Good Gardening Tips

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Sowing seed is one of the fundamental techniques of gardening. Choosing the right seed and getting it off to a good start can make all the difference to the final harvest.
Most vegetables are grown from seed. This can be either purchased from seed companies or kept from one’s own plants. There is no rule of thumb as to which of these will grow well in your own area. Talk to other gardeners and find out which particular varieties do well for them: which do they find to be the most disease-resistant, the tastiest, and the most prolific. Experiment with different varieties until you find those that suit you and your ground best. Once you have found these stick to them, but perhaps grow a few experimental rows each year of untried varieties.
Seed unused one year can be saved to the next, but the length of its viability varies. The fresher the seed, the greater will be the germination rate.
Potatoes are prepared for sowing by placing them in a single layer on a tray or shallow box in a light, but frost-free shed.
When short shoots appear, they are ready for sowing. A trench is dug in well-prepared soil and the seed potatoes are laid out along the trench at 12in (30cm) intervals. The earth is raked over the potatoes and then heaped up, forming a ridge along the length of the row. As the shoots of the young potatoes appear, some crops such as leeks, parsnips, and rutabagas will overwinter in the ground. Many other root crops, such as carrots and beets, need digging up and storing under frost-free conditions.
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The vegetables should be dug up on a dry day-, Allow the soil to dry on the roots and then rub it off. Cut through the leaf sterns just above the top of the root. Store them in boxes of dry peat moss or sand, keeping each individual separate from its neighbor. You should store only sound produce. Any blemished vegetables should be cooked first as these will rot if stored. In areas prone to long periods of frost all root crops can be stored in this way.
Plants with large seeds such as summer squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, and beans can be sown individually in pots. This obviates the need for thinning out and reduces the amount of setback that this produces. It also makes it easier to plant them out.