How to care for a garden in the country in the summer. How to properly care for the garden in the fall to get a good harvest? Beautifully designed beds in the garden: ideas and photos

K category: Agricultural technology

Fundamentals of gardening and gardening

The most important condition for obtaining high yields of vegetables and potatoes is good and timely care of crops. Caring for potatoes and vegetable crops consists in loosening the soil and keeping it clean of weeds, thinning thickened crops, hilling, fertilizing and watering plants, and controlling pests and diseases.

Soil loosening

Depending on the soil conditions and weediness of the site during the summer, 4-6 loosening and weeding are carried out on vegetable crops and potato plantings. So that weeds do not drown out young shoots and in order to save soil moisture, it is important to carry out the first loosening of row spacings as early as possible before emergence of cultivated plants with simultaneous removal of weeds. It is necessary to loosen the soil after heavy watering or rains, otherwise a crust will form that interferes with the access of air to the roots of plants and the normal development of seedlings. Loosening is carried out with hoes or rakes to a depth of 3-5 cm. A good remedy against the formation of a soil crust is mulching crops with a layer of humus earth or peat (2-3 cm). Weeds should be removed at a young age before they bloom and seed ripen. Weeding is also best done after rains and watering, then weeds can be easily pulled out by the roots.

Hilling

Caring for planting potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes is still hilling. Slightly spud and cucumbers. This contributes to the formation of additional roots, better growth and development of plants.

Potatoes are spudded for the first time when the tops reach 12-15 cm, and the second time 12-15 days after the first. Cabbage of early varieties is spudded 1-2 times, and late ones (having a high stalk) - 2-3 times. Tomatoes are spudded simultaneously with loosening, raking moist soil to the stem to a height of 6-7 cm. Plants should be spudded after rain or watering.

thinning

Some vegetable crops - carrots, onions, beets and others, sown thickly, need to be thinned out in a timely manner, otherwise the plants will stretch and develop poorly. The first thinning of seedlings of thickened crops, in particular, root crops, is carried out during the formation of the second true leaf, and the second - 15-20 days after the first. When breaking through, weak plants are removed, leaving stronger ones.

pasynkovanie

In the middle lane, where a significant part of the tomatoes do not have time to ripen on the bushes, stepping is of great importance - the removal of lateral shoots formed in the axils of the leaves. This technique ensures faster growth and ripening of fruits. It is important to remove stepchildren at a young age when they reach 3-5 cm in length. The first pinching is carried out 8-10 days after planting the seedlings, and then, as the stepsons appear, they are plucked out by hand every 6-8 days.

top dressing

Plant nutrition is of great importance for growing high yields. For liquid and dry top dressing, fast-acting organic fertilizers are used: bird droppings, mullein, slurry, as well as mineral fertilizers and ash. The amount of top dressing depends on the crop, the soil, the main dressing of its fertilizers and on the development of plants.

It is usually advisable to give vegetable crops and potato plantings three top dressings during the growing season. The first - 10-12 days after germination, the second - during the period of the strongest growth of the aerial part (tops) and the third - when fruits are set and tubers, roots or bulbs are formed. Top dressing should be made after rains or waterings.

At the first liquid top dressing, complete fertilizers are used, best of all - slurry, mullein, bird droppings. When applying, these fertilizers are diluted in water in the ratio: bird droppings 1:8, mullein 1:5, slurry 1:4. The composition of subsequent dressings depends on the condition of the plants, as can be judged by their appearance. For example, poor development and a pale green color of the leaves indicate a lack of nitrogen nutrition, in which case additional nitrogen supplementation is given. Strong growth and dark green color of the tops indicate the presence of a sufficient amount of nitrogen, in this case they give phosphorus-potassium top dressing. Sometimes there is a need for top dressing with potash fertilizers alone.

Liquid dressings are applied in rows into shallow furrows, retreating from the plants by 2-3 cm, or into small holes around the plants. A bucket of liquid top dressing is used for about 18-20 plants of seedling crops or for 15-20 linear meters of row sowing.

When fertilizing with mineral fertilizers, a bucket of water is given in grams: ammonium sulphate - 15-20 (or ammonium nitrate - 10-15), superphosphate - 30-40 and potassium salt -10-20. When adding ash, it is diluted: 100 g of ash is added to a bucket of water.

Dry top dressing is carried out with mineral fertilizers at the rate of: 2-3 g per 1 m2 of ammonium nitrate and potassium salt and 4-6 g of superphosphate. Fertilizers are scattered on moist soil, stepping back from the plants by 3-4 cm, then they are covered with a hoe to a depth 2-3 cm. It should be borne in mind that large doses and strong solutions of fertilizers can destroy plants. All types of dressings are best applied in the evening.

In addition to liquid and dry root dressings, foliar top dressing of plants by spraying them with liquid nutrient solutions gives good results. Superphosphate and boric acid are used for foliar feeding of potatoes: 1 kg of superphosphate and 6 g of boric acid are dissolved in 10 liters of water, and the plants are sprayed with this solution during flowering and tuberization. Approximately 10 liters of mortar are required per 100 m2 of area.

Tomatoes are fed with a solution of mineral fertilizers. 150 g of ammonium nitrate, 250 g of superphosphate and 125 g of potassium chloride are dissolved in 10 liters of water. The first dressing is done during the formation of buds, the second - at the beginning of the formation of fruits.

When feeding cucumbers, the following norms are used: superphosphate - 60 g, potassium chloride - 30, boric acid - 1.3 g. Each of these fertilizers is dissolved in 10 liters of water. The first dressing is carried out before flowering, the second - during fruiting. Good results are obtained by foliar feeding of vegetable plants with a liquid solution of borax at a concentration of 1 g per 10 l of water per 1 m2. Foliar top dressing is best done after rain or in the morning when the leaves are still damp.

Watering

The frequency of watering depends on the cultivated crops, soil conditions and rainfall.

In the absence of precipitation on sandy and sandy loamy soils, vegetable crops should be watered every 2-3 days at the rate of one and a half to two buckets per 1 m2, and on loamy humus soils - after 4-6 days, two or three buckets per 1 m2.

It is necessary to water in such a way that water penetrates to the depth of the root layer of plants, stepping back from the stems by 10-15 cm. It is more expedient to water tomatoes, cabbage, and potatoes in the holes. When watering with a mug, it should be lowered as close to the soil as possible.

On hot sunny days, plants are watered in the evening after sunset or early in the morning. After watering, furrows and holes should be mulched with dry earth, peat, sand, sawdust, humus, mowed grass or other plant debris. This contributes to significant moisture retention.

Crops that do not require heat (cabbage, beets, carrots, radishes, radishes, onions, garlic, peas, potatoes, strawberries) can be watered directly from the water supply. When using a hose, it is better to water with a small jet or with a sprinkler nozzle so as not to wash out the soil at the roots of the plants. Heat-loving crops (cucumbers, pumpkin, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, physalis) should be watered with warm water. Therefore, when using tap water, it must first be poured into some containers and heated in the sun to 22-24 degrees.

