How To Develop A Virgin Land

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

An economical method of growing vegetables and berries in the development of virgin garden plots

I got a plot of 12 acres in gardening by lot in 1950. It was located in an array under the village of Mga. During the war, this land was a battlefield, because to the now famous Nevsky patch, it is directly from us about three kilometers. And then, in the fifties, sappers were still working there, they cleared our areas, one of them was even blown up during mine clearing and died.

On my site there were two deep dugouts, deep trenches, a crater, and the whole earth was entangled with a net of barbed wire that had grown deep into the soil. Dugouts, trenches, funnels remained untouched for a long time. There was not enough time and energy, funds to bury them.

On the plot I inherited, there was practically no soil left; the ground was burned out and trampled down. There was a hard layer of podzol and a hard, water-tight clay. Before that, the land we got was not used, so we mastered the virgin lands.

× Gardener's handbook Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

For years we have been creating a fertile layer, gaining experience. They prepared the land for planting in a long-mastered way: for vegetables and potatoes, they deeply and repeatedly dug the soil onto the bayonet of a shovel, turning the top layer down, and evenly grinded and mixed it. Pits were dug under the fruit trees, mixing and changing the layer of earth by a meter and a half from the seedling and to a depth of 60-70 cm. It was exhausting, hard work. They tried to create a fertile layer, introduced humus, manure, mineral fertilizers, deoxidized the soil with lime, ash, chose stones, metal fragments …

It turned out that in the pits in which we planted fruit trees, water accumulated and did not leave, held by a layer of solid clay. Then the slurry accumulated there turned into a monolith, and sour with the onset of heat. With age, the trees sank into the ground above the root collar and the graft site. I had to master the planting of seedlings on the mounds of poured fertile soil.

The fruit trees planted earlier, as usual, in the pits, could not withstand the harsh winter of 1978-1979. In the gardening plots, they almost all died, and the remaining, barely survived, passed into periodic fruiting. The trees planted on the hills overwintered satisfactorily and began to yield yields.

My neighbors and I were developing our plots. But, despite all the efforts expended, failures from year to year pursued me in my agrarian business: now one or another crop disappointed - the harvest was not the one I expected. For example, I plant a potato variety that gives 6 kg per square meter according to varietal characteristics, but I don't even get half of what I expect.

And then I remembered how, as a boy, during the war years, I used turf for planting potatoes. Then the families of the front-line soldiers were given small plots of land for planting potatoes, and seed potatoes were also allocated. Of course, we did not save the tubers before planting: we were hungry, we put them in food, but we cut off the tops with eyes and collected potato peelings that were more or less suitable for planting. So we had to plant them in the spring. And to increase soil fertility, instead of applying manure (it was expensive to buy and deliver it), then they used such an agricultural technique: when planting potato cuts, instead of manure, they covered them with a 2-3 cm thick layer of turf with grass cut off with a shovel. The sod was laid with grass down and covered with earth from the site. Further care of the plantings was usual: loosening the soil, weeding, hilling.

× Notice board Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

I decided to apply this method in my garden in horticulture - I cut off the top of the turf, laid it in a groove when planting potatoes with the addition of an aqueous solution of mineral fertilizer after planting. And I was not mistaken: even then I received a significant increase in yield in those first years of the development of the site. This was new. And other gardeners began to use this method.

I still use this agricultural technique - "cutting the tops of the sod". Only now I am using it to heal berry bushes - black, red, golden currants and gooseberries.

I do it like this: I put the harvested cuts of sod with living vegetation - grass and roots, up to 2-3 cm thick, around the bushes with the top layer down. Before that, without digging into the depths, I rake the old layer of earth up to 7-10 cm deep around the bush - from the middle to the edge of the bush's circumference (projection of its crown). Then I sprinkle the decomposed cuts of turf lightly with earth. I do this in the fall, mid-October, or spring. Observations have shown that as a result, berry bushes are healed, the berries become larger, the yield increases … Of course, the use of this method does not exclude all other necessary agricultural practices: pruning, thinning, rejuvenation. It is also necessary to constantly observe all sanitary rules when working with plants so as not to spread pests and diseases around the site: to disinfect the pruner, saw and other equipment,wash shovels, pitchforks, rakes, wash off stuck earth from shoes and gloves.

Why does the healing of plants occur in this case? Everyone knows that perennial berry bushes, like other plants, spend a lot of energy on producing berries. Giving strength to the formation of berries, they weaken, age. And if adverse weather conditions, insufficient and untimely care are added to this, then this process is accelerated. It is believed that all these factors are the first and main reason that contributes to the emergence and spread of diseases and pests. In my opinion, covering the bushes with cuttings of sod with living vegetation - grass and roots - gives a new impetus to the development of the bushes.

Decaying vegetation - grass, roots - will become humus, fertilizer for the bush, and channels filled with air. Sod will create warmth, will serve for the reproduction of bacteria, worms. Thus, by healing, renewing the soil around the bush, we also heal the plant itself. I was clearly convinced of this over the many years of using this technique on my site: in the garden when growing vegetables and to obtain a guaranteed harvest of currants, gooseberries.