This article presupposes a temperate climate, where the winter frost gradually leaves the ground in April and where the first killing frost of autumn comes around the last week in September or the first week in October.
Good seed makes a good garden. Buy quality seeds. In some cases, such as tomatoes, it is important that you plant a variety that is resistant to disease.
Use natural organic matter for fertilizer, such as vegetable matter that is left over after you prepare your food. If you have a sizable lawn, let the grass grow a little taller than usual, save the clippings, and when your garden plants are tall enough, use the clippings to make a carpet between the rows. This will eventually serve to enrich the ground with needed nutrients and besides it will keep the soil from drying out from the hot summer sun. In the fall of the year, use the leaves that are falling from the trees. Bury them if possible. If inclement weather prevents you from burying them, strew them on top.
If possible, plant your garden at least 15 feet from the nearest tree. If the trees are too close, the tree roots will take much-needed water from the plants.
Good hard work is a healthful substitute for pesticides. When weeds start proliferating, grab your hoe and scrape them out. If there are weeds growing too close to the garden plants, pull them out by hand. It is wise to remove weeds when they are very small. They are harder too remove when they get big.
Because of the short growing season, it is advisable to plant certain plants indoors while the weather is still cold. This is especially true of tomatoes and green peppers. The best time for this is the latter part of March. Sow a number of seeds in an old pan, and when they germinate and are well rooted, transplant them in individual cartons, such as empty milk cartons. When all danger of frost is past, perhaps the third week of May, transplant them in your garden in rows, leaving about three feet between plants. If there is a dry spell, water both the peppers and the tomatoes. Pick the peppers when they are well developed. As for the tomatoes, don’t hesitate to pick them when they are still green. Insects tend to attack them as soon as they ripen. Besides, if you pick them a little early, the plant will start to produce more tomatoes which will probably be mature before the frost comes.
Tomatoes ripen well indoors, but be sure to inspect them from time to time and remove any that may be starting to rot. If you have an abundance of tomatoes, you can preserve them by canning. If you have preserved all that you want and the tomato vines are still producing, pick the green tomatoes before the first killing frost and put them in a brown paper sack. For some reason or other, this retards the ripening process. They will gradually ripen for a few months even up to Christmastime.