The time after harvest in late August - early September is important for the gardener. During the period, garden trees and flowers are prepared for wintering, plantings are fertilized with nutrients. If you do not perform certain actions before the onset of the first cold weather, you can be left without a good harvest. To do this, you need to know how to properly care for the garden in the fall.

Autumn work on the site

In order for the growth on the trees to adequately increase, and the soil for planting to be fertile, several things need to be done. Activities are carried out after the harvest, when the last foliage has flown around. Now the plant is starting to prepare for retirement.

Thus, gardening during the autumn months is busy and important. Fruitful labor favorably affects the life of trees and plants. Timely implementation of measures allows you to get a larger harvest than in the previous year.

September is a very important month for any gardener. He is rich in urgent matters for cleaning gardens, orchards and fields. The main occupation is considered

• Collection of fruits, namely pears and apples. Timely selected time is the key to long-term storage of fruits. To determine the readiness of apples, you need to conduct a small experiment. Pick a ripe-looking apple. Cut it in half with a knife, if the seeds are white or slightly brown in it, then the fruit is left on the branch. The recommended harvest time is the middle of the first month of autumn. If you stretch with the collection, then the delay will also negatively affect the fruits, as well as early harvesting. The fruits will overripe and you should not think about their long-term storage.
• In the garden, autumn time is the time for planting fruit crops, such as apricots, you can plant all kinds. Cuttings from currants and grapes take root well before winter. Rooted young plants will be ready for planting in the spring months.
• All shrubs and trees are pruned. Dry, broken and diseased vines are removed. After that, it is imperative to spray crops from pests and diseases.
• Do not delay with the latest harvest of vegetable crops. They will not be able to ripen anymore, and green tomatoes can still be canned or pickled. Also, do not leave planting potatoes. The first frosts will negatively affect the tubers left.
• September is the ideal time to prepare planting material for growing winter crops and plant seeds in polycarbonate greenhouses or greenhouses. Also now you can plant garlic cloves, then they will give a good increase in the first days of spring.
• Those who cultivate flowers in September are very busy. They are collecting seeds, as well as planting bulbs, etc.

October is marked by the fact that at this time it is recommended:

• Replant shrubs and trees to a new place of residence. But before starting work, they wait until the plant completely sheds all foliage.
• You should also take care of the fruits of the late harvest period. They are checked, like the September fruits, so that they do not have time to overripe. Many varieties are laid to ripen.
• The next step is top dressing, simultaneously with loosening and tillage.
• Do not forget about the landing of green manure. The best landing time is the first of October for the southern regions. For the central regions of Russia and the northern districts, spring crops no longer need to be planted, they will not have time to grow. Rye and winter wheat is the time to plant. Until the sub-zero temperature sets in, these crops will have time to sprout well, which means they have every chance of overwintering well. If siderates were planted earlier, then October is the time when they can be dug up. Then they will have time to well overwinter and saturate the soil with organic matter.
• In areas with high acidity, you need to reduce this indicator, because not all plants can fruitfully grow and develop in such conditions. For these purposes, liming is carried out on the breasts, scattering lime or chalk.
• Flower growers continue to plant bulbs. At the first drop in air degrees, hyacinth tubers are to be planted in the ground.
• After the appearance of the first frost, the tubers are carefully uprooted, and s. They are stored in a cool place. After the negative temperature is set, hyacinths and lilies are covered with peat, moss, sawdust or pine spruce branches.

The last month of autumn requires the last effort before wintering. The southern regions have a mild climate, so most plants are not sheltered. But, this does not apply to all grape varieties, some should be insulated. The vine is removed from the trellis or supports, laid out on wooden pallets or in dug trenches in the soil. After that, wrap the vine with film or earth.

If the trees do not need insulation, they should be whitewashed with lime. It is necessary not only to protect against rodents, but also from bright spring sunlight. They can cause burns and cracks in the bark. Also, whitewashing plays the role of a kind of protection from exposure to the sun. On warm winter days, the rays tend to warm the bark, and in the evening the temperature drops, causing the tree shell to freeze. What can cause the death of seedlings.

In colder regions, fruit trees should be insulated with spruce branches or peat, and the trunk should be wrapped with burlap or other breathable material on top.

From above it is recommended to wrap a net-netting in a circle. It will not allow rodents to eat the bark in the winter cold. Do not use film or other non-woven material for wrapping. It does not allow air to circulate, which provokes the decay of the bark. As a result, various fungal diseases develop. In the garden during this period, you can plant any vegetable crops. Low temperatures will not allow seedlings to sprout, but they will go through a natural process of stratification. This will allow the sprouts to gain immunity and get sick less in the future period.

Flower work is coming to an end. Perennial plants are cut for the winter under the base. Roses are cut to such a level that they can be covered. Bulbs are covered with spruce branches, moss or sawdust.

All work is completed. The last days are allotted for cleaning up all cases and complete shelter of all trees for wintering. Thus, the autumn months are no less eventful for farmers than spring or summer. The main thing is to prepare the garden and vegetable garden for the coming winter and the future fruitful period. If you do not follow the basic procedures for rich fruiting, you can not wait.

More information can be found in the video:

Last year we bought a cottage with a small garden. True, the previous owners practically did not grow anything on it. And we have grandiose plans for the garden, so I want to take care of the yield in advance, especially since the time is right - autumn is in the yard. Tell me how to properly care for the garden in the fall in order to get a good harvest?

In order for the garden to please with a good harvest, it is necessary to provide it with proper care since the fall. Autumn work in the garden includes:

1. Autumn weed and pest control.
2. Digging.
3. Application of fertilizers.
4. Preparation of holes for spring planting.

After harvesting, to destroy the remaining weeds in the garden, it is desirable to treat the soil with systemic herbicides. These drugs include Roundup, it copes well with "eternally living" weeds such as ragweed, wheatgrass, birch (field bindweed), amaranth, thistle.

Practicing gardeners have noticed that one autumn herbicide treatment replaces two spring ones.

Tornado is also quite effective against wheatgrass. It is used as a spray on the leaves of weeds.

To destroy the birch, which loves acidic and clayey soil, in the fall, fluff lime should be applied at the rate of 1 glass per sq.m. - it will change the acidity of the soil downward. It is also good to dig a shallow area with the addition of a few buckets of rotted compost so that the earth becomes looser by spring.

In the fight against pigs, manual work, unfortunately, has the best effect. Since this weed has very long roots, in order to get rid of it completely, after digging or plowing the garden in the fall, manually select all parts of the root system. Applying this method in parallel with herbicide treatment is not fast, but still in a couple of years it is quite possible to defeat the pig.

Sowing green manure plants, such as rapeseed, will help to destroy wheatgrass, and at the same time fertilize the garden.

You can get rid of such a pest as a wireworm if you dig a garden not in the middle of autumn, but a little later - after the first frost, then it will simply freeze in the upper layers of the soil and die.

