Planting vegetables by the traditional methods compared to new

Over the next few weeks I thought I would look into traditional methods of growing vegetables, here is a brief introduction. Beginning gardeners may prefer to use the traditional planting methods for their first garden. A basic piece of broken ground is the starting point for marking, shaping, and planting your spring seeds.

Choosing a planting method for your first garden can be difficult with so many different methods recommended by different gardeners. If you don’t want to experiment for your first trial, following the traditional planting methods of the past will yield an excellent harvest without any extra effort.

Rows, Mounds, and Other Matters

Corn, potatoes, and other crop-like plants are traditionally planted in rows, as well as “head” plants like lettuce, cabbage, or onion. Your dirt is mounded and hoed in a straight line, spaced evenly apart from the second row, with as many as your space allows. Planting corn in mounds (often round ones) allowed room for additional fertilizer to be added, like the Native American tradition of burying a small dead fish with the seeds.

Hills or mounds are traditional favourites for planting tomatoes, cucumbers, and even squash. The mounds vary in size, depending upon the recommended spacing for the plants, with no more than three plants usually added to each mound. Usually the dirt is mounded 2-4 inches thick above the level ground, with holes dug away from the centre and spaced apart according to the variety’s preferences

Placing rocks or markers around your mounds helps hold the mounds in place and keep them from washing away, as well as mark the location of your seeds. Place them at the ends of the rows to mark the beginning and end of each planting location
 I shall start this week with the potato.

Potatoes were originally first brought from the Americas to Europe in 1573 and introduced into Ireland around 1590. By around 1780 it was the staple Irish diet. The traditional Irish method of planting the potato was in what was called "lazy beds". Low trenches were dug at about three foot intervals. The sod and dirt were piled up between the trenches. The beds were enriched with manure, rotted straw, and/or sea weed. Whole potatoes were cut into pieces so each piece contained an eye. These seed potatoes were usually put in the ground in around May time. The beds were tended to keep the weeds from chocking the potato plants.

The leaves and flowers of the potato plant are poisonous. The tubers themselves can be poisonous if sunlight hits them and turns them green. Consequently, during the growing season more earth was taken from the trenches to cover the tubers and prevent them from turning green in the light. Early potatoes are ready after around 100 days with a second crop in around 110-120 days. The main crop matures in about 130 days. The first two crops were harvested when the plants was still green. The main crop was harvested after the mature plant has died.

remains of a lazy bed in Connemara

Things have certainly moved on, i tryed the stout method last year with very good results, this method first came aboout in the 1930s when Ruth Stout decided she no longer wanted to garden the old-fashioned way. She started growing all her vegetables, including potatoes, on top of the soil, by covering them with a very thick layer of  organic mulch.

The Stout method involves no digging, cultivating, hoeing, weeding or additional fertilizing. Seed potatoes are simply placed on the ground, and a thick layer measuring at least 8 inches of rotted straw, hay, grass clippings, leaf mould, garden compost is spread on top of the seed potatoes.

 Potato shoots will grow up through the mulch; as they grow, more organic matter and straw can be added which replaces the earthing up process that is performed on potatoes grown in the soil. More hay or straw can also be added to choke off any weeds that appear or if the mulch becomes too compacted.This method for growing potatoes works best on soil that has already been enriched by previous additions of organic materials, as it takes a while for the thick first layer of mulch to decompose enough. Mulch can be put down at any time of year in an area that has been recently used for ither crops

Rabbit proofing your Garden.

If like me you have a problem with rabbits here are a number of ways of protecting your precious crops:
Employing rabbit-proof fences is a very sensible approach to wild rabbit control. Chicken wire is a good material for making rabbit-proof fences with which to surround your garden. This wild rabbit control measures will help keep out those cute marauders poised to munch on your plants.

Simple Rabbit-Proof Fences for Wild Rabbit Control: Chicken Wire

Use chicken wire that is 36" wide. Don't be confused by that measurement: when you lay out the chicken wire rabbit-proof fences around the perimeter of your gardens, that 36" will be the height of the fencing.
Dig a trench about 6" deep and 8" wide (assuming your stakes will be about 2" wide), to form the perimeter for rabbit-proof fences. Pound the stakes in on the inside of the trench. Bend the bottom 6" of the chicken wire outward along the ground (forming a letter "L" shape). This 6" flange will prevent the pests from tunneling their way under the fencing and into your garden -- an integral part of wild rabbit control. Set the flange end of the chicken wire fencing down into the trench, with the flange pointing away from your garden.
Fill the trench back in with dirt, burying the flange (and also burying about the bottom 6" of the vertical part of the "L" shape). Staple or tie the chicken wire to stakes. Spacing between stakes is up to you; but, obviously, the closer the stakes are to each other, the more support you're providing your rabbit-proof fences.
One of the best "homemade" organic rabbit repellents is the soiled cat litter from a cat that has killed and eaten wild animals. Spread such cat litter, while still fresh, around your landscaping trees or garden once a week.
Another commercial rabbit repellent that can be used safely on food crops is Hinder. Hinder's active ingredients are ammonium soaps of higher fatty acids. Thiram repellent, however, is dangerous, and it can be used only on ornamental plants.
Remember, too, that some plants function as "natural pest repellents," at least in terms of saving their own hides. Many of the same plants that are rabbit-resistant are also avoided by deer. In the case of some of these plants, it's easy to see why: although natural, they're poisonous (yes, to humans, too). For this reason, deer and rabbits will generally leave alone foxglove (Digitalis) and monkshood (Aconitum), for example.
In the case of other "natural pest repellents," rabbits avoid them not because they're poisonous, but because they don't smell good -- to rabbits, at least. Aromatic herbs such as lavender (Lavendula) may send humans scurrying for their potpourri supplies, but they send rabbits just plain scurrying! And if you aren't keen on spreading your cat's litter around the yard as a repellent, at least install some catnip plants, or "catmint" (Nepeta) for puss. Rabbits don't like the smell of catnip. Nor will they like the smell of a garden frequented by a catnip-craving cat. It's also a lot of fun to see cats going crazy over their catnip!

 

Advanced Rabbit-Proof Fences for Wild Rabbit Control: Electric Fencing

Electric fencing also makes for effective rabbit-proof fences. No trench is needed with electric fencing. Again, pound in your stakes first. But for electric rabbit-proof fences you'll need to attach insulators to the stakes. You'll be suspending 2 wires from these insulators. Run the bottom wire along the outside of the stakes, about 2" above the ground. Run the top wire along the inside, about 4" above the ground. Electric rabbit-proof fences can be charged with an electric fencing charger for gardens.