What kind of work should be done in the garden in the spring. Work in the garden and vegetable garden in spring Spring dacha garden garden flowers

With the onset of spring, nature wakes up and the time of work begins in summer cottages and in the garden.

Nature comes alive with the arrival of spring

March is the first month of spring and in some regions it can still be frosty for planting to begin. But it is already quite possible to start cleaning the garden area and garden.

Preparing for the season in March

Spring work in the garden begins with cleaning. It is necessary to remove the entire territory from autumn debris and litter accumulated over the winter period - branches, leaves, grass residues, etc. It is worth taking this event responsibly, since uncleaned windbreak and other winter rubbish spoils the impression of the appearance of the site, in heaps of such garbage a favorable environment is created for various pests. In the process of clearing the land, remove any weeds left over from the fall. Now they are easily pulled out along with the root system.

We clean the foliage and grass, if we didn’t do it in the fall

Then it is worth carefully inspecting the garden buildings and determining the need for repairs. General cleaning of the garden house will not interfere - something needs painting, something needs whitewashing. In other words, both the territory of the garden and the house itself must be put in order.

Make an audit of tools: clean, lubricate, sharpen

Check your garden tools. Some of them probably need to be sharpened or repaired, and some inventory items can already be completely replaced. Pay attention to clothes designed for working in the garden. There is no specific set, it all depends on the local climatic conditions of the region. Make sure that there is clothing available that can work in hot weather, and in rain, and in windy cool. Don't forget shoes and gloves.

Work directly on the ground

Spring gardening should begin with planning what will be planted where. Please note that the landing sites of some garden crops must be periodically alternated with each other. Decide on the sunny sides of the garden and those that are in the shade most of the day. Trim trees and shrubs around the site.

We carry out pruning of trees and shrubs, if we did not do it in the fall

Plants need to be fertilized. This must be done even in the presence of fertile soil. Fertilize the soil with a mixture of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus. They affect the growth of roots and shoots, are responsible for the formation of good inflorescences and fruits. Such fertilizers can be applied even at a time when there is snow on the ground. When it finally thaws, nutrients will enter the soil along with moisture.

It is important to properly prepare the intended areas of the field for planting seeds. If necessary, dig the earth, crush large pieces into small earthen clods, etc.

Dig up the ground, if you didn’t do it in the fall and outline the beds, don’t forget about crop rotation

Assess the quality of the land. In the case when it is heavy, it is necessary to add fine gravel, coarse sand to the soil to increase airiness. In such soil, water will not accumulate at the root system and will not cause its rotting process. Conversely, if the soil is too crumbly, it is necessary to add some clay-containing soil to it to retain nutrients and moisture.

It is better to fertilize the land with fertilizers in the fall before plowing. In the spring, apply 1/3 of the recommended dose

When loosening the soil, remember that you do not need to dig it often, because. useful substances at the same time go deep into the soil. When digging, the soil structure itself suffers. If loosening is required, then it must be done to a depth of no more than 10 cm.

Working with seeds

Before planting seeds, they must be prepared for this. The seeds of each plant are prepared differently, but there are general rules. It is necessary to sort them out and choose large ones, without signs of damage and disease, physical damage. In order to separate bad seeds from good ones, you need to warm them up on the stove for 2-3 hours. Then in a glass with a solution of the 1st tbsp. dip the heated seeds with a spoonful of salt and water. Poor quality ones will float, they can be thrown away.

Seed rejection before planting

The rest must be placed in gauze before they germinate. Don't forget to harden the seeds. To do this, they need to be placed in the refrigerator for several hours. After the seeds germinate, they can be planted in pre-prepared boxes, a greenhouse or a greenhouse. The main condition that must be observed in this case is that future shoots get as much sunlight as possible.

According to the same principle, seeds of annual flowers are prepared for their future planting in open ground. By the way, the area of ​​the field intended for planting flowers also needs to be prepared - fertilize, best of all in the first month of spring, until the ground has completely thawed. The same rule is true for other areas of the garden intended for growing garden and horticultural crops.

Things to do in April

This month, spring work in the garden becomes more intense. If roses or grapes were covered in autumn, now the covers can be removed. If the field area has not yet warmed up and planting work is done early, it's time to start laying out greenhouses or greenhouse structures. Before planting seeds, make sure that the greenhouse in the garden stands on the ground with a closed film for a while. This is necessary to warm the soil in the greenhouse.

In April, we install greenhouses and greenhouses, plant seedlings

It is also worth paying attention to fruit and berry plantings. It is necessary to prune dry branches, thin out young shoots, and eliminate those branches that grow inside the crown. In order to prevent damage to trees by pests, it is necessary to treat the stem parts with special preparations. The second month of spring is the optimal time for planting new trees and shrubs.

April is the time for planting trees and shrubs.

At the same time, strawberries and raspberries are being prepared. Dried stems are cut out from raspberries, if necessary, thinned out. In a garden with strawberries, an extra mustache is cut off and thinning is also performed.

Gardening in May

May days are the most troublesome and time-consuming days in the garden. And in the same month, numerous pests appear and come to life. That is why it is worth checking fruit and berry plantings. Inspect the currant for the absence of ticks. Carefully examine the kidneys - their large size indicates that there may be a tick in them. They need to be collected and burned, you can't just throw them away. At the time of flowering of the currant, make sure that there are no inflorescences of a dirty pink hue. When they are found, you need to dig such a bush and burn it.