Digging the soil

For the winter, it is recommended to dig up the garden, while the clods of earth formed during digging do not need to be broken. So the weeds and pests remaining in the garden since autumn will die faster from frost, and with the onset of spring, the clods themselves will disintegrate.

Sometimes, instead of digging up the soil, it is mulched with leaves and raw compost. But this is not recommended, since spores of fungal diseases can be stored in the leaves, and this method will not bring anything but harm.

soil fertilization

Before the autumn digging of the garden, organic fertilizers in liquid form or manure are applied to enrich the soil.

Liquid fertilizer can be made from chicken manure or freshly cut grass. A more useful manure is from bird droppings, but cow dung is also widely used. To enrich the soil with useful substances, the area under the garden is sown with green manure in autumn.

Hole preparation for spring planting

To increase the yield of potatoes, experienced vegetable growers are advised to carry out preparatory work since the fall. To do this, in the area allotted for the spring planting of potatoes, you need to make furrows on the bayonet of a shovel (or with the help of a cultivator), located from north to south and row spacing of 60 cm.

In the spring, it remains only to slightly update the groove with a chopper, lay out the potatoes and sprinkle with soil taken from the poured sides. This method is good because in the spring, when planting, the earth in the grooves turns out to be very loose and warmed by the sun.

Video on how to prepare the garden for winter

Some people think that work in the garden or in the garden ends with the harvest. And only real summer residents and gardeners know that at the end of summer it is not yet time to relax. After all, next year's harvest directly depends on the autumn work on the land. Autumn is the time to prepare the beds for the winter and spring sowing season. Farmers who grow organic berries, vegetables and fruits are especially diligent in such work.

Preparing beds for winter

soil fertilization

Soil fertilization is of great importance. Experts in natural farming recommend and even insist that it is not necessary and pointless to dig up a garden in the fall, and even add manure or other fertilizers in the process. The soil does not need to be dug, but fertilizers need to be scattered over the surface of the entire area.

It is best to use only organic fertilizers. This concept includes a lot of what is considered ordinary garbage - dry branches of shrubs and trees, rotten boards, any waste paper. After burning all this, ash remains - an excellent organic fertilizer. It must be scattered throughout the garden or summer cottage.

Another excellent fertilizer is manure. It is not advisable to purchase it from strangers - you can bring a large number of various diseases into the soil. But natural waste from your pets can be mixed with sawdust or any grassy residue and laid out directly on the beds.

Organic fertilizers can be accumulated throughout the year.

Details about ash fertilizer

Mulching

Soil mulching is an integral part of natural farming. It saturates the soil with the necessary amount of organic matter, makes it fertile and prevents depletion. The fall season is the best time for mulching. The crop is harvested, and a large amount of organic waste remains on the site.

Everything that remains in the beds (tops of vegetable plants, vegetable and fruit waste) does not need to be removed. Top everything with fallen leaves or needles, sawdust or any herbaceous plants, and cover with thick cardboard or waste from cardboard boxes on top. Such a mulching layer will provide soil protection from winter frosts, as well as enrich the soil.

The roots of fruit trees can also be insulated with mulch. Straw and dry grass cannot be used - mice start up in it, which then will bring harm no less than cold. But all other organic materials can be used by laying them out in tree trunks.

More about mulching

Sowing green manure

With a lack of materials for mulch, green manure can be sown. Proper sideration is the key to a normal crop rotation in any area. Siderates will ensure normal growth and yield of vegetable crops, even growing them every year in the same garden.

Take note!

Before planting green manure, you need to carefully read the table of their compatibility with other plants and crops. It is necessary to take into account what grew on this site last year and what is planned to be planted here next year. Vegetable crops can destroy each other's crops, if their compatibility with green manure is not taken into account.

Siderates do not need to be buried in the soil. This is a waste of time that will only waste your time. Substances useful for the soil are found in the green mass of grown green manure. It will be processed by earthworms and bacteria. All that is required from the owner of the site is the sowing of green manure and ensuring their normal growth.

Composting

First you need to prepare a pit for the compost. It is best to fill it in the fall, when there is a lot of organic waste on the site. At the bottom of the pit, you need to decompose the organic matter of long decay - these are large tree branches and other wooden waste. This first layer can be covered with food waste and grass clippings, faeces and grassy vegetable residues. From above they cover with a layer of fallen leaves, then with earth and water with a solution of preparations with effective microorganisms (EM - preparations).

After that, you can decompose a layer of any paper waste - newspapers, magazines, cardboard. Then again food waste, grass and tops of vegetable crops, leaves and a small layer of earth, and a little EM preparation on top.

When the compost pit is completely filled with such layers, then it must be covered with plastic wrap on top and left until the compost ripens (until spring). He is not afraid of winter frosts and cold. Until spring, the bacteria will do their job.

The device of warm beds and trenches

If the compost pit is full to the top and organic waste still remains, then you should consider building organic trenches or warm beds. For their improvement, all organic materials and waste that may be in the garden or in the summer cottage are just needed. And such trenches and beds will be useful for growing various vegetables. They will provide favorable conditions for growth and a large harvest.

Details about the device of a warm bed

Protecting the trunks of fruit trees

Mice and hares can cause great harm to fruit trees. They love to eat the bark of young and mature fruit trees. To protect these plants, you can use the strapping method. Each trunk must be tied with branches of wormwood or spruce. These plants repel rodents with their specific smell. Strapping should be carried out only with the onset of severe cold weather.

Cleaning of tools and inventory

This is another important stage of autumn work. At the end of work in the garden, you need to free all containers from water and turn them upside down. All garden tools must be carefully inspected and, if necessary, washed, dried, cleaned, sharpened, lubricated. During the spring sowing period, there will not be enough time for this.

In autumn, you need to take care of harvesting seeds and replenishing stocks of preparations necessary for the garden (for example, a remedy for diseases and pests, laundry soap, soda, salt, tar).

Having worked hard in the fall, you can make your work much easier in the spring.

The richer you harvested, the poorer the land in the garden became. Therefore, in autumn it is necessary to increase fertility and improve the structure of the soil. We will talk about the technology of tillage.

With proper autumn tillage, surface loosening will be sufficient in spring. Therefore, before the start of winter, it is necessary to have time to carry out all the main activities to prepare the garden for wintering.

Soil preparation in the open field

First of all, the beds are cleared of tops and roots of weeds. After that, the soil is saturated with nutrients.

Soil structure improvement

Organic and complex mineral fertilizers with phosphorus and potassium are applied to the soil of any type. If you do not grow crops in this place every year, then fertilizers can be applied 1 time in 3-4 years.

Improving the structure of the soil on the site

Not sure how to change the structure of infertile soil? We will show you some effective ways.

On heavy clay soils, ash, sand, compost or leaf humus are additionally added. Due to this, the soil will become loose and permeable. In sandy soils, rotted compost, leaf humus or sawdust are added. This will help retain moisture in the ground. And acidic soils are neutralized with chalk, dolomite flour or lime.

