How To Master A New Site

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

How we mastered our site - advice to gardeners gardeners

Earth fans

The current site, where we grow dozens of different crops - from potatoes and onions to watermelons and melons - appeared in our country 19 years ago, in the fall. Then our youngest daughter had just started school. We were young, they took up the plot with enthusiasm, they thought: we would quickly cultivate the land, plant fruit trees, berry bushes, various vegetables, flowers.

First steps, first mistakes In fact, everything turned out to be not as simple as we drew in our dreams. Now we have already formed our own idea about the land, about the cultivation of cultivated plants on it, about the work of a person not only on the ground, but in any sphere. Before taking any step, he must clearly understand what purpose he pursues when buying a plot, a dog, a cat. At the same time, a person should not only follow fashion trends. Buying land or pets is serious business. And not everyone is ready to answer for them. That is why we see everywhere abandoned dogs, cats and neglected areas overgrown with weeds, which after a few years become unsuitable for cultivation.

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When buying a plot, a person must decide whether he has a tendency to work on the land and the opportunity to do it. More often than not, people think this way: they bought a plot - and he is already an expert in working on the ground, everything will work out for him. But there must be a goal - why the purchase of land was made - and a great desire to work on it. If a person has a desire and a goal, one must also be prepared for the fact that the earth itself will conduct a kind of testing of the owner. If from year to year he will get 25-30% of what was planned, then sooner or later he will abandon the earth, so it's better not to torment yourself in vain from the very beginning.

Many now take plots - summer cottages for recreation, but in order to have a rest, you need to create a favorable zone around you: to lay out lawns, flower beds, plant ornamental shrubs, trees. And in this, too, it is necessary to invest enormous work or a lot of money, which the bulk of our population does not have. Even just to maintain the site in proper form, just for recreation, it is also necessary to invest a lot of labor and funds annually. These are the conclusions we came to, having occupied the land for these 19 years. At the time when we got the site, it was a fashionable trend. And we didn't have the skills to work on the ground at all. And the fact that we stayed on the land, did not abandon it, like many in the district, can probably be explained by the fact that our grandfathers were wealthy peasants, had good farms, and their genes were passed on to both of us.

The site was peculiar - all around there was a swamp, birch forest and aspen thickets, however, there was also our romance to boot. Two daughters, who are now adults, recall with horror those years when we all worked on the site in rubber boots, we felt squelching under our feet, our legs fell through the grass every now and then, the boots got stuck, but there were no skills, there was only naked enthusiasm. How did we learn to work on the ground? They adopted many techniques from neighbors, repeated their mistakes, but little by little experience accumulated, even then something of their own began to be seen in the work. We uprooted and developed our weave in parts, exactly as much as we can master the land in a given year.

The virgin soil was reclaimed for five years. The forest on the site was also not cut down immediately, it stood for a long time. And according to our concepts (as it seemed to us), we developed it thoroughly. They brought manure, worked with the sod, poured the earth on top of the beds, delivering it on a cart from a barn abandoned nearby. In the early years there was no access for cars to the site; everything was brought on a cart. Five years later, as soon as we uprooted all the trees and shoveled all the land on the site for the first time, the question of draining it arose. Everyone is very tired of living every spring and autumn at their dacha without taking off their boots. In addition, all colds were constantly pursued.

It was very uncomfortable to work on the site at that time. Yes, and one cart is not enough to overpower such an area, you cannot manure much on it, the question of organizing an entrance to the site arose sharply, since there was a platform opposite it, overgrown with bushes and trees. They made a road to it, cut down the forest, it took six months. They covered the site with stones, broken brick, and covered it with more chips. The road was also covered with chips from above. Higher and higher … As soon as the site and the entrance appeared, the second period in the development of the site began.

A huge amount of wood chips, sawdust, boards for beds were immediately brought in - before, all this was cheap. Even the manure was not that expensive, every year we brought two carts of manure. A lot of grass was harvested and used. But material costs are a penny compared to the enormous work that was invested in the site. A more serious approach to its development began - already according to plan. We decided to seriously engage in drainage. The main drainage ditch along the entire massif was dug by the joint efforts of the gardeners-owners of the plots in the early years of development. But every spring the problem of cleaning it arose, and no one wanted to do these public works. Therefore, after we had an entrance and the possibility of transporting the necessary material, we began to thoroughly raise our site. Three main drainage ditches were dug on it - five meters from the edge on each side and one central one. We put special triangular boxes made of thick boards in them, and brought our drainage into the main ditch. Each drainage wooden box was covered with a rotting fiberglass film and the drainage ditches were covered with a thick layer of wood chips. They are now the main paths on our site.