In May, active planting of beds begins

Inspect seedlings in greenhouses and greenhouses. A sign of its defeat by a spider mite is the twisting of the leaves down or the presence of convex gaps on them. If an infection with a tick or aphids is detected, it is necessary to treat them with biological products against these pests.

We remove the old strawberry leaves and cut through the rest of the berry, if we didn’t do it in the fall, or we just dig up the ground

If the seedlings are sluggish, with leaves beginning to turn yellow, then it should be fed. In May, depending on weather conditions and the degree of warming of the soil, seedlings need to be planted. Why first prepare the place - make a hole, pour water into it. It is best to pre-mulch the soil using peat or dry grass. Pay attention to the thickness of the mulching layer, it must be at least 10 cm so that it is not blown away by the wind or washed away by rain. Soil mulching is performed to retain moisture, create a comfortable cool atmosphere in hot weather. This technology is not applied to eggplant and pepper seedlings.

Removing the first weeds

Remove any emerging weeds. Be careful when weeding an area with perennials. In order to remove weeds along with the root, it is best to weed with your hands. Those areas where there are no perennials can be treated with special weed control agents.

We plant potatoes

The most favorable time for planting potatoes is the flowering period of bird cherry. The soil temperature should be around +12 0 C +15 0 C. Potatoes need to be prepared for planting. Remove tubers that have not sprouted, rotted or have any other shortcomings. Put the selected potatoes in a warm place to increase the intensity of germination. The depth of planting potatoes should be half the bayonet of a standard shovel. During the planting of potatoes, fertilizers can be immediately applied to the soil - ashes or straw.

Cooking trees and shrubs: we protect from pests

Fruit and berry trees and shrubs should also be processed. Spraying against pests should be carried out at the beginning of the flowering period, then spray again after 14 days.

Grafting trees

If tree grafting has been planned, now is the time to do so. There is only one limitation - you cannot vaccinate during the growing phase of the moon. This is due to the fact that during this period most of the juice is in the branches of trees, and during the waning moon - in the root system.

Work in the garden and garden, of course, does not end there, but if you do all the basic types of work, you can be sure that in the fall you will be able to harvest a good harvest.

Spring work in the garden

Work in the country after winter begins with the care of the garden. It is important not to miss precious time, since many activities need to be carried out before active sap flow and swelling of the kidneys. The health of trees and shrubs depends on how well the spring work in the garden is done.

Spring work in the garden

With the advent of spring, the first thing to do is to clear the garden of last year's foliage, windbreak and other debris that has accumulated over the winter. In plant residues, spores of fungal diseases and pest larvae can overwinter, so they are taken out of the site and burned. As the air temperature rises, winter shelters are gradually removed from trees and shrubs.

Before the start of sap flow, it is necessary to prune fruit and ornamental plants in the garden. Young seedlings, as well as ornamental early-flowering shrubs, are not pruned in spring; only damaged branches can be removed from them. For fruit trees, shaping and rejuvenating pruning is carried out.

Early spring is the time for the prevention of garden diseases and pests. Before the buds swell, the trees are sprayed with iron sulfate, Bordeaux liquid or urea to destroy the fungal pores. If an invasion of pests was noticed in the previous year, the garden is treated with Agrovertin, Iskra-Bio, or Fitoverm.

Tree trunks need protection in spring. After the winter, wind breaks and frost cracks may appear on them, which must be covered with clay mash or garden pitch. To protect against pests, trees are whitewashed with special paints, or "in the old fashioned way" they use lime mortar with the addition of copper sulfate.

Fruit trees are grafted in April. First stone fruits, and a little later pome fruits. As a scion, pre-harvested cuttings or material after early spring pruning are used.

In the spring, plants in the garden need top dressing. Dry nitrogen-containing fertilizers (urea, ammophoska, ammonium nitrate) are scattered around the perimeter of the crown. After that, surface loosening of the soil is carried out, closing up fertilizers. From organics, you can make an infused solution of chicken manure or rotted manure. After fertilization, the soil under the trees and bushes is mulched with humus.

Work in the garden in the spring does not stop even after the beginning of flowering trees. Recurrent frosts often occur, and fumigation of gardens with smoke bombs or bonfires is used to protect against them. A humid environment also helps to reduce the impact of low temperatures, so they put containers with water under the trees, spill the soil and wet the branches.

Work in the garden in spring

In the garden in spring, there is no less trouble than in the garden. During this period, it is necessary to carefully prepare the soil for planting vegetables in order to get a good harvest. As soon as the snow melts, the beds are cleared of debris accumulated over the winter. It is advisable to burn the waste outside the site to prevent the spread of diseases and pests wintering in them. They clean not only the soil, but also garden paths, on which garden debris accumulates and moss can grow.

After completing the cleaning, mineral fertilizers are applied. In the spring, urea, nitrophoska, ammophoska and other fertilizers containing potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen are used. When the soil dries out a little, compost or humus is added. After that, the beds are dug up or deeply loosened. During loosening, young shoots of weeds must be immediately removed, as well as pests encountered.

Spring work in the garden and vegetable garden includes activities to improve the structure of the soil. River sand, ripened humus, and small sawdust are added to areas with heavy soil. Clay is added to sandy soil to make it more moisture-intensive. If necessary, regulate the acidity of the soil. Lime, ash, or dolomite flour are added for deoxidation, and sulfur (70 g per sq.m), malic or acetic acid is used to increase the pH level (acidification).

