The article will not exactly correspond to the title, it is impossible to do without the hassle in the garden. But there are several effective ways to significantly reduce the amount of physical labor. For those who want to have vegetables and fruits without any hassle, one piece of advice can be given: call the supermarket and order groceries for home delivery. Everyone else will have to work a little, which is very useful for the elderly (and not only for them) people.
Most of the labor is spent on digging, watering and fertilizing the land, we will tell you in what ways you can do without these operations and at the same time get a good and environmentally friendly harvest. Additionally, soil fertility will not decrease, but increase. Due to what it is possible at times to facilitate the processing of the garden and increase the yield of crops?
For many summer residents, this call will seem, at least, strange, but in vain. Even in the distant times of the development of virgin lands, a method of non-moldboard processing was proposed, the soil layer was not turned over by a plow, but was cut with a flat cutter. Unfortunately, in our country the method was not widely used, although it was immediately introduced abroad. Why this happened is a separate issue, but the fact remains. What is the basis for the assertion that digging the earth is not only vain physical labor, but also a rather significant blow to the fertility of the earth?
Soil is a complex biological system with numerous living organisms located in their spatial niches. When a layer of earth is turned over, the places of residence of microorganisms change, those that live in the upper layers turn out to be deep underground and vice versa. At the same time, most of them die, the land becomes less fertile. After all, it is these microorganisms that process nutrients into usable for plants. This means that the efficiency of all applied fertilizers is sharply reduced. Another harm of digging is the violation of existing capillaries, through which moisture and air enter the fertile layer.
Most summer residents consider digging the only method of weed control, and this is far from the case. During digging, weed seeds are transferred to the lower layer of the earth and successfully winter there. They cannot even theoretically lose their germination capacity in such conditions; friendly shoots appear in the spring. What to do?
In extreme cases, to control weeds, you can get by with surface loosening or grunting to a depth of 2-3 centimeters. Today, there are quite convenient and productive manual or mechanical flat cutters in the implementation, use them. It is desirable to cultivate the land in two passes, first along, and then across. This method of cultivating the land not only significantly reduces physical effort, but also significantly increases the natural fertility of the soil.
Don't weed
In terms of labor intensity, weeding ranks second among all works in the garden. Is it possible to grow a good crop of cultivated plants if you do not fight weeds? It is possible, you need to fight weeds, but not with heavy weeding, but with light, timely grunting. Systematic cutting of weeds under the root not only inhibits their growth, but also fluffs the topsoil, which reduces the amount of evaporated moisture.
By the way, never remove cut weeds, let them remain in the beds. In a year, they will turn into humus, and until then, the cut stems serve as mulch. And, of course, there is no need to do extra work on the removal of weeded plants outside the garden, the arrangement of special places for the manufacture of humus. As practice shows, only two or three passes with a hoe during the growing season will make the garden clean and the land more fertile.
Another way to effectively control weeds without much effort is to provoke their premature growth. In early spring, ash or peat should be scattered over the snow and covered with a transparent film. After such events, the snow will quickly melt, the earth will warm up to sufficient temperatures for the start of weed growth. After 10–12 days, the film is removed, weeds are cut with simultaneous fluffing of the earth, and cultivated plants can be sown. If it is planned to plant late crops in this area, then the stimulation of weed growth can be repeated again, only ash or peat is no longer applied.
What to do if you have sown crops that germinate for a very long time (parsley, carrots, etc.), and while they appear above the ground, weeds can occupy the entire area? You can’t loosen them, there is a high probability of damaging cultivated plants. And there is a way out. To indicate the location, sow with them crops that give the first sprouts in a few days (spinach, lettuce), they will be beacons, you can cut weeds without fear of damage to cultivated plants.
Water wisely
You can do automatic watering, but it is quite expensive, it requires certain skills in assembly and adjustment work. Not all older people (especially women) will be able to learn the rules for handling automatic irrigation systems. What can be advised in such cases?
Think about why the earth is watered. That's right, to be wet. Why is she drying up? Due to evaporation by plants and capillaries in the soil. If nothing can be done about the evaporation of plants, then the drying of the soil due to capillaries can be significantly reduced. And this means that you will have to water the garden much less often.
