The Home Farm E-Book

Nicki Trench

• Herausgeber: CICO Books
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Create your own farm in your garden with tips on growing, harvesting and eating your own produce. Nicki Trench has created her own garden farm from scratch, and now shares with you everything there is to know about growing vegetables, fruit and herbs, including making your own compost, growing in raised beds and protecting your crops from pests and disease. Nicki also explains how to rear chickens for eggs and bees for honey, and gives advice on keeping goats and pigs. The benefits of creating your garden farm are not just economic – the energy once obsessively expended on the exercise bike can now be channelled more productively by digging the vegetable patch, turning the compost or cleaning out the hen coop. Communities are reappearing over garden fences as neighbours share their harvest of courgette, spinach and eggs. Whatever you choose to grow or rear on your garden farm, this book offers a taste of the good life that is easy, satisfying and inexpensive to achieve.

Leseprobe

The

Home Farm

The

Home Farm

How to grow your own fruit and vegetables and keep animals and bees in your backyard

Nicki Trench

This edition published in 2022 by CICO Books An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

341 E 116th St

London WC1R 4BW

New York, NY 10029

First published in 2010 as Creating Your Backyard Farm and Creating your Garden Farm

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Nicki Trench 2010 and 2021 Design, illustration, and photography © CICO Books 2010

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-80065-092-3

E-ISBN: 978-1-80065-146-3

Printed in China

Project Editor: Gillian Haslam Text editor: Jo Richardson Designer: Christine Wood Photographer: David Merewether (photographs on page 71, 75, 76, 79, 87, 108, 111 and 133, step 6 by Caroline Hughes) Illustrator: Michael Hill

Art director: Sally Powell Head of production: Patricia Harrington Publishing manager: Penny Craig Publisher: Cindy Richards

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1Starting Off

Planning your kitchen garden

Soil

Composting

Wormeries

Growing in raised beds

Equipment

Chapter 2Sowing and Growing

Growing under cover

Sowing and planting

Growing in containers

Watering

Pests and diseases

Chapter 3The Kitchen Garden

Root vegetables

Brassicas

Legumes

Onion family

Cucurbits

Leaves

Stem and perennial vegetables

Growing fruit

Growing herbs

Wild food

Storing produce

Chapter 4Keeping Animals

Hen keeping

Beekeeping

Keeping goats

Keeping pigs

Useful addresses and websites

Index

Author’s acknowledgments

Introduction

The enthusiasm for growing your own produce and cooking fresh and local extends much further than simply reducing costs. People are feeling tricked; we no longer recognize the true shapes, colors, and textures of the plastic-wrapped and overpackaged produce that appears on the shelves of our supermarkets. We’re presented with a world removed from reality. Headless, footless, and fatless chickens encased in cellophane; apples, carrots, and tomatoes all uniform in shape and color; broccoli trimmed and wrapped so perfectly that no one knows what the real plant looks like. When you grow your own produce, you see the plant for how it is—the beautiful deep-red veins that run through beet (beetroot) leaves, strangely shaped carrots unlike the straight, uniform specimens you see in the stores, or the majestic thistlelike flower of the artichoke.

Embracing the oddball

People now reject odd-shaped vegetables because they probably think they’re from outer space. With all this perfection around in the kitchen, maybe we apply the same weird standards to people, rejecting the apparently odd from our lives. The world of advertising has a lot to answer for. And how many children can name the various vegetables when they see them, let alone recognize the plant, or know where cuts of meat come from?

Making a change for the better

With the growing awareness of the impact that food miles has on the environment and the advantages of eating nonsprayed, local, and organic food, people are once more opting to grow their own. In the U.S., the sales of vegetable seeds have now overtaken those of flowers and hen husbandry is outstripping the keeping of rabbits and guinea pigs as pets. Of course, this all makes sense. Domestic pets have their uses: cats are great mouse and rat catchers, and dogs will keep unwelcome cats off the fresh soil in your vegetable patch. But nothing is as good and tasty as a bright yellow egg produced by your own free-range, happy hens.