When the soil is prepared and fertilized, beds can be laid out on the site. For planting early vegetables, artificial soil heating is created. To do this, the beds are covered with dark material (black agrofiber or polyethylene) about two weeks before sowing.

When working in the garden in spring, special attention should be paid to beds with strawberries and raspberries. Shelter is removed from strawberries, dead bushes are removed, the soil is loosened and mulched. Raspberries are tied to trellises and sanitary pruning is carried out.

In the spring, cold-resistant vegetables and greens are sown in the garden: radishes, peas, lettuce, sorrel, onions, early carrots, beets. These crops develop well and yield even when sown in cold ground.

In flower beds in the spring, division of the rhizomes of perennials is carried out. Plants with overwintering foliage are renewed by removing frozen and damaged shoots, and plantings of early-flowering bulbs are loosened. Complexes of mineral fertilizers are introduced into flower beds as top dressings. To prevent diseases, flower beds are treated with copper-containing preparations.

Lawn care after winter

With the advent of spring, the lawn comes to life. Already at a temperature of plus 5 degrees Celsius, the grass begins to grow and requires attention. As soon as the snowmelt begins, mineral fertilizers are scattered over the lawn, which are dominated by nitrogen: ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, urea.

Cleaning the lawn begins after the soil dries. Leaves and debris are raked with a fan rake, after which scarification is performed. This procedure, also called "combing", is performed with a garden rake, a special hand tool, or a scarifier device. It is necessary in order to break the integrity of the dense grass turf, renew it, and enable young shoots to develop.

After stratification, it is necessary to carry out aeration - piercing the turf and the top layer of soil to saturate the soil with oxygen. Do this using a pitchfork, an aerator or special shoe covers.

After cleaning, potholes are clearly visible, which may remain from accidental movement on a damp lawn, or when the soil settles. If the turf layer is not broken, it is dug up and sand is poured under it. Damaged areas of the lawn are cut out with a shovel and removed, the resulting pits are also covered with sand. After that, they are sown to restore a uniform lawn.

Outcome

With the advent of spring, it is necessary to pay attention to the garden and prepare fruit trees and bushes for the new growing season. In the garden, you need to improve the quality of the soil so that the vegetables give a good harvest, and in flower beds, take care of perennials. Gardening in the spring is hard work, but the end result will be a well-groomed yard with strong, healthy plants.

In March, the echoes of the February snowstorms are still heard, and caring summer residents have already rushed to their suburban areas to put them in order for the upcoming season. It would seem that what can be done in the garden in early spring, when the earth has not yet warmed up enough, and there is snow in the ditches at all? In fact, spring work in the country includes an extensive range of activities for cleaning the territory, caring for trees, and preparing the soil for planting.

First of all, it is necessary to remove from the garden and vegetable garden everything that served as protection from winter frosts. Covering material or special designs must be cleaned, washed, dried and put away in the utility room before the autumn cold. From the beds, flower beds and garden area, the debris remaining from the fall should be removed: windbreak, old branches, fallen leaves, withered grass. Even if, by spring, some garbage accumulates again.

It is quite possible that with the first rays of the sun, the enemies of cultivated plants also hatched -. While the roots are weak, the sprouts can be easily removed from the moist soil. Moss grows in warm weather, and algae grows in damp places. Short growth is easily removed with a stiff brush, and a natural stone or brick path with the first pockets of young moss can be washed out with a strong jet of water from a garden hose. Any activities with water should be carried out at positive temperatures, otherwise the country yard will turn into a skating rink.

Containers, vases and flower pots should also be cleaned, repaired if cracked, and treated with herbicides. From the containers that served as a wintering place for perennial flowers, you should get the old soil and replace it with fresh, and thoroughly dry the tubers and rhizomes of plants.

An overview of the complex of garden work that needs to be carried out in March will also be useful:

Early spring is the right time to repair polycarbonate greenhouses, which could have suffered from snow drifts in winter

Mulching and fertilizing the soil

Mulching is carried out in flower beds, in the garden and in the garden. creates comfortable conditions for plants, warming their roots in the cold and protecting them from the scorching rays of the sun in the heat. It perfectly retains moisture, eliminates the appearance of weeds, protects against dangerous insects. Many cultivated plants (strawberries, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin) are less susceptible to decay and increase yields on mulched soil. We should not forget about the decorative effect: the mulched soil looks well-groomed and neat.

When biological fertilizer, manure, is added to mulch (for example, bark or sawdust), the degree of its overripeness must be checked. Incompletely oxidized substance can kill plants

Material for making mulch:

• sawdust;
• compost;
• bark;
• chips;
• straw;
• rotted leaves;
• covering fabric.

Fruit tree care

Simple garden work to care for shrubs and trees rejuvenates them, increases yield and improves the appearance of plants.

Pruning branches and shoots

When the air temperature has overcome the mark of 0°C, has become positive, but is still low, berry bushes should also be produced. As a result of pruning, the crown of the tree should take on a cup-shaped shape with an open center, which provides ideal lighting for each branch and excellent airflow. Thinning the crown and shortening the branches are appropriate at a time when there are no flowers, leaves, or even swollen buds on the trees. Together with the shoots, the trunk is also shortened.