Most often, the soil is limed to a depth of 20 cm.

How much lime should be applied to the soil on the site?

We tell you how to competently lime the soil.

Digging the soil in autumn

Autumn digging can be carried out two ways:

• Non-moldboard- dug up a clod of earth is not turned over and does not break. With this method, the natural microflora of the soil is preserved.
• moldboard- turn over a clod of earth and close up the top layer to the depth of the shovel bayonet. With this method of digging the soil, weed seeds are deeply buried and cannot germinate in winter, and the larvae of insect pests, on the contrary, end up on the surface of the soil and die with the onset of frost.

It is difficult to say unequivocally which method is better. But, whichever method you choose, do not break up earthen clods so that the soil does not freeze. By spring, it will be saturated with moisture and become crumbly.

Digging is carried out with a shovel or pitchfork. As a rule, the depth of the shovel bayonet is sufficient. In places where you plan to sow early crops in the spring, it is better to dig the soil to a shallower depth (up to 15 cm). In this case, after the snow melts, the soil dries out faster.

If a large number of earthworms live in your area in the soil, use only a pitchfork when digging. Since a shovel will disrupt the vital activity of worms - the creators of humus.

An alternative way of tillage is the sowing of green manure. A month after sowing, the roots of the plants are cut with a flat cutter and the green mass is left to rot right on the beds.

On light, non-weedy, as well as floodplain soils, annual digging can be dispensed with.

Proponents of organic farming urge not to dig up the soil in autumn, but simply to scatter manure or ash over the surface without embedding it in the ground. In addition, they advise leaving the tops of harvested plants on the beds (without signs of disease) and mulching them with leaf litter, needles or grass, and covering them with cardboard on top. By the next planting season, all this will rot and become excellent fertilizer.

Tillage in a greenhouse

Preparing the soil for winter in a greenhouse and a greenhouse is a little different. The ideal option is to remove a layer of earth 7-10 cm thick (pest larvae, pathogenic microorganisms, as well as fungal spores usually accumulate here) and replace it with fresh soil.

At the same time, you can not take ordinary land from the garden, since pests can also live in it. Prepare the soil yourself from organic matter (humus or manure), wood ash and sand or sawdust. Spread the soil evenly in the greenhouse and treat it with copper sulphate or potassium permanganate solution. After that, lay mulch (for example, straw, corn tops or spruce branches) on the beds and close the greenhouse.

It is not recommended to scatter the earth from the greenhouse in the garden or vegetable garden, because. it contains a large number of pathogenic microorganisms. It is better to pour it in any place on the territory of the site and sprinkle with lime. In summer, the pile must be carefully dug up, and after 1-2 years it can be returned to the greenhouse or scattered on the beds in the garden.

But if you can’t replace the top layer of soil in the greenhouse, disinfect ground in one of the following ways:

• spill with boiling water and cover with a film (hot steam will destroy bacteria and insect larvae), after a day, remove the film, and loosen the ground, repeat the procedure 2 more times;
• pour the soil abundantly with a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate;
• pour copper sulfate (1-2 tablespoons per 10 liters of water);
• sprinkle the soil with bleach (100-200 g / sq.m) and dig to a depth of 20 cm (the exact application rate of this substance depends on the acidity of the soil and its mechanical composition);
• spill the earth with a solution of formalin (200 g per 10 liters of water) at the rate of 10 liters per 1 sq.m, rake the soaked soil into a pile and leave for 2-3 days. Then, for 3-4 days, open all windows and doors in the greenhouse so that the pungent smell disappears. Then dig the soil well;
• use special biopreparations for soil disinfection in greenhouses (Alirin-B, Fitosporin, Phytocid, etc.).

Spilling the soil with boiling water is a very effective, but not without drawbacks, method. A significant disadvantage of this method is that along with pests and pathogens, beneficial microorganisms also die. Therefore, after steaming, the earth must be spilled with a solution of biological products (for example, Baikal EM-1).

In winter, do not forget to throw snow into the greenhouse (its layer should be about 20 cm).

Snow will protect the soil in the greenhouse from freezing and in the spring will give it water to drink with melt water.

When the air temperature drops to 8 ° C, it is advisable to disinfect the greenhouse. You can carry out fumigation with a sulfur checker (their required number per unit area is indicated in the instructions). Before starting the procedure in the greenhouse close up all the cracks. Sulfur bombs are placed in different parts of the structure, set on fire and quickly exit, tightly closing the door. Three days after fumigation, the greenhouse is ventilated. A glazed greenhouse can be sprayed with a solution of bleach or 40% formalin.

Sulfur, bleach and formalin are very toxic, so the disinfection of the greenhouse should be carried out in a gas mask.

How to prepare a greenhouse for winter: useful tips for gardeners

The summer season does not end after the harvest. There is still a lot to be done, including putting things in order in the greenhouse.

Properly cultivate the soil in the garden in the fall - and next season you can grow a rich harvest of vegetables and herbs!

Is your garden ready for winter? What have you not done yet to restore the soil?

It's time to prepare the garden for winter, and today we'll talk about just that ... How we prepare the garden for winter in Natural Farming! How to carry out winter planting of vegetables, flowers and herbs! What work needs to be done to restore soil fertility! Think of Warm and Tall Compost Beds! So, let's begin…

Let's remember what needs to be done in the fall in order to increase soil fertility:

1. We do not dig the soil! In no case do we dig up the site, leave the ground untouched.

2. We do not remove the tops from the site and do not burn them! We leave all plant residues in the beds. All tops from vegetables and flowers ... Whether it is tops of tomatoes or potatoes, cucumber or squash, beetroot or carrot tops ... We leave absolutely all the leftovers in the garden.

3. We sow green manure! Immediately at the moment we harvest, we sow green manure on the vacated bed. We leave green manure uncut in the winter. And before winter we additionally sow winter rye!

4. We cover the soil! Not a single piece of land should be left naked before winter! If green manure has not been sown, then we cover the beds with a thick layer of mulch: leaf litter or straw are ideal for this! If this is not there, then scatter manure from your own! animals, and cover with cardboard on top! We use rabbit manure and chicken manure…

5. Making Warm or Tall Compost Beds!

6. Laying the compost heap!

.... If we do not make warm beds or Compost! We need compost, so we pay special attention to it. If the compost is ready, then we spread it around the garden: under the bushes, trees and just on the beds. But this is too laborious, so it’s easier to compost organics right on the beds ...

How to do it right and when?

In autumn, as I said, you can plant almost all plants! From trees to vegetables. We carry out winter crops two weeks before severe frosts. Then, when no heat is expected, the soil is frozen, and ahead is only even colder! For the Perm Territory, this is from mid-October to mid-November. Let's take a look at the weather forecast.

To do this, we prepare grooves in September, while the soil is warm. And in the cold, we sow the seeds, sprinkle them with compost or coconut substrate, or with rotted straw. If you didn’t have time to make grooves for warmth, then do not despair.