Fresh eggs with bright yellow yolks laid daily by your own hens.

Using your time and space wisely

The space you have will determine just how far you go in being a home farmer. If you have a small backyard (garden), with room for only a few pots, this shouldn’t put you off. You can grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruits in a small space and many varieties will enthusiastically grow wonderful produce. If you have a larger space, plan carefully and you’ll be able to have enough beds to rotate your crops, helping to maintain their health and that of the soil, as well as the opportunity to keep hens, bees, or even goats and pigs. And that means you’ll be well on the way to being self-sufficient.

Ripe, crunchy apples waiting to be picked and eaten straight from the tree.

Animals will need time devoted to them, and they also need to be kept in an appropriate area that is best for them and best for you. I once kept a goat and decided to let it have free run of the garden, until it ate through my internet cable. It has to work both ways: an escaped pig may be fun to watch being chased back to its pen by amused bystanders, but it can totally destroy your vegetables in two minutes flat.

In our modern society, time is an issue. Most people simply cannot devote their whole time to becoming totally self-sufficient, but even if you make just a small impact on your own and your family’s lives, you will be contributing to the good of the environment and your and their well-being. There may be times of the year when your home-grown produce will be sparse, but with a little planning, you should be able to grow at least something for the kitchen table in every season, and can and preserve your gluts to keep you going through winter

Benefiting your health

Spending time in your garden has enormous health benefits. Not only will you be working outside in the fresh air but digging and preparing your soil, weeding, and turning over your compost will render visits to the gym unnecessary. Who wants to waste time on a treadmill when you could be working toward growing and producing your own food instead? In recent years many local communities have set up community gardens (allotments) where they’re finding that working with the soil, besides offering enormous physical health benefits, gives people a sense of purpose and improves mental health.

Vegetables are best eaten fresh, as they contain natural sugars that quickly turn to starch. Commercially grown vegetables have often lost a great deal of their goodness by the time they reach the supermarket shelves and, what’s more, have lost half their flavor. As soon as you start to harvest and eat your own produce, you’ll be bowled over by the explosion of flavors that makes store-bought produce fade into insignificance.

Overcoming the age barrier

It doesn’t matter at what stage you’re at in life when contemplating a garden farm. Vegetables, fruits, herbs, and animals will not care how old or young you are and they will do their best to work with you. If you have children, try to involve them as much as you can in choosing and growing your produce and in looking after the animals. This will teach them how to cultivate the food that they will eat as well as a sense of commitment and nurture when keeping animals.

Garlic drying, before being ready to be strung for storage.

I’m often taken by surprise when my daughter, who avows that she’d rather be out and about shopping for the latest fashion any day than in the garden and wouldn’t be seen dead in a vegetable patch, will proudly dig up and show off vegetables that “we’ve” grown when her friends are around.

Joining the garden farming fraternity

Because the knowledge of previous generations about how to keep a garden farm has disappeared, it’s quite common to find that your parents don’t know anything about gardening, so you may need to gain experience and knowledge from your local community. You’ll discover a great deal of camaraderie when keeping a garden farm. Experienced gardeners will be more than happy to share their experiences and advice with you. I have met some fascinating and extraordinary people through growing vegetables and keeping animals; people who’ve freely given their time, knowledge, and even some of their prize vegetables or eggs just for the joy of sharing. What I’ve learned is that there is always something more to learn. Even gardeners who have grown produce or kept animals all their lives are still keen to hear of your experiences that, in turn, may help them, no matter how trivial or small.

In my neighborhood, we frequently swap our produce—a glut of zucchini (courgettes), potatoes, or beets (beetroot) is often exchanged for jars of honey, jelly or chutney, or eggs, and if you have to go away or need a vacation, the contacts you make will be invaluable when you need someone to look after your animals or water the garden.