Under natural conditions, the earth is protected from drying out in a simple and very effective way - a plant carpet. The shade from the plants themselves and from their remains prevents the sun's rays from reaching the ground, which reduces the amount of evaporated moisture by several orders of magnitude.
To facilitate work in the city, it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel, one should only adopt the experience of nature. It is not necessary to make the row spacings very large, this will allow the tops or green stems to completely obscure the ground. For example, for radishes, a plot of 4 × 4 cm is enough, for carrots 5 × 5 cm, for cucumbers 20 × 20 cm, for tomatoes 35 × 35 cm. times less moisture than from the soil surface. And for the normal development of the root system, free areas of small sizes are quite enough. For plants that require more nutrients, additional feeds can be applied. This is much easier than weed control and watering.
The second way is mulching. You can use plastic films (the most unfortunate option), non-woven materials that allow rainwater to pass through (an average option), or natural mulch made from waste from the woodworking industry. The last option is the most acceptable, we recommend using it only. If there is a desire to use modern non-woven materials and completely cover the soil along with cultivated plants, then it must be borne in mind that the temperature under such materials is 6–10 ° C lower than in open ground. Such a difference can adversely affect the vegetation of heat-loving plants.
Examples of the correct organization of work
For clarity, consider one of the best options for household farming with minimal physical effort. We will use all three of the above options to facilitate manual labor.
Before planting, potato tubers must be treated for diseases with a solution of potassium permanganate or any modern drug, exposed to sunlight for greening (plant poison forms under the skin) and germinated. This will take three to four weeks, depending on the weather and temperature. Tubers should be chosen completely healthy, the larger in diameter, the better. The fact is that in the initial period of development, the sprouts use the nutrients of the tubers, the more of them, the faster the root system develops.
Potato planting should be done right on the virgin soil without prior digging. Place them at a distance of about 25 cm, make the beds not wide so that you can easily process potatoes on both sides.
Practical advice. Many summer residents do wrong with small tubers, put them in several pieces and think that one powerful plant will grow from them. This is not so, several weak plants will grow from several small tubers, they cannot “grow together” and strengthen, but will only additionally oppress each other. We have already said above that large tubers should be taken for planting. If a new variety is grown for seeds, then large tubers can be cut; in all other cases, this is categorically not recommended.
When all the potatoes are laid on the ground, they need to be covered from frost and drying out. For such purposes, it is better to use straw or old hay. Hay should be handled with care, it can have a large amount of viable weed seeds. Straw is better to take wheat, it does not attract rodents. There is neither the first nor the second - collect the fallen leaves and use them for shelter. To protect the straw from the wind, you need to cover it with old bags, film, etc. materials.
Let the potatoes grow like this for a while. As the haulm grows, you need to put fresh cut grass, additional straw, etc. on the beds. Don't worry that the height of the pile is high. Firstly, after the first rain, it will decrease significantly. Secondly, the tops grow very quickly upwards.
Potato has an interesting feature: the more the stem closes, the more it takes root in these places, the higher the yield of tubers. During the traditional cultivation technology, two or three hillings are made for these purposes. Everything is much simpler and easier with us. In addition, all covering material for the next year will turn into organic fertilizers, the soil will not lose fertility.
Another plus of this technology is that the number of weeds is significantly reduced, and moisture evaporation is minimized. This means that you need to water much less often, and weeding generally disappears as an agricultural technique. And the last. Already after the beginning of the flowering of the tops, it is possible to harvest the first crop of young potatoes. You need to open the covering layer a little, select the most developed tubers and return everything to its original place. The bush itself is not damaged at all and continues to develop normally. The tops of the autumn harvest do not need to be removed anywhere, leave it on the same bed, it will be fertilizer for the following plants.
Harvest potatoes grown under straw
Second season in the garden
For potatoes, you need to choose a new virgin area and grow it by the already known method with minimal labor costs. And in the old place, you can start planting new crops: zucchini, pumpkins, squash, etc.
There is no need to prepare the land, under the compost it is moist, soft and almost free of weeds. Those that manage to grow will die under the large leaves of new plants. Plant seeds in 2-3 pcs. in one hole, recesses can be made with an ordinary stick.
Important. Pay attention to how seeds are sown in nature - they lie on the surface of the earth. And in our case, they do not need to be closed, only last year's humus.
