Gardening Secrets

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

Growing beets

Perhaps there is no such gardener who would not seek to experience some novelties on his site. I'm not an exception.

Regala's beets did not disappoint. Last year, as the winner of the first contest held by the magazine, I was given a lot of seeds. Among them were the seeds of the beet variety Regala of the company "Sortsemovosch". This is a new variety, table variety, of Dutch selection.

On the bag it was written that it is early ripe, ripens 105 days after germination, the roots are round, smooth with a thin skin, weighing 150-200 g. The flesh is red, sweet. Resistant to high and low temperatures, well stored. All this is true, only my beets were born from 300 to 500 grams, very beautiful: smooth, even and very tender and sweet, and the borscht made from it, well, just a lovely sight, is maroon. And delicious. This beet is very good and pickled, although I used the largest root vegetables there. I collected two large buckets of 20 liters each from a garden of 2 m2.

Gardener's guide

Plant nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

As before, I also grew Pablo and Cylindra beet varieties, but the harvest did not please me very much: it grew small, unsightly, although earlier these varieties gave good yields. So, indeed, the Regala variety is resistant to stressful situations - last year's summer was very rainy in the second half, and my entire plot was in water.

I grow beets like this: I have a small greenhouse 1 m wide and 4 m long, also 1 m high. I cook the earth in the fall, dig it up with a bucket of ash. In the spring, at the end of April, I sow seeds in rows for seedlings. In the same greenhouse I sow cabbage and flowers on seedlings. By the time all the frosts are over, she grows strong and healthy.

Then I transplant the beet seedlings to the finished bed, while pinching the root by 1/3. I have a special device for digging the soil for the holes, but you can also use a regular green pea can, cutting out the bottom from both sides. The soil is well removed: press the jar into the garden bed and take it out - you get smooth, beautiful holes, 8 cm in diameter and up to 10 cm deep; row spacing - 30 cm, and between plants 10-15 cm.

Half-fill the hole with good compost and 1 tbsp. I spill a spoonful of ash from a watering can and immediately, in a slurry, plant beets, without deepening the core, I fall asleep with earth taken out of the hole. After planting the entire garden, I water it again. When the water is absorbed, sprinkle a little dry calcified peat around the beets and leave the garden bed until the leaves of the beets stand up by themselves. I basically have a survival rate of 100%, well, as a last resort, 99%. And no thinning, only gentle care remains - and you are with the harvest.

Notice board

Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Soil preparation for seedlings

I want to share with the readers some techniques that help to achieve good results in difficult gardening work. Over the years, every seasoned gardener has such little secrets. For example, how I prepare the soil for any seedlings.

• Since autumn I do not prepare the soil, I only store the ash, and then buy peat soil in the store: either for tomatoes, or for cucumbers, or a microsteam. Then I mix it with coarse sand and ash (1 package of soil 6 liters, 1.5 liters of sand and 1 glass of ash). Mix thoroughly, choosing large fibers, roots. I put the resulting mixture in containers with drainage holes, put potato peelings (dried and frozen) on the bottom, then a layer of coarse sand 1.5 cm and the soil, pour it with a hot solution of potassium permanganate. After two weeks, the soil is ready for planting.

• In the spring, in March-April, when there is still snow, it is necessary to water the bushes of currants, gooseberries, strawberries hot - 90 ° C - a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate. I water from an iron watering can - and from pests, and as a top dressing.

• In winter I rarely come to the dacha, but these days I always try to feed the birds - I put pieces of bread in nets from apples and onions and hang them on apple trees, plums, cherries, and in the feeders - seeds and bacon for titmouses.

• I usually plant basil and parsley on the edge of a greenhouse with peppers, beautiful greens and good peppers grow.

• It is very difficult to grow seedlings from small seeds such as lobelia. I do this: I take 0.5-liter cups of sour cream, I make holes in their bottom. I put on the bottom of cleaning from potatoes so that sand does not fall, then 1.5 cm of coarse sand, then soil, leaving 1.5 cm on top. I water it with a hot solution of potassium permanganate and after two weeks I sow seeds into the wet ground, a whole small bag, I press the seeds, lightly sprinkle them on top with dry fine sifted soil, cover with glass. When the first loops appear, I remove the glass, put it in the brightest place, then, as it grows, I sprinkle it with soil. So the seedlings grow until May-June, before planting in the ground. After shaking it out of the cups, you can plant it in bunches large and small, as you need.

• Plant a mesembriantemum. This is a crystal chamomile, ground cover. A beautiful flower, hot pink, pale pink, white, yellow, crimson with a shiny, like a dew-drop, crystal center. True, on a cloudy day, the chamomile sleeps, closing its middle. I sow with seeds directly into the ground in May, it germinates for a long time, but it pleases with its abundant flowering right up to the snow.

Cherry pouring

Probably, this recipe is familiar to many gardeners, but for those who have not heard, I advise you - try it, it's very tasty …

We take an enameled pan, put 100 cherry leaves, 50 raspberry leaves, 50 black currant leaves, 300 g of black chokeberry berries in it. Pour 1.5 liters of cold water into a saucepan, cook everything under a lid over low heat for 15 minutes. We remove, cool, filter. Put 400 g of granulated sugar, 1 packet of citric acid (15 g) in the broth. We put it on fire, bring it to a temperature of 90 ° C, remove it from the heat and carefully pour in 0.5 liters of alcohol, pour the liquid into bottles, and the filling is ready.

Once I got sick in the country, I added 1 tbsp for 1 glass of hot liqueur. a spoonful of honey, it turned out to be a liquor, delicious, and even acts like a medicine. Of course, I do not recommend drinking a glass, 50 grams is enough. And rather in bed, it acts like a diaphoretic.