If the soil is already frozen, and you suddenly decide to sow something before winter, then you can sow on frozen soil, and sprinkle on top with loose, fertile soil that does not crust. As a last resort, use purchased soil. And on top we mulch this groove with a layer of rotted straw, a layer of at least 5 cm! The rest of the bed, where nothing was sown, must be mulched with a thick layer of mulch of at least 20-30 cm!

If the groundwater is close to the surface of the earth and the area is flooded, and the soil is heavy clayey, then there is no need to dig a trench! We make a warm bed right on the surface of the earth! If the soil is sandy and there is always not enough moisture, then you will have to dig a trench 40 cm deep.

You can put together a box and install in the garden. And we fill this box with organic matter in layers. At the bottom we lay logs touched by a fungus, such rotten ones ... Or large branches, but we chop them with a shovel then ...

The next layer is carbon again: old boards, straw, old hay, foliage, cardboard ... And on top of this layer is again nitrogenous: food waste, manure, tops from vegetable crops ... so, a few more layers. The total organic layer must be at least 80 cm! Each layer still needs to be trampled ...

When laying such ridges in the autumn, it is important to shed organic matter with water. The logs that are laid on the bottom can be pre-soaked in water if they are dry ... But usually we carry them from the forest, and it is always humid in the forest!

Microorganisms are better to be local, adapted! There are enough of them in algae, in logs, in the forest floor, in the mud from the bottom of the ravine ... Therefore, there is no need to buy EM drugs ...

We cover the top of such a bed with an inverted cut sod, or a layer of fertile soil, and on top of it we sow green manure and sprinkle with rotted straw! That is, this ridge should also not be empty in winter! Siderates sown in the fall will revive the garden bed, start the process!

And such a garden bed will be filled with a huge number of microorganisms and worms during the winter, and in early spring it will be ready for planting! Before others! It is full of nutrients and ready to feed and warm our crops!

The height of such beds varies from 05 m to 1 m! The width is at least 80 cm, a maximum of 1.2 m, but you can make a terraced bed (with a height of 2 m), then we make it wider from 1.2 m to 1.5 m or even up to 2 m!

Absolutely everything can be grown on such beds: fruit trees, berry bushes, vegetables, strawberries, and potatoes ... Everything!

There are no restrictions on the length and shape: you can make it winding, like a snake, in a semicircle, round around the perimeter of the site or straight, so that it runs along the prevailing winds and is illuminated by the sun all day. See for yourself, decide for yourself!

If you feel that you can’t do it yourself, but you really want to create a productive garden - a biocenosis on the site, you want to but you are afraid that you will do something wrong, then you can get an individual consultation with detailed and step-by-step instructions, with the development of the site, etc. d. For this

contact me in any convenient way

That's all for now, but I won't say goodbye to you for a long time! There are still a lot of interesting and useful topics ahead, stay tuned. All the best!

I would be grateful for the response to everyone who is able to do an unconditionally good deed! You can help us, we really need your help! Do GOOD - and it will return to you!

Garden beds after harvesting need to be properly prepared for the spring sowing season, the best time for this is autumn. In addition to preparing the beds, it is necessary to remove and burn the vegetable tops left after harvesting, to carry out a set of necessary measures for the arrangement of warm beds. In this article - all the necessary activities on how to prepare the garden for winter. Competent preparation of the garden for the winter is a guarantee of a rich harvest.

Preparing the garden for the winter season

In autumn, it is necessary to collect plant residues from the garden plot.

To ensure the harvest of vegetables next year, preparing the beds in the fall is a necessary and important event. Work in the garden should begin with the cleaning of tops and weeds from the beds. Old grass is a favorite wintering place for garden pests and rodents, so preparing the beds for winter begins with their thorough cleaning.

The tops of vegetable plants, plant debris and weeds can be destroyed in two ways:

1. Burn - when plant residues are burned, pathogens and pests are destroyed. Ash can be used to fertilize garden beds and garden trees.
2. Prepare compost - this method of weed disposal is longer than burning, but the resulting nutrient substrate will help to inexpensively and qualitatively increase the fertility of garden beds.

How to properly prepare compost

Winter compost should be prepared a little differently than summer compost. Plant residues that have not been removed from the summer cottage are suitable for composting, including not only vegetable tops, but also branches of trees and shrubs, weeds, household waste, animal manure, and bird droppings.

It is very important that in winter the compost heap does not freeze, is not eroded by precipitation and is not exposed to wind, so it must be done according to all the rules.

It is very important to ensure the decomposition of the ingredients in the winter, for which it is necessary to prepare a rectangular shallow hole in the ground, on the bottom of which the cut branches of shrubs and trees are laid. Then, weeds and waste are layered, layered with manure and bird droppings.

It is useful to add double superphosphate, potash fertilizers, ash, lime or dolomite flour to the compost heap. For better air exchange, the side and end walls are laid with narrow poles. The height of the compost heap should not exceed 1.2 meters from the bottom of the trench, while the penetration into the soil is assumed to be 0.5 - 0.8 m. The heap is shed with weed infusion diluted with slurry. Soil is laid on top with a layer of 30 cm, the dock sides are covered with a thinner layer of soil and sheltered from rain.

The components put into the compost rot by the beginning of summer, allowing you to get a nutrient supplement to the soil that doubles fertility, and also get rid of debris and weeds along the way.

Bed preparation

Tool for digging and loosening beds.

Preparing the garden for wintering includes digging up the beds, which can be done in the classic way, radically digging up the beds. In this case, large clods are not broken, leaving them until spring. With such an autumn digging, moisture is well preserved in large clods of garden soil, therefore, when leveling the soil in spring, the percentage of moisture remains high.

The second option for processing the garden in the fall is to loosen the soil surface to a depth of no more than 5 cm, for which Fokin's flat cutter is used. It is useful to mulch the loosened soil with sawdust and ash, sometimes it is practiced to sow green manure herbs, the seedlings of which are embedded in the ground when digging in the spring.

Preparing the soil for winter involves creating a balanced ecological system in the garden, closest to natural conditions using mulch and sowing green manure.

Siderates for winter sowing

Green manure roots penetrate deep into the soil, loosening it.

A reliable way to restore soil fertility is the sowing of green manure, which does not require large expenditures during planting. Green manure - one or more annual crops (mixture) that quickly increase their green mass and develop a powerful root system. The root system of grasses penetrates into the deep layers of the soil, loosening and enriching its composition. The ground part of the plants serves for snow retention, is used as mulch when mowing, is embedded in the ground (green manure).

Siderates are used based on the purpose and the desired end result:

• Soil loosening - rye, mustard, oats, rapeseed ideally loosen heavy soil in garden beds.
• Soil disinfection from pathogenic diseases of vegetable crops - winter sowing of a mixture of crops is used, which includes rapeseed, mustard, marigolds, calendula and oats.
• Increasing soil fertility - a mixture of vetch with oats or rye, mustard with legumes, alfalfa, sweet clover.
• Mulching - phacelia, vetch, alfalfa.