Planting fruit seedlings

With the first rays of the sun, immediately after the snow melts, young seedlings should be planted. Planting is carried out while the trees are at rest, sleeping, that is, they do not have buds, otherwise the seedlings will die without having lived even a couple of weeks.

Planting young fruit trees occurs in the following order:

• They dig a shallow hole, on the bottom of which manure is laid and on top of it - a thin layer of enriched soil.
• The roots of the seedling are placed in a prepared hole, carefully dug in and lightly compact the soil with their feet.
• They drive in a peg next to the seedling, which serves as a support for it at first.
• Water and make sure that the earth around the roots does not dry out.

See the video for more details:

Grafting for new varieties

Spring is the best time for grafting trees. With equal success, budding (grafting with a kidney) or copulation (grafting with a cutting) can be carried out. Cutting shoots are the most viable, as shoots from a grafted bud can hardly survive the winter. The most successful time for cuttings is between mid-April and early June. The operation is carried out with a grafting knife or. One of the main conditions for effectiveness is close contact between the rootstock and the scion.

Spring grafting of fruit trees is a great opportunity to have many varieties in your summer cottage, while planting only a few main trees.

Processing flower beds with perennials

The division of herbaceous perennials will be more effective if carried out in early spring. Thanks to him, the resource of planting material increases and old plants are renewed, which begin to lose color, weaken and rot. If the rhizomes of bluebells, asters, phlox, crocosmia are separated in time, they will begin to grow more actively, and flowering will be longer and more violent. Large bushes are divided into four parts with an ordinary bayonet shovel, putting them on the board. The place of dissection is the spaces between the kidneys. The roots of small plants are separated with a garden knife.

Bright crocosmia after the renewal procedure gain a second life: they should be dug out every 2-3 years, separate the children and plant them in another place

Spring renewal of the lawn

In order for the silky grass of the lawn to please the eye throughout the summer, from early spring it is necessary to carry out a whole range of activities, the main of which are:

• top dressing;
• combing;
• aeration;
• weeding.

For uniform and metered application of fertilizers to the lawn, there are many devices, one of which is a convenient trolley on two wheels

If the lawn is small in size, then you can use a regular garden rake for the combing procedure, and a pitchfork for aeration.

Methods for planting vegetables

If the climate allows, then many vegetables are planted directly in open ground. There are several ways to disembark, which depend on the location:

• in trenches;
• on raised ridges;
• on embankments;
• on flat ridges;
• into containers.

If the soil is light, sandy, warms up quickly, but does not retain moisture well, it is better to use the trench method. Clay soils also warm up easily, and also retain moisture well, so raised ridges are traditionally used for them. Several layers of manure, earth and compost, laid according to a special scheme, form bulk ridges, which are called "smart gardens". Ordinary even ridges are used in greenhouses, and containers where there is not enough free space for planting.

Material on how to make beautiful beds in your garden will also be useful:

Raised beds are used for planting vegetables and flowers. Their distinctive feature is a border made of wooden boards or ceramic tiles.

Pest control

Unfortunately, with the onset of heat, harmful insects are activated that can nullify all the efforts of hardworking summer residents. Many of them attack fruit trees and shrubs. It is necessary to carefully examine all the branches and pay attention to the fastened dry leaves. Perhaps these are the nests of golden tail or hawthorn. They must be collected by hand and burned.

Weevil beetles are destroyed on cold days when they become numb and stop moving. A film is placed under the tree, then the branches are shaken. Fallen insects are burned. From moths and leafworms, an infusion of mustard or wood ash is used. The suckers are afraid of the infusion of garlic with tobacco.

For spraying trees from pests, a solution of copper sulfate, urea, Bordeaux mixture, iron sulfate is also used, and laundry soap helps against aphids

In addition to the listed types of spring work, there are many others, for example, planting flower crops, updating garden furniture, cleaning ponds.

It always starts with tillage. To do this, use various garden tools: hoes, rakes, "cats" and cultivators. After digging, loosen the soil properly. The depth of loosening should not be too large: a maximum of 2-3 cm. The roots of plants grow and develop better in loose soil, as it is well supplied with oxygen. In the process of loosening, also cut and destroy weeds. It is better to get rid of them at the seedling stage than to deal with tall grass later. If you carried out a very deep digging of the soil, then the seeds of many weeds remained in the lower layers of the earth. And from there they usually do not germinate.

Fertilization

In the spring, add only humus to the soil, and leave the compost and manure for the fall. Traditional application rate of organic fertilizers: 1 bucket per square meter. Methods for applying fertilizers are different. Lay them in the grooves when digging the earth, or sprinkle them evenly over the surface, and then dig up the soil. Instead of organic fertilizers, mineral fertilizers can be applied. So, in the spring, add nitrogen to the soil during loosening. This is especially true of the area where the beds and the flower garden will be located. One cubic meter requires 30-40 grams of nitrogen fertilizers.

Trimming trees and shrubs

In spring, trees and shrubs, as well as climbing plants and roses, are pruned. Remove diseased, withered branches and those that are poorly located. Try to carry out shaping pruning before the beginning of May or a little later. In any case, you need to hurry so that you do not have to cut the tree with already blossoming leaves. Release coniferous plants from shelters only in early May, when the soil thaws. During loosening, fertilize with SOTKA Coniferous (50–60 g/m2) or other complex fertilizer.

After digging, mulch tree trunks and other perennials, mainly shrubs. Use sawdust or fresh compost as mulch.