Thus, the rubber boots problem was permanently solved. Then they brought in a lot of different materials, boards, which were used for edging the beds and building greenhouses. It is now the prices for materials "bite", then it was very cheap. They began to make the beds in a new way, with edging. What was it for? Because the earth sank every year, we were heated by water. The main drainage ditch along the massif was not cleaned, therefore it did not cope very well with its function, the water left very, very slowly. And if the season was rainy, then everyone had water between the beds. We came to the conclusion that the beds should be high, two (and we have beds and three) shovel bayonets from the clay. They took turns choosing the earth from edged vegetable beds to clay, a layer of chips or sawdust was poured on it, everything was shifted with earth, it was like a puff pie,a layer of hay was laid on top and the top layer of fertile soil was poured. Where did they get it?

At that time, we grew a lot of zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers, there were also hotbeds. For all these crops, warm beds were needed, a large layer of hay and manure was laid in them, the organic matter there intensively burned out during the season, it turned out to be good soil, in the fall it was taken for bedding to make new beds. In those days, it was profitable to deal with greenhouses - the assortment of vegetables and fruits in stores was scarce, so your own tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini were a great help. But, we note that, when dealing with greenhouses, we tried to adhere to the rule: none of them stood in one place for more than three years, and there was a clear alternation of growing tomatoes and cucumbers. The paths on the plot and in the greenhouses between the beds were always wide, covered with chips. × Notice board Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Now they are covered with 1.5-2 bayonets of a shovel from clay. It so happened that in three or four years we raised the site so much that we were already able to walk along the paths in shoes and slippers from early spring to late autumn. But the neighboring areas were in the water in spring and autumn. By its technology One of the important problems for gardeners is weed control. And we had to solve it.

To get rid of perennial weeds, the soil was carefully sorted out when laying the beds, extracting the roots of all perennial grasses from it. It was hellish work and absolutely unprofitable, but it later gave a result - over the years, clean beds appeared, and we try to weed out annual weeds immediately after their appearance. And now we already have our own proven technology for developing beds. For example, a strawberry plantation has served its time. We surround it in a common box, mow the strawberries, leaving the mowed tops in the same box.

Then we fill up the whole bed with a thick layer of sawdust, on top - a small layer of earth, trample it down slightly, on top we put a thick mattress of hay over the entire area, then - another layer of small earth, trample it slightly, and, finally, pour a layer of fertile soil from under the zucchini or cucumbers - 15-20 cm. You can plant onions, garlic in this box. We tried to plant potatoes in it, an excellent crop of tubers grows, and after the potatoes the earth will settle in a box, and then other crops can be planted. So we have a clear alternation of crops on the site.

We have not grown potatoes in one place for more than two years. Cultures replace each other in a circle. After early vegetables and potatoes, we immediately sow siderates: mustard, vetch, phacelia or rye. We consider weeding on the site to be a very important operation for caring for plants, we try to weed out weeds on time. Therefore, our beds are clean, and along the edge of the site we have to fight with weeds creeping from neighboring gardens: we dig a ditch 70 cm wide along the edge of the site, fill it with chips.

After two or three years, as the chips settle, we pour it onto the paths. With this care, the site becomes slightly higher every year. And it all started from the moment when we realized that we have a thick layer of clay under the fertile soil layer. And here it is, during the winter, it accumulates a lot of cold, which comes out completely only by the middle of summer, delaying the vegetation of plants. That is why we began to lay a thick layer of chips on this layer of clay. Now we have a thick layer of wood chips on all the clay on 9 acres. Sweat-watered harvest As the land on the site was saturated with our sweat, the very approach to growing plants changed.

In the early years, a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers were planted in greenhouses. It seems that according to those concepts of ours it turned out well. The land was virgin, and it helped us too. We read a lot of literature (how little it was then) on growing crops on personal plots. And even at that time, it was deposited in our minds: more must be invested in the land than taken out with the harvest. Experience appeared, and with it a desire to experiment: every year they built a new design, used different methods of cultivating the land, etc. But the main thing was in a new approach to growing plants.

