From: songbird@anthive.com   
      
   Pavel314 wrote:   
   > I have a retired friend who decided to take up vegetable gardening this   
   year. My wife and I discussed various basic gardening techniques, like   
   tilling, composting, fertilizing, weeding, etc., with him. He's planning to   
   plant tomatoes, cabbages, lettuce,   
    and similar common vegetables this first year.   
   >   
   > I wondered if the gardeners on this list had a favorite tip for gardening   
   that I could pass on to him. Mine was to weed constantly to prevent the weeds   
   from taking over.   
      
     it takes a few years before you will get a lot of   
   the weed seeds taken care of in a new garden patch.   
   you want all the paths to have some kind of edge   
   down into the ground a ways otherwise any weeds   
   that you have under the path will get into your   
   garden and exploit any gaps or sunlight.   
      
     figure out where you want the garden as soon as   
   you can the year before and then smother it with   
   cardboard through the winter and put some mulch on   
   top of the cardboard to hold it down.  overlap   
   the seams at least 8 inches to make sure nothing has   
   an easy go of coming up through the cracks.  it may   
   take more than one year to smother some grasses   
   and weeds, that's ok, just do the same treatment   
   a second time leaving down the original stuff to   
   keep decomposing.   
      
     the best tool for weeding is a stirrup hoe.  i use   
   that and a good straight bladed shovel, a large knife   
   for close weeding, a trowel for planting and moving   
   single plants or bulbs and a pointed hoe for running   
   long lines for dropping seeds into and then i use it   
   to move the soil back over the seeds and the back of   
   it to tamp down the soil before i water the seeds in.   
   sometimes i like to use a smaller mason type pointed   
   trowel for weeding.   
      
     a ground pillow to sit on is really nice and can   
   save your knees and back a lot of wear and tear.  i   
   have three ground pillows in case i want to lay them   
   out and watch some clouds, but i've only done that   
   like once.  :)  i usually am way too busy to actually   
   take much time to daydream.   
      
     don't buy a tiller or expensive machines.  they break   
   and they really aren't needed.  low-till, no-till works   
   just fine.  tilling stirs up weed seeds and ends up   
   making more work not counting the noise and expense.   
   pretty much the same with raised beds and greenhouses.   
   i like larger gardens with fewer edges and wasted space   
   in pathways.  i plant as much as i can including paths   
   once i have the main areas already planted.   
      
     good hoses and connectors are worth paying something   
   extra for.   
      
     always wear a hat and keep your neck covered.  i hate   
   sunscreen so i wear long sleeved shirts and keep the sun   
   off me so i don't get fried when i work outside.   
      
     learning about the soil community will teach you also   
   about other things.  you don't really need to do formal   
   compost piles.  just bury stuff and let the soil creatures   
   figure it out.  they will.  :)  saves a lot of work to   
   not have to fiddle with a lot of turning of piles and   
   keeping track of how many days and such.   
      
     this is what comes to mind at the moment.  :)   
      
      
     songbird   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)