Lawn care

After the snow melts, make sure that there are no puddles on the lawn. Be sure to aerate the soil with special cutting aerators or ordinary garden forks. So, you will improve the access of oxygen to the roots, the absorption of water and nutrients by the soil. Carry out drainage work in waterlogged areas. Be sure to remove last year's foliage from the lawn by combing the lawn with a rake.

Pest control

When the trees are about to bud, treat them for pests. Use one of such chemicals as copper sulfate, Bordeaux liquid, Abiga-Peak emulsion, colloidal sulfur, Neoron. Dilute copper sulfate in the ratio: 100 grams per 10 liters of water. You can use biopreparations. They do not contain chemicals. Combinations are popular. They are used against several types of pests at once. Perform the treatment in the morning or evening when the sun's rays are not too active.

In October, you should still work hard and have time to complete the autumn work in the garden before the onset of severe cold. We must say goodbye to garden pests and diseases, prepare the plants for difficult winter conditions, so that next season the garden will please with harvest and beauty.

Fruit trees and shrubs

Ornamental and flower crops

Tip 3: Where to start working in the gardens and gardens in the spring

When the snow begins to melt on the plots, most gardeners immediately begin to carry out preparatory work for the season. Own garden requires year-round care. Even those garden lovers who can only visit the adored hacienda on weekends can plan the necessary minimum of work in advance so that not a single minute is wasted. Then, for the new planting season, it is possible to prepare the garden as much as possible.

Spring work in the gardens

To begin with, it will not be superfluous to check how protected your shrubs and trees are from bright sunlight. In the winter-autumn period, it is necessary to provide the plants with good shelter - this will help keep the bark healthy. To do this, the trunks are wrapped with non-woven materials, the bushes are covered with spruce paws. You can remove covering materials around the middle of spring, waiting for the snow to melt and the sharp temperature drop to stop.

Spring work in the gardens necessarily includes pruning trees, cutting bushes. These measures are recommended to be performed before the buds of the trees swell and the movement of juices under the bark begins.

How to get started in the garden

Primary work often begins with cleaning - accumulated debris is removed from flower beds and ridges. If larvae and insects are found, it is necessary to remove them - this will help reduce the number of pests that will soon appear on the ridges.

Organic fertilizers are applied to the soil. This helps to saturate the soil with nutrients, which will subsequently have a beneficial effect on obtaining a crop. Depending on the condition of the soil on the site, fertilizers, humus, purchased peat or compost prepared in advance are introduced into it. For heavy soils, the introduction of coarse sand or fine gravel is recommended - this helps to add airiness to the soil and prevent stagnation of moisture near the roots. Clay is added to loose soil in order to retain moisture and substances necessary for plants for a longer time.

Works on lawns

If there are lawns on your site, they should be inspected, the grass combed with a rake, if there are potholes, they are filled with earth mixed with sand. The surface of the lawns is leveled and sprinkled with fine sand. If there are bald spots in the lawn, seeds are planted in these areas.

Other events

In flowerbeds and ridges, the soil is loosened - a depth of 5-10 cm is sufficient. During traditional digging, nutrients go deep into the ground, and the soil structure is disturbed. When loosening the soil, it turns out to be porous, more suitable for the development of plants.

When removing the protective coating from plants covered for the winter period, care must be taken. To begin with, loosen the strapping. Then, when the ambient temperature rises slightly, the dense winter shelter should be changed. The fabric is selected more permeable to light and air - it can be agrospan, lutrasil, and so on.

If whitewashing of trunks is regularly performed on your site, remember that seedlings do not need it. On the contrary, bleaching the bark of a seedling often leads to clogging of the pores, which reduces the rate of development of the plant.

As the earth warms up, it will be possible to move on to other work, including planting and caring for them, ennobling the site.

Sources:

• Basic gardening in spring: everything a gardener needs to know

During the first month of summer there is a lot of horticultural work. Something else is just planted, something is fertilized and weeded, and some crops are already bearing fruit.

You can re-plant in June radishes, dill, salads, arugula, spinach. Radishes, carrots and daikon are also sown for winter storage.

In June, loosening of the soil is carried out. Particular attention should be paid to loosening beds with tomatoes and cucumber holes.

Fertilizers are often applied in June for various crops, as during this period there is active growth and preparation for fruiting. And cabbage and tomatoes should be treated with wood ash from pests almost immediately after planting.

June work in the garden

In the first summer month, attention should be paid to berry bushes. In raspberries, remove excess young shoots and shoots, finally form bushes. Gooseberries at this time can be propagated using cuttings.

The beds of strawberries and strawberries are loosened, watered, fed and covered with mulch. It is recommended to water the bushes early in the morning. Remove unnecessary whiskers for better fruiting.

In fruit trees in June, it is recommended to carry out the formation of crowns. Remove new unnecessary shoots. It is also worth making a trapping belt from pests on each tree. Various top dressings are carried out to speed up the ripening of the crop and improve its quality.

And the garden in the new season should begin with the advent of warm days. February or March depending on the region. At this time, you need to have time, first of all, to do such work that is done before the buds open on trees and shrubs.

About other early works, too, should not be forgotten and postponed until later, as hot days will come later, and there will be no time left for them at all. And until the main summer chores associated with planting, sowing, digging beds, watering, and so on, have not come, we are doing the first spring work in the garden.