At the very beginning of the development of the land, like all our neighbors, we took bushes, strawberry seedlings, seedlings of fruit trees from each other. We bought seedlings of trees and bushes, which were sold at the entrance of our plant from cars. The sellers assured that they were bringing them from the nursery. Some seedlings have stood the test of time, but these were single specimens. Much of what was acquired in the first years of development turned out to be non-varietal, gave meager yields and eventually left our site.

Now we treat all plantings on the site very responsibly, we try to understand the seedlings, varieties, seedlings, seeds. We read a lot of literature. Now we buy all the plants that we want to plant on the site. But it is imperative only where they can really offer a varietal culture of decent quality, and we do not plant dubious specimens. And most importantly, we buy any plant (even if it is a flower) only when we have prepared a place for it, or are sure that we can plant it with dignity. And if there is no place for planting, then we pacify our ardor and desire to acquire some kind of culture, proceeding only from what we want, i.e. we can always limit ourselves.

This limitation applies to everything. We believe that if in this season we cannot provide some culture, for example, tomatoes, with dignified care, then we will not grow tomatoes this season, even if we have a greenhouse on the site. We can skip the season. But we will prepare properly for the next one and grow a good harvest of this crop. We got used to experiments, we learned to change the direction in growing crops. Previously, cucumbers were grown only in greenhouses, now they grow in a warm, semi-open bed, and we get excellent results.

At one time they were engaged in a lot of greenhouses, now almost everything has been removed from the site, only a minimum has been left. We grow a lot of crops, almost everything works out, always with a harvest. Sweet peppers of different varieties and colors were grown, and very large, sweet fruits were obtained. Eggplants were grown, there was also a wide variety of varieties, colors and sizes. Cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and onions always produce a good harvest. And when they began to develop the land, carrots and onions "were not given" for many years, and many crops did not indulge in harvest. With the experience gained over the years, we learned to grow leeks, orange celery, and garden strawberries.

We looked at the neighbors' strawberry beds for a long time, not everything worked out for us. And now there are no problems with this culture. In recent years, even the neighbors have been provided with planting seedlings from their growing beds. Now we are trying to grow plants for the soul, we plant many flowers, ornamental shrubs. We want the soul to rejoice, the eyes to rest.

Mother Earth We love our land very much, we cherish the site, it has become our family over the years, and not only because it feeds us, but also because it gives us something more. As the site was being developed, we had a goal that we adhere to: we want to see very fertile land and see how everything grows on it - on good land.

We have heard that good land can be obtained only with proper care from a grandfather to a grandson. By investing money and labor in our land, we want to speed up this process and see this result ourselves. We do not claim that our method of working on the land or the way of growing crops is the most correct, or that we are great specialists in this field. We talked only about how we work on the site from year to year. We mastered 9 acres very hard, as we had no experience. What are the advantages we have?

There are no more loads of caring for these weave. It is a pleasure to cultivate the land, plant, grow any crops on it. The only hard work is to maintain a reserve box from which we use soil for bedding: it needs to be refilled; and the annual hay is also a burden. These two operations are needed to keep the land in good condition, but such work goes unnoticed throughout the season. But everything grows well with us, we use fertilizers to a minimum.

Of course, everything does not always go smoothly, mistakes also happen, for example, last season the ashes were shifted to the garden bed under the leeks, and it turned out to be not very large, as in the past, i.e. we also have mistakes, and they cannot be avoided. Now we have a new goal. We bought a neighboring plot - 6 ares. This spring, they walked on it along the paths laid by boards, since it was all flooded. We began to master it, already having a lot of experience. The process is going pretty fast. We want to make this site only for recreation. We dream of decorative trees, shrubs and a sea of flowers. The development speed of the site is great, half of it has already been mastered in a year. Most of the drainage has already been laid on it, the main paths have been made. The main path was made with the whole family, now we walk along it and are happy - it turned out excellent, wide.

We are probably just "fans of the land" and gardening, that's what they call us in the district. But we are still ahead. In winter, we try to replenish our knowledge base as much as possible, read books and a lot of magazines. Without the accumulation of knowledge, it is impossible to grow a decent harvest and even a beautiful flower.