Sowing green manure grasses can be done randomly or in rows in prepared beds after the autumn harvest of vegetable crops. A properly prepared garden can provide a high yield next year.

Sowing vegetables before winter

For early ripening of some vegetable crops, their seeds can be sown in beds in the fall. The harvest of winter vegetables is characterized by early ripening and high vitamin value.

In autumn, you can sow many garden crops, good yields can be obtained when growing carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce, dill, root parsley, celery, spinach.

The beds for the winter planting of vegetables are chosen in a dry open area, where the wetting of the beds with groundwater and melt water is excluded. It is useful to protect crops from the directed north wind, as well as to mulch the beds with compost or peat. Seeds will be able to successfully winter under a reliable shelter, and in early spring they will give the first shoots.

It should be remembered that seed consumption during the winter sowing of vegetables can double.

Autumn is the time for garden worries, because winter is ahead with its weather surprises and troubles; who knows what she has in store for us… And even though we can’t warm the trees in the cold of winter, we have a great opportunity to help them prepare for this difficult period. Work in the garden in the fall is enough. So let's not waste time - let's go to the garden!

Harvest!

Autumn work in the garden should begin with harvesting. There should not be a single apple or berry left on the trees and bushes. The remaining fruits contribute to the conservation and spread of pests and diseases. If all the good things have long been eaten, and the remaining gifts of the garden are clearly not suitable for food, they should be collected and disposed of. You can bury them in a hole or burn them. Do not leave apples under trees or throw them into a hole behind a fence. This is equivalent to the fact that they will remain on the branches.

Don't delay cleaning. Autumn varieties of apples and pears are harvested in the first half of September. Late autumn and winter - in late September or early October. Remaining unharvested for a long time, the fruits not only lose their taste, but also do not allow the tree to fully prepare for winter.

Autumn fertilizer.

Autumn work in the garden and garden necessarily include the application of fertilizers and various nutritious top dressings. At different times, plants in the garden and garden need different ratios of nutrients. In autumn, an increased content of phosphorus and potassium is required. These macronutrients contribute to the good maturation of wood, the accumulation of substances necessary for overwintering and a good spring start, have a positive effect on root growth and the formation of a future crop, and increase plant resistance to certain diseases. They are also useful for improving the taste of fruits and their intense coloring.

But nitrogen fertilizing in the fall must be excluded. This element provokes untimely growth of shoots and makes it difficult for the wood to ripen. As a result, without having time to prepare for the cold, trees and shrubs are easily damaged even by slight frosts.

Fertilizers can be applied both in liquid and dry form. The fertilizer solution is prepared according to the instructions (the recommended concentration should not be exceeded) and the plants are watered under the root. Foliar top dressing is not carried out in the fall: the leaves at this time are rough, protected by a dense integumentary tissue, practically unable to pass various substances.

Dry fertilizers are evenly distributed throughout the near-stem circle, after which the soil is shallowly dug up or loosened. A good result is the application of fertilizers in the pits. To do this, 3-4 pits 20-25 cm deep are made around a tree or shrub, the required dose of fertilizer is evenly distributed over the pits, the pits are buried. Don't dig too close to the trunk: the fertilizer is taken up only by the sucking roots. they are located approximately along the perimeter of the crown. After applying dry fertilizer, the plants must be watered.

Fertilizers should not be left on the soil surface: potassium and phosphorus slowly move deep into the soil, and phosphorus is easily absorbed by soil particles, becoming unavailable to plants.

If the soil in the garden is acidic, deoxidizers (dolomite flour, lime, chalk) are added. It is useful to bring in the ashes. It is not only a good deoxidizer, but also a source of ash elements. But first, to determine the norm, determine the acidity of the soil in your garden.

The appropriate doses of the drug are indicated on the package. It is advisable to check the acidity of the soil annually, because most mineral fertilizers contribute to soil acidification.

Watering

Garden in autumn what to do? Water, but wisely. Damp autumn or abundant watering can provoke autumn growth of shoots, which prevents fruit trees from preparing for winter. Trees oversaturated with moisture most often get frost holes. Therefore, as a rule, nothing is watered in the fall. However, if the weather turned out to be dry, watering the plants is necessary. Plants suffering from drought in autumn are not very frost-resistant.

It is important to water the soil abundantly before frost. Moist soil retains heat well and protects the roots from sudden changes in temperature. Dry land in the garden, on the contrary, easily passes air and quickly cools to its temperature. As a result, the roots can be damaged already at the first frost.

Autumn work in the garden and garden - tillage.

As in summer, in autumn it is important to ensure that the soil in the trunk circles is loose and free of weeds. Overconsolidation and crust formation prevent the penetration of air necessary for root growth and nutrient uptake. These processes require a lot of energy, which is released during chemical reactions that take place with the participation of oxygen.

If there is not enough air, root growth stops, the supply of nutrients decreases, the plant quickly weakens, resistance to pests, diseases and adverse weather factors decreases. Such a plant is not able to prepare well for winter and can suffer even in fairly mild winters.

During leaf fall or immediately after it, it is useful to dig near-stem circles with the obligatory turning over of soil layers. At the same time, insects wintering in the ground find themselves in unsuitable conditions and in most cases die. Therefore, such autumn work in the garden is necessary. After digging, the earth is leveled with a rake. At this time, it is useful to mulch the tree trunks with organic materials (composts, grass, manure, leaves). Moreover, if the trees have already gone dormant and the topsoil is frozen, you can even use fresh manure. Mulch protects the roots from hypothermia and sudden changes in temperature, and in the spring, as it decomposes, it serves as additional nutrition.

When pouring mulch, it is important to ensure that the base of the trunks remains free: backfilling the root neck can lead to its warming. It is desirable to combine digging and mulching with autumn fertilization.

Leaves are an excellent mulching material. It is best to use leaves from trees that do not have common diseases with fruit crops.

We fight diseases and pests.

In autumn, it is not advisable to spray trees and shrubs against pests and diseases. A short day and a drop in temperature force insects to seek winter shelters - at this time there are very few pests on plants, and the wintering stages of pathogens are not very susceptible to chemical preparations.

The only treatment that is useful to do in the fall is spraying trees, shrubs and the soil around them with a concentrated solution of urea. 500 - 700 g of urea is diluted in a bucket of water. Sprayed during active leaf fall or after it. Such autumn work in the garden on processing contributes to the rapid decomposition of plant residues, and in the spring it will partly serve as additional nutrition.

We whiten the trees!

You need to whitewash, or rather, paint the trees in the fall or early winter. To do this, choose garden paint with the addition of fungicides and a good adhesive base. It will help get rid of pests and pathogens that hibernate in the cracks of the bark. And at the end of winter - will protect the trees from sunburn.

It is better not to use water-based chalk and whitewash, as they will be washed off by the first rain.