If there is a possibility of night frosts or the earth has not warmed up enough, then after sowing the soil can be covered with a film. It will not only raise the temperature and retain unripe compost, but also significantly reduce the evaporation of moisture. By the way, there is enough moisture from plants in the compost, additional watering is not required.
Note. If evaporation occurs very quickly on a hot day, then the plants defend themselves: the leaves close the stomata (wither a little), due to this, moisture loss decreases. Summer residents think that the plants are dying and begin to look for additional work for themselves - extraordinary watering. You should not do this, the plants will recover on their own overnight, in the morning the leaves will again be elastic.
In the third year, virgin soil is again selected for potatoes, and for vegetables there are already two fertile and well-prepared beds. You can expand the list of grown plants using the same technology. Of course, in this case, elementary compatibility rules should be observed. The number of beds is brought to the desired, and then the crop rotation is performed in a circle. That's all, with minimal effort, you will have a high yield of organic products.
Large potatoes - the result of compliance with the rules of planting and caring for the plant
Video - Garden without the hassle
Video - Garden without the hassle - work in the garden
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Today there are many people who are sincerely interested in the independent cultivation of various vegetables and fruits. Fans of gardening and horticulture will find it very useful to watch a video on the relevant topic, from which they can draw a lot of valuable recommendations in this area.Before the eyes of the audience appears a woman who promises to talk about solving the problems associated with the placement of seedlings in the most ordinary city apartment. First of all, the heroine of the video starts talking about planting tomatoes in ordinary cups, clearly demonstrating her every action. According to her, the purchase of such dishes will not be difficult, the named cups are quite inexpensive, and they are easy to find in any market.
Then the woman puts together two small plastic boxes, explaining that in this case there will be no problems with the growth and development of the planted plants. The tips given in the video will surely help those who also want to organize a full-fledged garden directly at home, but do not have sufficient knowledge and skills to achieve this goal.All the explanations on the video are quite simple and understandable even for people who do not have experience in this area, they will lead to excellent results in practice. Watch the video "The garden where everything grows - Tatyana Vasilyeva" in good quality 720 HD. All materials of 2017 and 2018 are contained on Youtube.com and are available on our website without registration.
A dacha and a garden, instead of a place of rest, often become a place of exhausting work. Water, weed, loosen, water again, weed, loosen and so on in a circle. At the same time, the harvest is not always happy. The situation can be changed. There is a special technology - a smart garden. The cultivated area decreases several times, the amount of water required for irrigation decreases, and the yield increases. This is not a fairy tale. Many have already switched to smart beds and they are all satisfied with the result.
What is a smart garden or smart beds
A smart garden allows you to get maximum yields with minimal labor costs. How? There are several basic rules and techniques: proper planting planning, rotation of planted plants, special growing technologies (in high beds, trenches), drip irrigation, mulching or covering material. All this has been known for a long time and, for sure, is already used by many. But it is in the complex that all these measures give what is called a “smart garden”. Because on the site everything is done according to the mind.
A smart garden is formed, often raised or high beds, in which the necessary conditions for plant growth are created.
The main task of this technology is to do everything so that working in the country is not a heavy duty. This is possible if you approach the organization of the process wisely. And it’s completely in vain that this technology is called a “garden for the lazy”. At the stage of arrangement, you will have to work hard, but then everything will grow almost by itself, but the first stage requires shock efforts.
It's worth starting with site planning. It is necessary to choose the location of the beds, taking into account the illumination. Then develop a scheme for laying a section of water pipes and lay them. At the same time, you can engage in the device beds. Roughly in that order. All this takes time, considerable effort and money. Material costs may not be too large.
We are planning a garden
If you already have a dacha or a plot of land near the house, you have probably already encountered a situation of an overabundance of fruits, vegetables and berries. When the harvest has to be distributed to relatives, neighbors, colleagues. But in order to grow it, it took a lot of effort. To avoid such a situation, it is necessary to plan the harvest. Of course, you will not get great accuracy, but results close to the planned ones are possible.
A smart garden is also a decoration of the site
We consider the area of \u200b\u200bthe beds
The first thing to do is to sit down and think about what and how much you want to grow. The specific quantity is in kilograms. How much do you need to "eat" and "close". Write a list of plants (in a column) and the desired crop.
