vegetable garden rows free |
| select and cultivate desired food plants in the | | | | of weeds later on is slow going and difficult. Here are |
| southwest Asian Fertile Crescent - between the | | | | a few tips for keeping your vegetable garden clean |
| ancient Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Although we | | | | and clear of weeds as your plants mature: |
| believe there was some use of wild cereals before | | | | 1. Work at the weeds while the ground is soft and/or |
| that time, the earliest crops were barley, bitter vetch, | | | | moist. Soon after a rain is the best time. Weeds will |
| chick peas, flax, lentils, peas, emmer, and wheat. About | | | | come out by the root easier without breaking off, |
| 9,000 years ago, Egyptians began to grow wheat and | | | | leaving the unwanted plant to grow again. |
| barley. About the same time, farmers in the Far East | | | | 2. Just before you weed your vegetable garden, |
| began to grow rice, soy, mung, azuki, and taro. | | | | cultivate the rows with your wheel or scuffle hoe very |
| Then, about 7,000 years ago, ancient Sumarians | | | | shallow in the topsoil and as close to your vegetable |
| established the first organized agricultural practices that | | | | plants as possible. This will loosen the soil and make |
| made large-scale farming possible. Of particular note, | | | | weeds easy to see. A double-wheel hoe with discs is |
| they established irrigation as a way to nurture crops | | | | best for this purpose, especially for large plants. |
| where none were possible before. Vegetable | | | | 3. Make sure all of the soil is loosened when you |
| gardeners today use many of the same techniques | | | | cultivate. Pull all the weeds out carefully, avoiding |
| established in early history. But today's vegetable | | | | disturbing the vegetable plants. Your weeder will |
| gardeners have millennia of experience behind them. | | | | destroy weed seedlings, but you'll have to hand-weed |
| Trial and error today is success or failure at the | | | | near plant bases and where weeds have matured. |
| margins. Failure is not disaster. | | | | 4. Use a small hand-weeder near your vegetable |
| As in centuries passed, a successful vegetable | | | | plants. It will loosen the soil, making weeds easier to |
| gardener cultivates the garden before planting for | | | | eliminate, and save a lot of wear and tear on your |
| three main reasons: to eliminate weeds, to distribute air | | | | hands and fingers. |
| and nutrients throughout the soil, and to conserve | | | | 5. Practice with your wheel hoe. At first, watch the |
| moisture. Preparation of the soil is the single most | | | | wheel's direction and the pressure you put on the |
| important step in assuring abundant harvests. | | | | handles. The discs or rakes will follow automatically, |
| Weeds are the most powerful enemy of a healthy | | | | maintaining an appropriate cultivation depth in your |
| vegetable garden. Letting them multiply in your | | | | vegetable garden rows. |
| vegetable garden will create much work and | | | | 6. "Hilling" was once a common way to nurture young |
| disappointment through the growing season. And when | | | | vegetable plants. This is done by building the soil up |
| your vegetables begin to grow, removing weeds can | | | | around the stems of young vegetable plants, usually |
| your new vegetable plants beyond repair. Weeds also | | | | the after you've hoed your garden two or three times. |
| steal the precious nutrients necessary to produce | | | | In wet soils or dry climates, hilling may still be the way |
| healthy vegetables. | | | | to go. But in most areas, level soil is best. It makes it |
| Rather than sacrificing the new garden to a patch of | | | | easier to cultivate the soil in the long run, thereby |
| weeds, the successful vegetable gardener will cultivate | | | | assuring healthy vegetable plants through the growing |
| the bed often, breaking up the soil to maintain healthy | | | | season. |
| air, moisture, and heat to facilitate desirable chemical | | | | Rotating Vegetable Crops |
| processes that produce abundant plant food. Ancient | | | | Crop rotation, or growing different vegetable crops |
| growers learned by trial and error the importance of | | | | each time you plant, is an important part of maintaining |
| keeping the soil loose around young plants. Early | | | | a healthy, productive vegetable garden. Some Roman |
| farmers deposited rotten fish beneath their crops as | | | | texts mention crop rotation, and early Asian and |
| fertilizer and then used tools of shell and stone to | | | | African farmers also found rotation a productive |