Usually at this time in many places on the site there is still snow, which can be collected and filled with water containers in the garden. This melt water is useful for watering plants during the first spring plantings in greenhouses and garden beds.

It is important to carry out spring pruning of plants before bud break on trees and shrubs.

Pruning shoots and top dressing

In early spring, when the weather is warm, plants that have been insulated for the winter are opened. This should be done when nighttime temperatures do not fall into the negative zone. If plants are not opened in warm weather, they can become moldy and start to rot.

The branches of trees and shrubs are carefully inspected and removed: frozen, old, damaged, diseased and dried. Damage on thick branches is cleaned and covered with garden pitch. Cut shoots are burned.

For the rapid growth of plants after hibernation and a good start for the future harvest, spring top dressing is carried out. If there is still snow around the plants, fertilizers can be placed directly on the snow. After the snow melts, the soil in the near-stem circle is loosened and watered so that the fertilizers penetrate the soil better.

Tree whitewashing

With the first rays of the spring sun, the difference between day and night temperatures increases. This leads to the fact that cracks, the so-called cracks, may appear on the surface of the trees. To avoid this scourge, it is advisable to whiten the tree trunks since autumn or cover them from the sun from the south side.

Often by spring it flies or is washed away by autumn rains, so it needs to be restored as soon as possible. During autumn whitewashing, in order to keep it better, many gardeners add various types of glue to the lime mortar.

In addition, updating the whitewash in the spring helps to reduce the number of pests that wake up in the spring and from the fallen leaves where they hibernated, rush up the tree trunk.

To reduce pests that climb up the tree trunk, sticky trapping belts are also used. To do this, the tree trunk in its lower part is wrapped with some kind of Velcro, placing an ordinary plastic film under it and covering it from rain from above.

Treatment of garden plants from pests and diseases

Early spring, when the buds have not yet blossomed, is the time to treat trees and shrubs with chemicals in order to prevent and treat various diseases. Processing plants at this time has the most effective effect and causes the least harm to the environment and plants.

What preparations, from which diseases and pests to use, usually shows the condition of the plants in the previous season. Chemical treatment of plants is carried out at an outdoor temperature of at least plus 5 degrees.

planting plants

Early spring is a great time to plant and replant trees and shrubs. In the pits prepared in advance in the fall, it's time to plant new plants. It is believed that young plants planted in spring take root easier and grow faster.

In addition to early spring work in the garden, at the end of winter and at the beginning of March, vegetables should be sown at home or in heated greenhouses for seedlings: tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, in order to plant them in open ground in May.

When sowing vegetables for seedlings, we use specially harvested from autumn or buy it in specialized stores.

Each farm may differ slightly from each other, the main thing is to use favorable natural conditions at this time to care for the site, when the plants are still sleeping and the buds have not opened.

Video: The first spring work in the garden

In agriculture, crop care is an almost continuous process.

Winter crops require special care:

cleaning is carried out from the fields of stones that are squeezed out by frost to the surface;

loosening of a strong crust on the surface of the earth. This will provide the necessary air exchange for the seeds;

draining stagnant water from fields. Excess moisture is detrimental to many crops, it leads to decay of the root system and can significantly reduce crop yields;

cleaning of free land areas from moss, shrubs, alluvial sand.

winter crop vegetation begins in the first decade of April, top dressing should be carried out in the second decade, ensuring sufficient nitrogen supply. It is necessary for the correct formation of spikelets (this process occurs very quickly). If there is a lack of nitrogen in the soil, then the ear will remain an underdeveloped tubercle and die. The second feeding is carried out two to three weeks after the first, in small doses. It is at this time that an active set of vegetative mass occurs and again there is a threat to the correct formation of the ear.

In order to ensure a decent harvest of spring crops, it is necessary to start preparatory work:

• first of all, replenishment of mineral and organic substances in the soil, soil fertilization with manure (mandrel of previously imported and delivery of new);
• carrying out measures aimed at preparing the fields for sowing;
• cleaning, sorting seeds for sowing;
• soil sowing;
• fallow fields are being lifted (they were not sown last season);
• plowing the brought manure;
• comprehensive measures aimed at the extermination of pests: slugs, beet bugs and others.

Simultaneously with these works, others are carried out, familiar to every gardener and gardener:

• fertile soils are developed with subsequent fertilizer;
• seedlings are sown in greenhouses, greenhouses, in open beds;
• seed plants, tubers are planted;
• hunting heaps are arranged (for the larvae of the cockchafer).

Before the start of the sowing campaign, it is necessary to repair agricultural machinery and conduct a technical inspection. This concerns, first of all, soil-cultivating and sowing equipment. The speed and productivity of the planned work depends on how ready the fleet of vehicles is.

Along with winter and spring crops, other agricultural crops are sown: various varieties of cabbage, beets, and corn.

In the spring, fields are also sown with crops for further plowing: green manure. They are grown to further enrich the soil with minerals, organics, nitrogen. Green manure plants improve the structure of the soil, have a sanitary effect on the soil, shade it, and attract beneficial insects (pollinators). Such plants include representatives of the legume family, cruciferous, cereals, buckwheat, and Compositae.

The volume of work in the fields in the spring is very large and varied, but the success of the entire enterprise depends on how competently and timely they are carried out.

By the end of winter, from the second decade of March, the snow gradually begins to decrease. The density of snow cover in different winters is not the same. By the end of winter, it always increases. The snow is especially compacted in winters with frequent thaws and during strong winds. Dense settling snow causes serious damage to fruit trees, especially young ones.

