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Gardening
e-book:
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Ministry of Agriculture Allotment &
Garden Guide
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Click image
for
facsimile of page 3
November 1945
Page:
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2 / 3
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6 / 7 /
8
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That early
DIGGING cont'd |
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When
digging the heavy land, work in plenty of humus—making material such as
strawy manure—if you are lucky enough to have it—or compost, that will help
to make the soil lighter, warmer and better aerated. On the light soils it
is not usually wise to dig in manure at this time of year, since there is a
danger that much of the plant food it contains will be wasted to lower
levels by the winter rains and so be lost to the plant.
Many of us are now worried about the problem of keeping our land
fertile and in good heart, after flogging it for years during the war. |
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We
can't expect to get much manure, if any, from farmers, who likewise have
their fertility problems. Our only solution is compost. If we have not
already realised this, we can now start a compost heap, for there should be
plenty of material available, especially fallen leaves. The way to make
compost was described in an earlier guide (March),
so it will not be repeated here. If you need further information you can
still get a free Dig for Victory Leaflet No. 7—"How to make a Compost Heap"
from the Ministry at Berri Court Hotel, St. Anees, Lytham St. Annes, Lancs. |
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Facts about WEEDS |
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Gardeners may
argue about whether weeds or pests are their chief headache. Pests we have
dealt with pretty fully in earlier Guides and it may not be out of place
here to say a few words about weeds, for a wet autumn may have brought us
another crop, though we kept our plots fairly clean all summer. Now we may
be doing a bit of digging we can dig in the annual weeds, but we must be
careful to dig up and burn such perennials as dandelions, bindweed,
thistles, docks and couch. Most gardeners know the serious objections to
weeds, but for those who don't, here they are. Weeds absorb from the soil
moisture and plant food that would otherwise nourish and increase the
vegetable or fruit crop. They crowd the crop and keep from it the sunlight
so essential for healthy growth; they prevent the air circulating freely
among the plants, and they harbour and favour insect pests and fungus
diseases.
But as a writer in The Times said nearly forty years ago,
"Many a casual gardener owes what success he has largely to the accident of
weeds. They demand the use of the hoe; and the more soils and plants are
studied, the more manifest does it become that t friable, well-worked
surface is the prime secret of cultivation, even in the case of things that
grow deep." |
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The most obvious way to suppress weeds is to stop them seeding.
And what trouble we should save ourselves if we did—and if all our
neighbours did likewise! For many weed plants produce several thousand
seeds. And the seeds of many weeds do not all germinate at the same time and
may lie dormant in the soil and come up after many years. A single dandelion
flower turns to about 170 seeds, but an established three-year-old plant
produces nearly 5,000 seeds. But the groundsel beats that figure by 1,000.
The pretty little blue-flowered Eyebright can score 5,000 though the common
dock easily beats that, for a fair specimen can easily carry 13,000 seeds.
Hence the everlasting fight against weeds with hand and hoe and weed-killer.
On the other hand, on light soils, from which plant food is washed
away by autumn and winter rains, it is a good plan to let annual
weeds grow on patches from which crops have been lifted and are remaining
bare for some time. The weeds take up the plant food and store it; and when
they are dug in in the spring, they give it up again by rotting away. |
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