Whitewashing in the spring is predominantly decorative and does not perform significant protective functions.

autumn pruning

In the Russian climate, autumn pruning of fruit trees is not carried out: when frost sets in, the places of cuts may freeze slightly. And, if you still need to remove some branches, then you need to cut them off with a margin, 5 - 10 cm further from the intended place. The final pruning is carried out in the spring.

In autumn, sanitary pruning is usually carried out - diseased and damaged branches are removed. Diseased branches should be burned. if left in the garden, they will serve as a source of new infections.

Be sure to cut berry bushes in the fall. They cut off old branches on currants, gooseberries, raspberries, as well as weak and unsuccessfully located ones. If necessary, thinning is carried out. It is better not to leave this work for the spring. It is far from always possible to cut branches in early spring, before the start of the growing season. Raspberries remove those branches that were already with berries.

Autumn gardening also includes flower care. For the winter, you need to cut and cover rose bushes so that they winter well.

What to plant in the fall in the country

In autumn, a huge number of seedlings go on sale. After all, right now nurseries are digging up young trees from the fields. It is better to buy seedlings in autumn. But planting trees is better to be postponed to spring, especially when it comes to stone fruits (cherries, cherries, cherry plums and others). It is not known what kind of winter it will be. And with spring planting, the tree will have time to take root well and get stronger.

Autumn is the time for planting trees and shrubs. To make it easier to navigate when buying seedlings, follow these recommendations: choose plants for planting at the age of one or two years with a well-developed root system (approximately 30 - 40 cm long for plants with an open root system). The height of a one-year-old should be approximately 1 m, and a two-year-old - 1.5 m.

Seedlings acquired in autumn are stored in a pit in winter, laying them at an angle, the crowns of seedlings are oriented to the south. It is best to place them in a place protected from the wind and the midday sun. To protect against mice, the trunks are wrapped with agrospan or other non-rotting materials, poisoned baits are laid out. So that the earth settles well, pits for spring planting of seedlings are prepared in the fall.

Autumn planting is good for berry bushes and garden strawberries. In the spring, starting the growing season in a new place, they take root well and form a good bush already in the first year of planting.

Do not forget to transplant young plants of berry bushes pinned in early summer to a permanent place. Now is the time for this. Also, immediately after harvesting or in early autumn, it is necessary to remove the props and remove the fences around the fruit berries. This year they are no longer needed.

From flowers, plant spring-blooming bulbous tulips, daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths in autumn. Before winter, you can also sow cold-resistant annual flower seeds directly into the frozen furrows with seeds. Then in the spring you will have fewer landing worries.

Planted from vegetables before winter:

• garlic,
• carrot.

Rodent protection.

Do not forget about the protection of garden trees from rodents. In winter, mice and hares love to eat the juicy bark of young trees. To protect trees, trunks from the ground itself and skeletal branches are wrapped with non-woven material, sometimes stems of cattail or sunflower are used. A good protection is a fine-mesh plastic mesh, which is wrapped around the trunks with a margin. The mesh can be left for several years - the rest of the protective materials must be removed.

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“We have a personal plot, which is used mainly for vegetable crops. But this year there is no one to take care of the garden, the site will be visited 2-3 times a month. The situation will remain the same next year. I don't want the land to be overgrown with weeds.

A bed covered with mulch with potatoes will need to be watered less.

Try to plant germinated tubers deeper than usual, and after germination, only slightly spud the plants, forming irrigation grooves. Highly heaped potatoes require frequent watering because the soil in the ridges dries out quickly, so this farming technique is not for a garden that will be watered occasionally. Even before the onset of hot weather, the potato bed must be mulched.

The simplest drip irrigation systems

You can even plant a few bushes of pepper or eggplant by building a small round bed for them. A water container is dug into the center of the bed. Long braids are woven from narrow strips of fabric, one end of which is lowered into a container of water, and the other is placed near a bush of pepper or eggplant.

How many plants are planted around the circumference of the beds, so many braids. Then the pigtails are sprinkled with earth. The container is filled with water and covered with a lid. Pigtails, getting wet, will moisten the soil in the garden during your absence.

You can keep the soil moist in other ways. For example, dig plastic bottles near each bush, making holes in them through which water will slowly seep through. Such simple watering systems will help keep plant care to a minimum.

You can add perlite to each hole when planting seedlings and mix it with the ground. Perlite granules immediately after watering absorb excess moisture from the soil, and as it dries, they gradually release it. Perlite holds four times more water than it weighs.

Sow green manure

If you still find that vegetables cannot be grown in the coming season, use the forced downtime to improve the soil. In early spring, areas not occupied by perennials can be sown with mustard, oats, and barley.

Before the onset of hot weather, they will form a good green mass even without watering. As soon as siderates are about to bloom, mow them down and do not remove them: let them cover the soil. In early autumn, green manure can be sown again, expanding the range of winter crops - rye, wheat, which will safely overwinter and in the spring will serve as mulch and soil improver.

Without vegetation cover, the soil overheats, dries up, and useful microflora dies in it. In addition, light soil is very susceptible to erosion: its top layer is easily blown out by the wind, washed away by melt and rain water.

Hot weather is a blessing. With enough heat and moisture, and besides those on fertile land, everything grows rapidly and develops amicably. But if the reserves of soil moisture are negligible, all kinds of vegetables will suffer and spend their energy on survival, and not on the accumulation of the crop. In hot weather, all physiological processes in plants are accelerated. Wild herbs quickly come to bloom, and as for cultivated plants, they also tend to enter maturity faster.

Why "shoot" and what to do?

For example, a radish with good watering in a fertile garden bed does not experience stress from the heat and gets fat by leaps and bounds. It is very tasty, juicy. My father taught me how to choose the best radish on the market when needed. Root crops should be large and always with short tails. This means that this radish grew in ideal conditions. And you should not buy a radish with long hairy rat roots, it is either woody or empty inside: it was rarely watered, so it has grown such a long root. On overdried beds, radishes, even before they get fat, already throw out flower stalks and turn into an inedible "blossom".

Premature flowering of radishes in the northern gardens is facilitated by an extremely long summer day. In the northern regions, it is advisable to sow radishes either in May or in mid-July, when the nights begin to turn black and the heat subsides.

However, breeders have created varieties that are little susceptible to shooting. For example, the zoned St. Petersburg variety Virovsky Bely. But it also gives juicy, tasty, large root crops only with a sufficient supply of soil moisture and spacious sowing. Here, as they say, you can’t get away from nature anywhere! In addition, even with dense sowing, in cramped conditions, the radish grows small and quickly passes to flowering. Therefore, the seeds must be sown at a distance of at least 5 cm in the line.

Beets have their own habits: they get fat like a boar

Very freedom-loving and our adored beets. She should be even more spacious in the garden than a radish. Therefore, thickened crops are certainly pulled apart.

