Making a Garden Part 1
Making Your Garden Part 1
Making the garden is easy but dedication and hard-work are needed if you want to succeed in creating a productive garden. All you need to know are important pointers from which to work from. As you gain experience, you will be surprised to find out how the practical knowledge flows easily as if you’ve been doing it your entire life.
Preparing the Soil
If you are planning to make the garden in the spring, and grass is growing on the spot you have chosen, turn over the ground in the previous fall. If there are leaves you can collect around the yard, turn them under the ground, where they will rot during the winter and nourish the soil.
You do not a fertilizer for rich soil. But if the soil is poor, you can enrich it in the spring with compost, manure, or a commercial fertilizer. Compost is made by piling fallen leaves or lawn clippings in a sheltered spot and letting them rot. This mixture can then be spread on the ground. If you use manure, you will need 100 pounds for every 100 square feet of garden. If you use a commercial fertilizer, follow the directions for its use.
When you spade your garden, dig about 10 or 12 inches deep. Dig when the ground is dry and crumbly. If you work when the earth is wet, it will cake. Do not spade the entire garden at once. Just prepare a section at a time for planting.
After you have spaded the soil, hoe and rake it until it is smooth. Small seeds, like carrot, radish, and lettuce seeds, should be planted in finely raked soil. For larger seeds or small plants, called seedlings, the soil may be coarser.
Planting Seeds
When you are ready to mark-off the rows in your garden, place a string on the ground as a guide. You can use the handle of your hoe to make a furrow—a long, shallow groove in which to plant small seeds. A corner of the blade of the hoe can be used to make a furrow for larger seeds.
Many people make the mistake of planting seeds too deep in the ground. Just think of the way wild flowers grow. Their seeds fall right on top of the ground. Most garden flowers should be planted ¼ inch deep. A good general rule is to plant a seed at a depth of three or four times its width.