It’s always good to make contact with your local gardening or poultry club or beekeeping society; some of the latter will even match you up with a “buddy” for a couple of years to help you start your bee colony. You will gain a great sense of community, and may even go on to enter some of your produce or show some of your livestock and win prizes at a local show.

Gaining inspiration and restoration

Your home farm will be a place where you’ll feel calm, and recharge and restore your sanity from the pressures of twenty-first-century living. Some of your efforts will be hit and miss, and there’ll be some mistakes, but you’ll soon discover that, with a little help from the elements, your seeds and young plants will flourish along with your enthusiasm and confidence, and you’ll be set up with a way of life that there’s no going back on.

From being out in the fresh air, you will increase your sense of awareness of nature and the seasons. Recently, when I was with my family looking for blackberries, we came across a whole abundance of wildlife we weren’t expecting that day: a bird’s nest full of little fledglings hidden in a hedgerow, a greengage bush laden with ripe fruits, a squirrel foraging for nuts, and a deer family bounding through the woods. These are pleasures we would never have experienced if we’d decided to stay in.

When planning the space between your vegetable beds, ensure there is enough room for a wheelbarrow.

CHAPTER ONE

Starting Off

When you’ve made the decision to be a home farmer, knowing how to begin can be daunting, as there’s so much choice on offer in garden centers and seed catalogs. The secret is in the planning: go to the store or browse the catalog with a list. Think about the types of produce you want to grow—what vegetables you eat, the space you have available, and the time you can commit are all factors in narrowing down the choice. When starting out there’ll be a lot of trial and error involved.

Don’t let the fear of not having the right equipment scare you. It’s surprising what you’ll uncover in your shed. There are many tools available, including a variety of fancy gadgets, but all you need to begin with are the basics—a garden fork, a trowel, and a watering can.

Cost doesn’t have to be an issue. A pack of seeds is surprisingly cheap. You’ll need a few bags of compost to start off your seed trays, and for the first year, until you’ve created your own compost, it’s useful to buy in some well-rotted manure to enrich your soil. Alternatively, you may have a local farmer or neighbor who keeps animals who’ll be able to provide some for free in exchange for some of your garden produce.

Vegetables are very willing companions. The seeds will want to germinate and the plants will be more than enthusiastic to grow. Don’t be put off by pests and diseases either; they’re often less troublesome than you think. Yes, you may lose a few plants along the way, but with experience you’ll find the best methods and controls. Starting off with a vegetable garden is one of the most enjoyable things in life, and with a little thought and planning, you’ll be set up for the foreseeable future.

PLANNING YOUR KITCHEN GARDEN Food for thought

When spring comes, it’s easy to get overexcited by the array of seed packages on the shelves of your local garden center or in mail-order catalogs. Vegetables are anything but ugly, and a well-planted vegetable garden is a beautiful sight. The different sizes, shapes, colors, and textures of the leaves and crop give your garden a rich, abundant, and welcoming atmosphere.

What to plant

The joy of simply growing vegetables can result in vegetable beds full of plants that you and your family don’t eat. Prepare a list of vegetables you want to grow and arrange the crops in the garden according to the amounts you wish to grow, dates to be planted, and the available space. Plant tall crops on the north side of the garden so that they don’t shade low-growing crops. Careful planning will ensure that you have a continuous crop of vegetables all year round. Keep a record in either a garden notebook or on your computer of what varieties and how many you have planted, how well they have grown, and when and what you’ve harvested. This will come in very useful when planning next season’s planting.

Talk to local farmers or gardening societies about what crops they grow and when they plant and harvest them. Ask about your local first and last frost dates, and schedule your sowing and planting accordingly.

