Sunday, May 16, 2010

Gardening - Working the Soil For still smaller areas


For still smaller areas, in which horses cannot be used and which are still too large for tilling wholly by means of hoes and rakes, various types of wheel-hoes may be used. These implements are now made in great variety of patterns, to suit any taste and almost any kind of tillage. For the best results, it is essential that the wheel should be large and with a broad tire, that it may override obstacles. Two-wheeled hoes are often used, particularly when it is necessary to have the implement very steady, and the wheels may straddle the rows of low plants. Many of these wheel-hoes are provided with various shapes of blades, so that the implement may be adjusted to many kinds of work. Nearly all the weeding of beds of onions and like plants can be done by means of these wheel-hoes, if the ground is well prepared in the beginning; but it must be remembered that they are of comparatively small use on very hard and cloddy and stony lands.


The saving of moisture

The garden must have a liberal supply of moisture. The first effort toward securing this supply should be the saving of the rainfall water.

Proper preparation and tillage put the land in such condition that it holds the water of rainfall. Land that is very hard and compact may shed the rainfall, particularly if it is sloping and if the surface is bare of vegetation. If the hard-pan is near the surface, the land cannot hold much water, and any ordinary rainfall may fill it so full that it overflows, or puddles stand on the surface. On land in good tilth, the water of rainfall sinks away, and is not visible as free water.


source : hydroponic


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