| nurture healthy soil and get plentiful air to the roots of | | | | method. During the Muslim Golden Age of Agriculture, |
| their crops. | | | | engineers and farmers introduced today's modern |
| As important as air is water, even when the vegetable | | | | crop rotation methods where they alternated winter |
| garden is a promise waiting for new seeds. Consider | | | | and summer crops and left fields fallow during some |
| the process of "capillary attraction" - the ability of a | | | | growing seasons. With Chemical Revolution of the |
| substance to pull another substance into it. When you | | | | mid-20th Century, crop rotation lost some of its appeal. |
| dip one end of a strip of blotting paper into water, you'll | | | | But for home vegetable gardeners, rotation eliminates |
| see that the moisture moves up the invisible channels | | | | the risks of using dangerous chemicals and prevents |
| formed by the paper's texture. But when you place | | | | the environmental consequences associated with |
| the side edge of the blotting paper into water, the | | | | modern pollutants. |
| moisture won't move upward. In a vegetable garden, | | | | Each different vegetable plant depletes the soil of |
| capillary attraction describes the attraction of water | | | | different nutrients, and each leaves different nutrients |
| molecules to soil particles. Well cultivated, loose soil | | | | as its roots and stems decay. Rotating crops with |
| maximizes capillary action, maintaining an even | | | | each planting keeps the soil balanced and rich. Planting |
| distribution of moisture throughout your vegetable | | | | the same crop time after time drains it of necessary |
| garden soil. | | | | nutrients, leaving it less productive. Crop rotation also |
| Even so, water stored in soil during rain immediately | | | | reduces the build-up of pathogens and pests that |
| begins to escape, evaporating into the air. Surface | | | | destroy healthy vegetable gardens. Rotation helps |
| water is the first to vaporize into the atmosphere. With | | | | maintain a healthy mix of essential nitrogen in your |
| capillary action, sub-surface water moves upward and | | | | vegetable garden. |
| evaporates. Left to natural processes, your garden will | | | | Rotating crops is more important with vegetables like |
| lose its moisture as quickly as if you left sponges in the | | | | cabbage, but it is a good practice for your vegetable |
| topsoil. Cultivating your vegetable garden by hoeing the | | | | garden generally. Even the hardy onion benefits from |
| soil around your plants disturbs natural capillary action | | | | rotation, especially if you've done a good job of |
| and slows the loss of water for your vegetables. | | | | breaking up the old garden soil and mixing the |
| It's important to hoe your vegetable garden often, | | | | remaining vegetable plants to serve as compost for |
| particularly those areas not shaded, at the very least | | | | the following crop. Here are some basic tips about |
| every other week. If this seems too difficult, using a | | | | crop rotation: |
| wheel hoe will reduce your labor and keep your | | | | 1. Do not rotate crops of the same vegetable family, |
| vegetable garden healthy and productive. Looking | | | | for example turnips and cabbage. Be sure the |
| somewhat like an old-fashioned plow, the wheel hoe | | | | following crop is a complete different type of |
| allows you to cultivate very close to your healthy | | | | vegetable. |
| plants, maintaining an even depth and destroying new | | | | 2. Deep-rooting crops like carrots or parsnips, should |
| weeds before they get established. With the wheel | | | | follow vegetables with roots near the surface like |
| hoe, you can cultivate as fast as you can walk. | | | | onions or lettuce. |
| If you wait until weeds are established, you'll have to | | | | 3. Follow root crops with vines or leaf crops. |
| pull the weeds by hand, damaging the root systems of | | | | 4. Rotate vegetable plants that have long growing |
| your vegetables, depleting the soil of nutrients, and | | | | seasons with quick-growing crops. |
| creating a much greater workload for you as | | | | 5. Decide on your vegetable garden rotation when |
| gardener. And the work you invest will not be to | | | | you're constructing your planting plan. Making these |
| cultivate a productive crop. It will be to prevent | | | | decisions in the middle of the growing season will be |
| damage that may have already been done. A wheel | | | | more difficult and waste time and money. |