Having decided on the list of plants that you want to grow at home, we sit down and look at the average yield that can be achieved when growing on smart beds. It is given in the table. Since you are still an inexperienced "lazy gardener", reduce it by half. Next to each of the plants put down the numbers. It must be recorded in kilograms per square meter of area.
Now it is easy to calculate how much area you need to allocate for each type of plant: we divide the desired yield in kilograms by the average yield for each type of plant. We get the footage of the area for vegetables, berries, herbs, etc. If you add up all these areas, we will find out how many beds you need in total. These are the beds that should be placed on your site.
You're probably surprised at how little space you need for your garden beds. And really little. Much less than what we are used to! In processing, you will have very little land. The vacated place can be taken under, rockeries, and other decorations.
Where to locate
When planning smart beds, you need to take into account the degree of illumination. Almost all the plants you need prefer sunny places. In partial shade, you can grow rhubarb, sorrel, onions (including feathers). Perhaps everything. There are no garden plants that would grow well in shady places. Rather, they will grow, but the yield will decrease by 3-4 times. Shady areas should be taken under a recreation area or a flower bed with shade-loving plants should be placed there.
Another principle for placing beds: the more care (read watering) a culture requires, the closer to the entrance to the house it should be located:
Why arrange the plants this way? Because at the beginning of the watering / weeding work, gardeners are full of enthusiasm and the plants receive more water, weeds are more carefully removed. Gradually, the ardor subsides, less and less water gets to the square of the area, the processing becomes less thorough. And with the approach proposed above, the amount of water will be “just right” and everything will be in order with the cultivation of the soil.
Orientation to the cardinal points and precise positioning
If you want to get a crop from the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe lazy garden, the location is north-south. Strictly. Only in this way will the entire area bear fruit. Also arrange trellises for climbing vegetables. Although, they can be planted along the southern and eastern walls of buildings.
In order for a smart garden to be also beautiful, you need to think about where to put the beds. To do this, we take a plan of the site on a scale indicating the direction to the north / south. On it we draw all the buildings and capital paths, water supply (we pay special attention to the position of the taps), trees and shrubs. On the plan, we immediately outline the shadow zones - we will not place vegetables here, this is a place for flowers, fountains.
We cut out beds from paper (on the same scale as the site plan). Moreover, we make them of the shape that we plan: a rectangle, a square, a circle, a triangle, etc. The form is selected based on the area planned for the culture. And it doesn't have to be a boring rectangle. Since there will be enough free space (you remember that you need much less beds), then rationalism fades into the background, and we focus on aesthetics. After all, few people work in the country "so that there is something to eat", basically it is also a pleasure. And what could be more pleasant than the beauty of a cultivated area?
So, we sign each piece of paper denoting a smart garden bed - we put the name of the culture or crops (you can grow two or three or more on one bed). Now we are looking for a place for each, taking into account the rules described above. Along the way, you can change the shape of smart beds: for the sake of beauty or convenience. When you have found places, outline the contours, transfer the inscriptions. It remains only to implement the plan.
Irrigation system
A significant part of the work in the garden is watering the plants. If you use lazy beds, you will need to water much less often. But even in this case, it is better to do the piping in the area correctly. You already have a plan for the location of beds in your garden. Now add flower beds, bushes and trees there. Get a planting plan for the plants to be watered. Now you should think about how, so that there is no more than 2-3 meters to any "irrigation object". If you do this, then you will have to pull a small hose to each bed, which is much easier.
Homemade drip irrigation system made of polymer pipes, water source - barrel
Even better, if a hose for drip irrigation is laid in the smart garden. This will reduce water consumption and increase yields. Yes, at the same time. A drip irrigation hose is a polyethylene tube with small holes through which water oozes drop by drop. When planting, plants are planted next to the holes. As a result, water is supplied under the root, the plant receives a sufficient amount of moisture, and the gaps between plants remain only slightly moistened (due to the redistribution of moisture in the soil).
When using drip irrigation, you will have very little work. Open the faucet, wait a certain period of time, close the faucet. All. Hoses for drip irrigation are available for connection to the water supply (sold per meter), there are kits with a small pump that will pump water from the tank. The range of prices for hoses for drip irrigation is solid - prices differ significantly. No matter how limited your finances are, do not take the cheapest hoses - they will last no more than one season. It is better to pay a little more for a quality product and use it for several years. When choosing kits for drip irrigation, you also need to look at the irrigated area. But, most likely, it will suit you, since lazy beds are rarely large. Read more about drip irrigation kits and manufacturers.