In the first half of March, a dense snow crust around young plantings of woody plants must be destroyed, for example, with a garden pitchfork. But they must be handled with care. Under the snow, individual branches of young plants are not visible, and they can be easily broken. The crust of frozen snow is easier to break in the afternoon, when the snow becomes loose from the rays of the sun.

Spring work in the garden is more convenient to carry out on skis.

Some gardeners "powder" the snow, for example, with wood or peat ash. It is scattered in a thin layer around the tree after a snowfall.

Why do they do it? A dark surface, as you know, is more likely to heat up from the sun's rays, so powdered snow, becoming dark, begins to melt faster.

Some gardeners shovel the snow off the tree. But this is a very laborious work in the garden. True, it can be alleviated by shoveling snow only from the south side.

Particular attention should be paid to young plantings. No less attention should be paid to those trees that are densely planted; there is a lot of snow accumulating here, and therefore there may be frequent breakage of branches. These areas should be monitored first.

Very often on the plot you can observe the following picture: fruit trees and shrubs grow 2-3 m from the house. Large blocks of snow fall (or are carelessly thrown off) from the roof, they damage the trees very badly, breaking off large and small branches.

Snow accumulation

Some gardeners practice a technique that delays the flowering of trees. It consists in the following. In winter, the gardener accumulates snow (sometimes ice) under the crown of a tree and covers it with sawdust. In the spring, it does not melt so quickly, thereby delaying the awakening of the tree by the beginning of the growing season. Proponents of this technique believe that such trees are not damaged by frost. It is very difficult to agree with this opinion. Any technique should always be approached taking into account the biology, breed, variety and conditions in which this or that culture was formed over hundreds of years.

Enter the garden in late March or early April, when the snow is already starting to fall and the ground is bare. Take a look at the trees. At first, the snow settles more strongly or melts around the trunk, and only then begins to melt in the near-trunk circle. The soil, freed from snow, was warmed by the sun for the first time in the winter months, and this meeting does not pass without a trace for her. The rays, hitting a dark surface, quickly warm not only the crown, but also the upper root layer of the soil. The roots awaken, and the active life of the tree begins in a deep correspondence of its parts - aboveground and underground. This is the pattern of nature, the rhythm of the life of a tree. But this rhythm will certainly be broken if you artificially delay the awakening of only one part of the tree of the root system, because the above-ground part of it at that time is already ready for active life.

What happens in this case? The growth and development of the tree is disturbed. Therefore, such a technique cannot be considered justified from the point of view of tree biology. We do not recommend using it.

Late winter cutting of cuttings and checking of overwintering of plants

With the beginning of snow melting comes the deadline for cutting last year's annual growths used for grafting.

Usually, in mild winters, standard zoned varieties of fruit trees are not damaged by frost, and this cutting time is quite acceptable. But for the purposes of self-control, they should always be checked to make sure that all tissues of the shoot are viable.

Why do you have to do it?

Sometimes a mild winter can damage both shoot tissues and buds. Checking plants that have come out of conditions of relative dormancy (winter) allows the gardener to intervene in the plant organism in a timely manner, to help him quickly mobilize nutrients to eliminate the lost parts of the plant.

Let's take an example. After a harsh winter, fruit trees received severe damage to the above-ground parts. It was already noticeable at the end of winter. To eliminate the severe consequences of salt frosts, a number of agricultural practices were proposed: heavy pruning of the most affected trees, early spring fertilization with nitrogen fertilizers to enhance growth, summer watering of trees, foliar spraying of the leaf canopy, etc. After all these measures, damaged trees quickly recovered. But even here, against the general background of a harsh winter, it was necessary to find out in each individual case how strongly a given tree reacted to the low temperatures of winter. To a large extent, this is helped by clarifying the degree of damage to leaf and flower buds, as well as individual tissues of branches on a fruit tree.

At the end of winter, it is necessary to review and clarify the condition of tissues and buds on shoots harvested at the beginning and end of winter.

How to do it? What should you pay attention to?

For example, in an apple or cherry tree, flower buds are most susceptible to low temperatures compared to leaf buds. If we compare the degree of frost damage to two trees of the same age and variety, then a tree that had a large crop before a harsh winter will be damaged more than one that was without a crop. If in summer the trees growing on a site with excessive moisture are compared with trees that do not receive sufficient watering, then the former will have more frozen shoots.

Trees that are over-nourished with strong growth during the summer are much more damaged in a harsh winter than those with less growth.

The easiest way to check for damage to a tree after winter is to cut tree branches and let them regrow at home. The results obtained in this case cannot be completely trusted. Very often they indicate more severe damage than is found in the spring. The degree of damage can be more accurately determined in early spring. To do this, the fruit bud on the shoot is cut with a razor along the middle. If the central part of the bud with already fully formed flowers, with stamens and pistils is dark brown in color, then this means that the bud is severely damaged by frost. Sometimes you can see that the primordia of the flowers themselves are alive, but the base of the kidney or the vascular bundle leading from the shoot to the future flowers is brown. This is an indicator of damage that can occur after or at the time of flowering, when nutrients stop flowing into the bud or young ovary and they fall off prematurely (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Top: Cross-section of a flower bud shows that the first two flowers died in their infancy. At the extreme right bud, all parts of the apple flower are alive, below: three (on the right) cherry buds show death of flowers, two (on the left) are not damaged by frost.