Plot position

Vegetable beds are best sited on level ground and I’ve always tried to position them as near as possible to the house. Beds that are out of sight are often more neglected, and if visible from indoors, it’s much easier to spot when an escaped chicken is raiding your lovingly grown spinach or other tender crops. I once had a vegetable bed around the corner and out of eyeshot of the house. On my usual rounds during the evening I found a whole row of young leaves pecked to the ground by a fat chicken escapee who’d been happily nibbling out of sight all day.

Space

Plant according to your space, as well as soil type and local climate. Some vegetables such as artichokes and cabbages require a lot of space and are slow growing, which means they’ll take up valuable room all season. If you have a small backyard (garden) or a patio, make use of planting in pots and containers (see pages 51–52), grow plenty of the vegetables you know you’ll eat, and avoid tying up valuable space with just one plant that will take months to grow and that you may not eat.

When a space appears in your vegetable plot, be ready to fill it with another crop. Choose high-yielding varieties and fast-growing crops; salad leaves, for example, are perfect for filling in gaps. If you sow replacement crops in small pots, they will be ready to transplant into the vegetable patch as soon as the space becomes available.

Use trellises, stakes, or cages made from wood or garden twine to support vining crops such as tomato, squash, cucumber, and pole beans that use up a great deal of space when allowed to grow along the ground, thus minimizing the use of ground space and increasing garden productivity.

Early-maturing, quick-growing crops such as beans, radishes, onions, spinach, aurugula (rocket), or salad leaves can be planted between the rows of late-maturing crops like tomatoes, bell peppers, cabbage, or corn to increase production in a small area, the former being harvested before the others become large and block out the sun.

Water

In the summer months when watering is a daily ritual, having access to an outside faucet or hose will save a lot of heaving of watering cans to and from the house. Make sure that you have a hose long enough to reach your beds and greenhouse or cold frame. Plan your vegetable garden away from waterlogged areas and aim for a position where the soil is well drained.

If possible, make a separate area for your beds away from tree roots and shady shrubs that will compete with the vegetables for the moisture available in the soil.

Weather

Avoid growing your crops in windy spots. Wind will slow down growth and can damage some of the taller, more fragile plants such as fava beans (broad beans) and corn. If unavoidable, consider planting small hedges or fences around your vegetable area, but they must be far enough away and low enough not to create too much shade. Your crops will grow best in as much sun as possible, although some plants will prefer a little shade in the hotter months. Many vegetables need at least six hours of sunlight each day for optimum growth. Bear in mind that the angle of the sun is lower in the spring and fall, and may affect how the garden is shaded by nearby trees.

Planting salad leaves makes good use of space between rows of other vegetables.

Gluts

Thinking carefully about which vegetables you will eat in the largest quantities and planting accordingly will avoid gluts and wasted effort in growing produce that ends up overripe and thrown onto the compost. If you find yourself with more of one type of vegetable than you or your family can eat, think about getting together with neighbors or friends and do a vegetable share. In my neighborhood, we’ll often be seen wandering around each other’s gardens at dinner time, wielding a knife, scissors, or pruning shears, collecting different vegetables from each one. Some of us prefer planting ornamental cabbages, while others grow more salad leaves or different varieties of carrot. We’re all very keen to share our gluts rather than bin them and it makes for a wonderful community spirit and friendly competitiveness over whose are the best plants.

Wildlife

Most wildlife is an asset to the kitchen gardener: hedgehogs eat a range of garden pests, foxes take mice, frogs, and toads will consume slugs. Having said that, some birds, particularly pigeons, can be a nuisance and will devour leafy seedlings, while mice can be troublesome if they get to your fresh, ripe strawberries before you do.

Crop rotation

A particular crop of vegetables should not be grown in the same spot each year, so it’s essential to rotate your crops on a three- or four-year cycle. Rotating your vegetables will avoid pests and diseases, and prevent the soil nutrients becoming unbalanced.

