The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-03-27
How to Prepare a Garden.

MANY people commence the prepare
ton Uf their gardens too early in the
season, before the soil has become suf-
ficiently dry and friable. If digging is
done when the earth is wet and clOggy.
the operation causes the soil to become
like unbaked bricks, which afterward
gives a large amount of additional
labor to sufficiently pulverize it and
render it suitable for seed-growing and
for setting outyoung plants. It should
not. therefore, be commenced until the
sun and drying winds have evaporated
all excess of water. Spading with
spade is now seldom done by first-class
gardeners, the tlat-tined spading-fork
being used in preference, as the soil
can be more thoroughly and better
pulverized with it than with spade.
1t is also far better implement for
spading among fruit trees, shrubs and
hardy plants in the flower garden, as it
does not cut and destroy the surface
roots.
Preparing the soil for the kitchen
garden is the first work to be done, as
many vegetable seeds do not vegetate
freely if sown when the ground is too
warm. The first operation is the
spreading of the manure, horse manure
being the best for general purposes. If
hog, sheep, or chicken manure is to be
used, it should be first prepared by
mixing it with plenty of good-dry soil.
and breaking down and pulverizing all
Jumps. This will enable it to be more
evenly and easily spread, for if left in a
lunpy state one plant is liable to have
too much manure, whilst another may
not have any, or at any rate less than
its share. Horse or stable-yard manure
should have all the long straw, corn
stalks, or other rubbish well shaken out
of it. It is not necessary for ordinary
garden purposes that the manure
should be rotted. It may be applied
quite fresh, only less of it being used
than when rotted, as it is much stronger.
Manure should always be very evenly
spread, and in small quantities at q
time, as when exposed to the action of
the sun and the high, drying winds of
March and April, large proportion of
its strength is evaporated, and so
wasted. The spading fork, when used
in digging unoccupied soil, should al
ways be inserted nearly perpendicular
ly to the depth of eight or nine inches,
the slices not being more than five or
six inches wide; if much wider, the soil
cannot be sufficiently pulverized, and
If the fork is not inserted to q sufficient
depth, the roots of the young plants
will not penetrate deep enough to ena-
BILE them to Withstand any drought.
The operation of trenching, or Dig
ging the soil two or more spades deep,
IS generally wrongly performed, as the
bottom soil is brought to the surface,
and the top soil buried below. In such
cases the soil brought to the surface is
almost always poor and of hungry
nature, totally untitled for young plant
life. The proper way of doing it is to
open q trench two or more feet wide
and spade deep, throwing the top
soil to one side, then spread some
manure in the bottom of the trench,
and spade it into the bottom soil; on
this throw the top soil of the next
trench, incorporating with 1t some
manure, and 10 on, trench after trench,
until the plot 10 finished, Alling up the
LAST trench with thc Top soil taken ffoia
: ths hrst trench,