The first time they are thinned out so that there are five centimeters between the sprouts. And when pretty root crops already appear in the ground, it is pulled apart a second time, so to speak, -into a bunch-. This is a market term. Herb vendors bundle beets with leaves and sell them in the bazaar to lovers of cold borscht. Root crops left in the garden get the opportunity for further growth. Try not to pull the beets in any row, and you will see that instead of vigorous bells, mouse tails will grow there.

Truly large beets grow on fertile and certainly moist soil.

In addition, keep in mind that beets do not like sourness. Where horsetail and sorrel grow, you will never get good beets there.

And the ground for beets is usually deoxidized in the fall, when dolomite flour is scattered over the garden. Or in the spring, when ash is brought in when digging the beds. But if in the summer you suddenly notice that something is wrong with the beets, then you urgently need to sweeten the earth, neutralize the excess acidity of the soil - just pour the daily infusion of ash (a glass on a bucket of warm water). There is calcium, potassium, phosphorus and a complete supply of all mineral nutrients, except for nitrogen. The beets receive nitrogen from humus, which we fertilize the earth with.

And beets are very fond of table salt, but, of course, in moderation. Here we cannot tolerate unsalted borscht, and if we add too much salt, then you won’t take it in your mouth at all. So is the candle.

Its measure is simple: a stop tray with a brisk on a bucket of water. When the root crops begin to pour, it is then that it is watered with salted water for the first time. Then after three weeks they give again salty swill. And she has enough salt for the whole season.

But water is still provided on demand. That is, it will be good for her if the earth is wetted for the entire root layer.

When potatoes bloom

In the garden, potato tops quickly rise. Until she closes over the rows, the diligent summer resident has time for two. or even three times spud the stems with earth. This is very important for the harvest. You need to skillfully spud potatoes. If you simply rake up the ground with a mound to the middle of the bush, then the rain will roll off the mound, the roots will get less moisture. Therefore, potatoes are spudded in such a way that something similar to the crater of an extinct volcano turns out, that is, in the bosom of the stems, a small hole should turn out, as it were, and outside it - a mound running down.

Why are we doing this? And you look how the potato bush grows in the garden and how cleverly this plant is arranged. The petioles of the leaves are directed downwards, and when it rains. Potatoes catch moisture with their leaves, and it flows down the leaf blades to the stems, and then into the middle of the bush. And there, a snow bunting is just arranged, thanks to skillful hilling.

Once I was very interested in the experience of potato growers in identifying the best ways to hill potatoes. And it turned out that it is best to manually spud potatoes together. One pushes the stems to the sides, and the other fills them with earth from a shovel. At the same time, a bush with a wide base is formed, the stems are straightened in different directions and do not obscure each other, they fully use sunlight for the most efficient photosynthesis - for the benefit of the crop.

Potatoes especially need moisture from the moment the buds appear until the end of flowering, that is, within three weeks. This is the period of crop formation, and at this time the most important thing for us is to provide potatoes with water.

Two or three good warm showers will pass - and, consider, we will be with the potato harvest. And if it doesn't rain, grab the buckets, summer resident!

Among the questions about potatoes from village gardeners and our summer residents from year to year in July, the same one is repeated: is it necessary to pick flowers from potato bushes? The answer is always the same: no one will stop you from doing it. But there is no practical use. If there is an increase in yield from such an operation, it is so meager that it does not deserve attention.

You can dig young potatoes as soon as the bushes fade.

Now we must regularly look around the potato bushes: are there the Colorado potato beetle, its oviposition and unusually voracious larvae? In a week, they are able to eat all the foliage naked, and only basty cannon stalks will remain in the garden!

Beetles - no mercy! Against them, all means are good, and especially biological ones, they cause paralysis of the digestive system of insects; beetles and larvae can no longer eat and die. For example, the drug Nematobact — it has already passed production tests. It is enough to spray it on the beds, and the pests will die, including beetles, larvae and slugs. But it does not affect humans, birds, beneficial insects.

How to save moisture in the garden

In the summer, all garden plants need watering sometimes. But onions and garlic no longer need to be watered from the moment the feather begins to fall, and the bulbs begin to ripen. But broad-leaved plants - lettuce, cabbage, mustard leaf, turnip, radish, swede, etc. - constantly need moisture.

Good earth retains moisture reserves for a long time and at the same time remains airy and loose. Sandy lands are loose and airy. But they do not hold moisture. Plants here suffer from drought, they need to be watered much more often than on loams, which hold moisture very well. There is little air in clay soils. Here the plants will suffocate without air, they have weak roots. And on weak roots, like on weak horses, you will not go far. Therefore, when cultivating the soil, gardeners add loam to sandy lands, and sand to clay soils.

But the most important thing that makes the earth fertile, moisture-intensive, airy, nutritious, the most useful for plants, is a good supply of organic matter.

One gardener - his dacha on the Karelian Isthmus - showed me his well-groomed, fruitful garden. However, this area was not always like this. When they received land for horticulture, he was horrified at how deserted, wild and unpromising for gardening the plot was.

The gardener stubbornly, day after day, year after year, dug trenches in the ground, filled them with cut grass, branches of deciduous trees and shrubs, dug up and mixed with meager soil podzol. And in ten years, a fertile layer about 60-80 centimeters thick formed in the garden. Everything now grows magnificently in the garden and in the beds. And drought is not terrible here, organic matter perfectly retains winter moisture reserves. In the summer heat, this land warms up well, and the plants are in complete comfort.

Mulching the garden from the heat is the best thing!

Modern gardeners are increasingly using composts to combat drought. made from herbs. They act not only as a moisture-retaining fertilizer. They shade the soil, that is, they create a shadow.

Let's say he sowed the same beets or planted tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage - be sure to cover the surface of the beds between the plants with a layer of mulch with a thickness of 5 to 15 cm, but no more.

These semi-decayed remains of plants or even fresh small grass cuttings do not allow the earth to dry out. The moisture contained in the soil is not wasted in the hot sun. So the mulch saves water for cultivated plants. This is good for the harvest.

Nina Petrovna Pyakhina in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region grows wonderful tomatoes and cucumbers year after year in her greenhouse. Cucumbers are juicy, sweet, and tomatoes never get sick with late blight. The air in the greenhouse is not stuffy even in the heat. Because the beds are covered with a layer of grass cutting 5 to 10 cm thick. Through this cutting, Nina Petrovna waters the beds with warm water.

Weeds do not crawl through this feather bed, and what appears is easy to weed. The roots of tomato, cucumber, eggplant, pepper and other crops are fed from a grass blanket with fertilizers. If there is not enough nutrition in the soil, then it will not be difficult to add infused mullein to the irrigation water or to loosen the ash. Or use a weak solution of complex mineral fertilizer. A teaspoon on a bucket of irrigation water - more is not needed.

In those greenhouses where steamy air stagnates, fungal plant diseases will certainly develop there. Use mulch like N. P. Pyakhina. Let it air out more often and water less often.

In the steamy air from abundant watering, stepchildren stick. Tired of plucking extra shoots. And if the land is mulched, stepchildren do not grow so fast.