Rotating takes a little planning as well as a basic knowledge of the vegetable families. Vegetables are categorized into basic family groups (see panel below), and these groups of vegetables should be rotated together, as they use soil in similar ways and share similar pests. Most vegetables are hardy or semi-hardy annuals and should be planted every year on a four-year rotation so that the same vegetable family isn’t planted in the same location within four years.

Vegetable families

Roots Potatoes, carrots, beets (beetroot), radishes, parsnips

Brassicas Cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale

Legumes Peas, beans

Onions Garlic, leeks, onions, shallots

Cucurbits Squashes, pumpkins, zucchini (courgettes), large zucchini, melons, cucumbers

Stem and perennial vegetables Celery, celeriac, fennel, artichokes, asparagus, rhubarb

Fruiting vegetables Tomatoes, bell peppers, chilies, corn

Leaves and salads Lettuce, mustard cress, radicchio, chicory, endive, aurugula (rocket), spinach, chard

An example of crop rotation. Clockwise from top left: root veg, brassicas, legumes, onions —rotate the beds annually.

Companion planting

The concept of companion planting is that if you plant certain plants around or close to others, they can offer them the benefit of providing pest control without the need to use chemicals. Some combinations work because of the scents the plants use to repel insects, others by attracting beneficial pests or acting as a decoy for harmful ones. Through combining plants carefully, you can create plant communities that also help each other by providing nutrients in the soil or offering protection from wind or sun. Companion planting isn’t a new idea—gardeners have used it for a long time—but debate continues as to whether or not it works. Whatever your view, it’s worth trying this method if you’re having particular problems growing one type of vegetable or if you’ve been unsuccessful in getting rid of pests using organic methods. Use this chart as a guide to planting companion plants that will either attract pollinators or pest predators to help your plants thrive.

PlantCompanionsFunctionAppleNasturtium, chivesNasturtium climbs tree and repels codling moth. Chives grown beneath apple trees will help to prevent apple scab.AsparagusParsleyHelps improve flavor.AvocadosComfreyGreat natural compost and nutrient provider.BeanRosemary, cornRosemary deters bean beetles. Corn can act as a trellis for beans and beans attract predators of corn pests.Beet (beetroot)Onion, lettuce, cabbage, garlicAdds minerals to the soil if leaves are left to compost in the ground.Brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli)Aromatic plants, sage, dill, chamomile, beet(root), peppermint, rosemary, bean, onion, potato, garlic, mintDill attracts parasitic wasps to control cabbage butterfly. Rosemary, mint, and garlic deter cabbage butterfly. Chamomile deters flies and mosquitoes and gives strength to plants growing nearby.CarrotLettuce, pea, leek, chives, onion, cucumber, bean, tomato, sage, rosemaryTomatoes grow well with carrots, but can reduce the carrots’ growth. Beans provide nitrogen that carrots need more than some other vegetables. Aromatic companion plants tend to repel carrot fly, as does leek. CeleryLeekImproves growth.Cucumber, zucchini (courgettes)French marigold, bean, corn, pea, radishMarigolds are a particularly good companion for most plants. They produce a strong pesticidal chemical from their roots. Radish deters cucumber beetles and rust flies.Fruit treesTansy, comfreyTansy is a good general insect repellent, as well as of ants and mice, and is a useful addition to the compost pile, as it’s high in potassium. Warning: don’t plant it near livestock, as it’s toxic to many animals.LettuceTall flowers, carrots, radish, onion familyFlowers offer light shade for lettuce. Onion helps improve flavor.OnionLeek, chamomileLeek improves growth. Chamomile deters flies and mosquitoes and gives strength to plants growing nearby.PotatoBeans, cabbage, marigold, horseradish, cornHorseradish, planted at the corners of the potato patch, provides general protection. Don’t plant tomatoes and potatoes together, as they can both get early and late blight and can contaminate each other.PumpkinCorn, squash, marigold, nasturtium, oreganoMarigold deters beetles. Nasturtium deters bugs and beetles. Oregano provides general pest protection.RaspberriesGarlicHelps keep aphids away from raspberries.SpinachRadishRadish attracts leaf miner away from spinach.SquashBorageImproves growth and flavor.StrawberryOnion, garlic, borageAll help to improve flavor. Onions help the berries fight disease. Borage increases the yield. TomatoFrench marigold, borage, onion, garlic, parsley, asparagus, chives, broccoli, sweet basil, marigold, carrotsMarigolds repel whitefly when planted with tomatoes. Borage deters tomato worm and improves growth and flavor. Onion, garlic, and parsley help to improve flavor. Planting basil in the greenhouse with tomatoes helps repel flies and aphids. Mint deters ants and fleas (especially spearmint) and will deter clothes moths.Most plantsMarigoldRepels carrot flies and is a general insect repellent.Most plants, particularly radishes, brassicas, cucurbits, fruit treesNasturtiumSecretes a mustard oil, which many insects find attractive, particularly the cabbage white moth. The flowers repel aphids and the cucumber beetle. The climbing variety grown up apple trees will repel codling moth.Most plantsNettleBeneficial anywhere; increases aroma and pungency of herbs.Most plantsFennelRepels flies, fleas, and ants.Most plantsPeasPeas fix nitrogen in the soil. Plant with corn, bean, carrot, cucumber, parsley, early potato, radish, spinach, strawberry, bell pepper. Do not plant peas with onions.Most plantsSunflowerPlant sunflowers around the garden to deter aphids. Ants will drive aphids onto sunflowers. The aphids will cause little damage to the sunflowers.Most plantsThymeProtects brassicas, improves growth and flavor of vegetables; general insect repellent.Most plantsCatnipRepels fleas, ants, and rodents.