How to make smart/lazy beds
The principle of building smart / lazy beds is that you need to create ideal conditions for the development of plants and ease of processing for yourself. What do plants need? Nutrients, enough light, air, moisture and the absence of a large number of weeds.
oxygen and nutrients
We provided them with a sufficient amount of sun by arranging the beds from north to south. The next task is nutrients and air to the roots. All this is laid when forming the beds. Depending on the type of soil, we select the components that are missing in the "source material". In Central Russia, the main soils are clay and loam, so humus of varying degrees of “maturity” is usually added (a year, two and three). This is for fertilizing, and for lightening the soil - for better oxygen access to the roots. Together with humus, bacteria and worms enter, which continue to process, enriching the soil and loosening it instead of you.
The yield per square meter will be hoo what ...
If necessary, you can make other fertilizers - in the wells when planting or when watering. Depends on crops or richness/poority of source soils. The most common natural fertilizers are chicken manure and cow manure, ashes. When making only cow dung, you will be annoyed by bears. If you add a little chicken manure, there will be no bear, and the composition of the soil will become richer.
Moisture retention and weed control
Moisture will be partially delivered by rain and dew, and partially will have to be added by irrigation. And so that less water is required, the entire space of the garden bed is not filled with plants, we fill it with mulch. Mulch, by the way, also reduces the number of weeds - there is not enough light for them under it.
Straw, cut grass, sawdust, fallen needles, special mulch made from wood chips can be used as mulch. All this can be used to mulch lazy beds. But all materials are imperfect. Here are their advantages and disadvantages:
There is another good way out: cover smart / lazy beds with a special black covering material. They completely cover the surface of the beds, sometimes in two layers. Small holes are made under the plants. Watering is carried out directly on the material - it does not retain water and air, does not allow weeds to grow, and protects the soil from overheating. In general, everything is good, except that you have to buy it.
How to make them
We figured out the general principles of creating a smart garden, now we will specifically understand how to make beds. You can’t walk on them, so they definitely need to be fenced - with stones, slate, iron, logs sawn in half, boards ... It doesn’t matter what, but the beds must be separated from the paths. And since you can’t step on the beds, their width should be such that you can freely cultivate the soil.
Now about the width of smart beds. It depends on the type: they will be of normal height or raised. If the beds are made at ground level, their width is 80-100 cm. Squatting or bending over, you can process this width. If the beds are raised at least half a meter, it will be even more convenient to work. They do not only high beds. All possible growing technologies can be used:
Now about whether the usual height of the beds is better or raised. For a really lazy garden, raised ones are better: when cultivating the soil, you will have to strain less. But it's hard work and slow. So for starters, you can get high beds only for the most difficult crops to care for. And you can also use various containers / containers - for greens, salads, spicy plants. Suitable sawn along large barrels, boxes. On sale there are plastic containers that are produced specifically for the smart garden. They can generally be placed on the paths, near the entrance to the house.
The only crop under which you should not make raised beds is potatoes. It grows well in trenches, and making them is much easier and faster.
Between beds
The beds in the smart garden are separated, the distance between them is not less than 60 cm (90-100 cm or more is better). A solid distance that needs to be filled with something. Weeding between beds is not the best idea. Why then bother with separate beds in order to fight the weeds between them ... Therefore, you can either lay out / pave or sow with lawn grass. The best grass for our lawn is bluegrass and bluegrass. They grow quickly, form dense greenery that is not trampled down and even tolerates work with a cart.
The grass will need to be cut, so you will need a lawn mower or trimmer. And the cut grass can be used for mulch. Then, by the way, weeds will come out - they do not withstand frequent haircuts.
Some tricks
The technology is called the smart garden for a reason. You can test different approaches, novelties, experience of "colleagues". There are a few tricks that come along with the operation. We have already talked about one - about the covering material. It really simplifies care and mulch is not needed. There are other interesting ideas:
Surely there are more tricks in the processing of a smart garden. If we find out about them, we will definitely update the article.
