Garden maintenance is a necessary chore but ....

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Garden maintenance is a necessary chore, but if you can stay ahead of schedule, it will be very manageable and not too difficult. The rule of thumb regarding the irrigation of your garden is that you will need to supply an equivalent of about an inch of rain a week during the growing season to maintain optimum growth.

Just so you know, an inch of rain is equivalent to about 28,000 gallons per acre or 900 gallons distributed over a 30 ft. by 50 ft. garden area. It is always much better to give the garden a good soaking once a week rather than watering it sparingly more often. Light sprinkling at frequent interviews will do little if any good.

An excellent means of irrigating your vegetables and saving money and water, is a drip irrigation system. Another consideration concerning the watering of your garden is to have a back-up water supply, not only as a cost savings system, but as a reserve during dry spells.

As in every garden, keeping ahead of the weeds will save you much hard garden maintenance work later on in the season. Marking the newly planted rows of seeds clearly will help you to not disturb them while you are weeding. Weeds rob cultivated plants of water, nutrients, and light. Some weeds also harbor diseases, including insects, and nematodes that infest garden crops in succeeding years. The best time for weeding is usually as soon as the soil can be worked. After each rain or irrigation, it should be thoroughly hoed or cultivated to kill weeds that have sprouted and to leave the surface in a loose, friable condition which will be able to absorb later rainfall.

A clean and neat garden is less likely to be attract disease, insects and vermin. Pick up dead vegetation and place in your compost pile.

A clean garden is a healthy garden!

The primary value of cultivating is weed control. It should be done so as to avoid injuring the vegetable plant roots that lie near the surface. In small gardens, weeds can also be controlled by black polyethylene mulch and supplemented by hand weeding such as pulling and hoeing.

Even though they are convenient and easy to use, try to avoid the use of weed killers and herbicides. Remember the old adage �less is better�. The cumulative effect of these chemicals on our environment and our health is only now beginning to be understood, and the picture is not pretty.

Mulching with organic materials is also a very common practice in garden maintenance. The best organic mulches for this purpose are partially decomposed hay, straw, grass clippings and even newspaper. The mulch should be applied 4 to 6 in. deep when the plants are about 6 in. tall. Not only does mulch control weeds, it also maintains the moisture content, keeps the soil from baking, and increases the humus necessary for vigorous plant growth.

Adding compost to your garden is a great way to maintain your soils' fertility. If you do not utilize compost, you should be, because compost is like a gold mine in your back yard. A compost pile can be built or purchased for a small amount of money, and the results are priceless!

Garden crops are subject to attacks by a number of diseases and insects. Preventive maintenance measures such as companion planting work well, but if an attack occurs and you are not familiar with the nematode, insect, or disease and the proper treatment to protect his crop, it is advisable to consult the county extension agent or your garden center.

Among the most important disease control and garden maintenance measures are the use of care free seeds and plants.Great progress has been made in recent years in the development of these varieties which are resistant to certain diseases, insects and nematodes. Always check when you buy, new varieties of plants are introduced every season, and you may find an answer to that pesky problem you have been having.

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