SOIL Ground rules

Soil is the most important resource in your kitchen garden. The type and condition of the soil that you have influences the crops that you grow. If you look after your soil well, feed it, and nurture it, it will look after your vegetables, which in turn will look after you.

Composition

Soil is made up of organic matter: bacteria, fungi, and tiny creatures that recycle the organic matter and use the air, moisture, and the minerals to make essential plant food. Well-balanced soil contains equal amounts of three types of particle: sand, silt, and clay. Clay has the smallest soil particles, silt has medium-size particles, and sand has the coarsest particles. The amounts of clay, silt, and sand in a soil determine its texture. Loam, the ideal garden soil, is a mixture of 20 percent clay, 40 percent silt, and 40 percent sand.

Soil varies greatly from area to area and sometimes one type of particle is dominant (see chart below). If this is the case with your soil, it will benefit from some help from you to get the best out of your vegetable plants. Soils that have been uncultivated for years are often deficient in one or other of the elements necessary for healthy plants. A medium soil, well supplied with organic material, is ideal for most vegetables. It is open, easily worked, warms up quickly, and retains moisture in summer.

What’s your soil type?

SandyDry and gritty; runs easily through your fingers. It drains easily in winter and warms up well in the spring. It doesn’t hold many nutrients and can dry out quickly in summer.ClaySticky; when squeezed into a ball it keeps its shape and can be molded into other shapes. It will cake as it dries, making it unsuitable for young plants. Rich in nutrients, drains badly in winter, but will usually stay moist in summer.SiltySilky in feel; neither squeezes into a ball nor falls readily through the fingers. Easily damaged during the winter. It’s a fertile soil and is relatively unlikely to be found in gardens.LoamyCrumbly; in between clay and sand. This is the best soil to have in the garden.ChalkyAlkaline and fast draining, requiring extra watering and nutrients.PeatyDark, spongy, and organically rich—wonderfully fertile, but usually acidic.

Soil pH

Soil is either acid, neutral, or alkaline, depending on the amount of calcium in the soil, which is measured using the pH scale. This ranges from 1.0 to 14.0; a pH of 7.0 is neutral, 1.0–7.0 is acidic, and 7.0–14.0 is alkaline. As a general guide, vegetables will grow best in a slightly acid soil with a pH of 6.5. Some vegetables have more specific needs; for example, the cabbage family favors a pH of 7–7.5, which helps reduce club root disease, potatoes like acid soil, whereas brassicas prefer alkaline soil.

An acidic soil contains too little calcium, an alkaline soil too much. With too little calcium, nutrients wash out of the soil; with too much, nutrients are trapped in the soil and can’t be absorbed by the plants.

It’s useful to measure the pH of your soil and you can buy home soil test kits from good gardening stores to give you a quick indication of the level of its acidity or alkalinity so that you can make the necessary adjustments (see below). The solution in the kit will usually turn orangey yellow in the case of an acid soil and dark green with an alkaline soil.

If your soil is acid, you can spread garden lime on top and then mix it into the soil enough to raise the pH level.

Testing the pH levels of your soil

1 Remove the top 2 inches (5cm) of soil and remove it to one side. Break up the soil underneath and dig to approximately 5 inches (12cm). Place some of the lower-level soil in a pot, remove all twigs, stones, and any bugs, and leave to dry naturally.

2 Put some of the dry soil into the tube of your testing kit up to the 1 ml mark. Add one scoop of the barium sulphate. Fill the tube to the 2.5 ml mark with the pH test solution.

3 Replace the cap and shake the tube. Leave the contents to settle for around ten minutes. Hold the tube up against the color chart to determine the pH level of your soil.

As well as benefiting the soil, digging the garden is great exercise, but remember to take frequent breaks.

Improving your soil

Soil is alive and needs to be treated as a living substance. Putting some extra effort into preparing your soil before planting will save you a lot of time and effort in the future.

Dig your vegetable bed to break up compacted soil (this will help with drainage) and remove rocks, weeds, and stones. Try to pull out as much of the weed roots as possible or they will keep returning. Don’t tread on soil if it’s too wet, as this will compact it and damage the soil’s structure.

Compost and other supplements can be added to any type of soil to improve its structure and this will enhance the size, flavor, and yield of your vegetables. The long-term objective of soil improvement is to build up humus, which is the organic matter that remains after the decomposition of plant and animal residues.

As a guide, add one bucketful of well-rotted organic matter—see opposite for the different types you can use—to every square yard. If you have thin or poor soil, double this amount. Spread the organic matter on top of the soil and then mix it into the top 6–12 inches (15-30cm), digging it in with a spade. This can be very hard labor, so plan to work on small areas at a time and possibly over a few days. Don’t worry if your bed is a few inches higher when you’ve finished—the level will settle over the course of the season. Add more organic matter to the soil twice yearly.

Drainage can also be improved by loosening the soil through cultivation. There are several common misconceptions about improving clay soil, for instance that adding sand will loosen it up and improve it, but in reality this will probably make the soil harder and cementlike.

Which organic matter?

Compost Collecting your garden and kitchen waste and making your own compost is by far the cheapest and best option (see pages 24–27).

Manure Well-rotted horse manure is excellent, as is chicken manure from your own garden. Ensure that this is well rotted down before you use it.

Manure should always be composted until it turns dark and crumbly. Fresh manure contains ammonia that can burn your plants.

Grass clippings or shredded leaves Work into the soil so that it decomposes slowly.

Green manures Also known as a “cover crop”, these are grown to improve the soil. If green manures are grown in the fall or winter, they will stop the nutrients from being washed away from the soil and suppress weeds. The roots will also keep the structure loose. Legumes (peas and beans) are good plants for green manures, as they decay quickly because their residues are high in nitrogen. Grass crops, such as rye, will also have a beneficial effect on soil organic matter because they have a high carbon to nitrogen ratio and decay more slowly. If allowed to flower, some green manures will attract pollinating insects. Other green manure crops include mustard, fenugreek, lupin, alfalfa, and buckwheat.