And how do you know if the annual growth is damaged?

With a sharp knife or razor, cut off part of the bark along with the wood. If it is light brown or brown in color, then this is a sign of frost damage. The leaf bud on such a shoot shrinks, becomes loose. Cutting it lengthwise, it can be noted that the sap-carrying bundle that connects the shoot to the bud is broken and has a brown color. Such shoots cannot be used for grafting into the crown or for setting up a bridge on fruit trees damaged by hares or mice (Fig. 2). You can easily control yourself by comparing the degree of damage to the branches that are under the snow all winter and above the snow cover. In the former, as a rule, damage to the tissues of the shoot and kidneys is not observed.

Rice. 2. The right annual shoot of an apple tree is severely damaged by frost; the left one is completely intact.

During early spring pruning in the garden, when the buds have not yet swollen and it is not yet clear whether the leaf bud is alive, in order to determine its condition, a test cut is made along the bud with a garden knife. Why do they do it? In the event of the death of many leaf buds, a stronger pruning is carried out, thereby preventing unnecessary exposure of the branches. This is especially true for crops such as plum and cherry.

The degree of damage to tissues and kidneys can be more accurately determined by cutting off the branches and placing them in water. But here it is necessary to fulfill a number of conditions: firstly, move the branches from the garden to the room so that there is no sharp temperature drop; secondly, before putting the branches into the water, it is necessary to update the cuts, while doing them in the water, and thirdly, it is better to cover the bunch with branches with a plastic bag, which creates a more humid environment, and the kidneys do not dry out. After a week, leaf and flower buds will begin to swell, and it will be very easy to determine the degree of death.

Early spring moisture retention in the soil

The first rays of the March sun for the gardener serve as an invitation to visit the garden, at this time it is very snowy. A lot of snow in the garden is good.

The data of meteorological observations say that the water reserve in the snow cover is 100-130 mm (Moscow region), in other words, for 1 m 2 of a garden plot, a layer of snow of 10 cm contains from two and a half to three buckets of water.

Usually melting starts from April 5-10. The snow is compacted, water appears under it. In a sheltered garden, especially coniferous trees, the snow melts relatively slowly. In open places, it comes off quickly.

Many different methods are practiced to preserve and accumulate moisture in the soil. In the garden, to use any technique for this, of course, is unlikely. Manual clearing of snow, even in a small garden, is very laborious. Therefore, gardeners are trying to come up with something that would facilitate this work in the garden. For example, they powder the snow with peat dust; already after eight to ten sunny days it completely disappears. The soil from which the snow has melted also quickly begins to thaw and absorb moisture from adjacent row spacings, where the snow has not yet completely melted. Thus, a significant amount of moisture can be retained on the site.

Almost every site has a slight slope. A stream of spring water rushes along it in early spring. In individual gardens, this water usually flows down paths below the common soil horizon. To delay the flow of water, you can apply multiple damming with earthen mounds. Do it in late autumn.

Sometimes, along the perimeter of the garden, they arrange (also since autumn) an earthen rampart 15-20 cm high; It does a great job of keeping moisture in the area.

Fruit and berry plants are especially afraid of stagnant water, since there is very little oxygen in it, and the roots of the trees seem to suffocate. And, in addition, in the soil in such a site there is an accumulation of substances harmful to them. Strawberries are especially sensitive to prolonged flooding.

In early spring, trees heavily damaged by mice are grafted with a bridge. If the stem is gnawed by rodents by one third or more, then vaccination is mandatory. Cuttings are selected depending on the length of the wound. For a bridge longer than 40 cm, you need a cutting 50-60 cm in size. In this case, you need to look not just for annual growths, but for top annual shoots, which, as a rule, are always longer. The thin tip of the shoot is not suitable for introducing it under the bark.

The number of cuttings grafted by the bridge depends on the size of the wound and the age of the damaged tree. For example, when eating ring bark, three or four bridges are inserted into a four-year-old tree, and seven to eight bridges are inserted into a 12-year-old tree.

If you are doing this work in the garden for the first time and are not sure of the success of vaccinations, then the number of bridges must be increased.

It is not difficult to graft with a bridge on a tree that has one even bole. It is much more difficult to graft when a fruit tree grows as a bush. In case of severe damage by mice, it is sometimes advisable to remove even a part of the main skeletal branches: in this case it will be more convenient to put up bridges.

It happens that in older plants with a thick bark, mice eat only the upper skin, cork layer and partially primary bark. The cambium remains intact. Such damage is not dangerous. It is enough to smear the wound with garden pitch or petrolatum, and the remaining cambium will begin to actively divide and form new tissues in the spring.

Often mice damage the bark and cambium down to the wood. If the damage is circular (ring), then the normal movement of plastic substances formed in the leaves is disrupted in the tree. Gradually, the root system weakens, and the tree dies.

Looking at the flowering, but damaged trees, you might think that everything worked out, there will be no trouble. Indeed, at first glance, everything seems to be going well. However, the processes of growth and development have already been disrupted, and the tree is supported only by the nutrients accumulated over the previous year. In some cases, a tree in this state can even produce a crop, and in the fall shed its leaves and go into the winter as if healthy. But, unfortunately, this is his last breath. In the spring of next year, it will no longer bloom.

In the spring, during the melting of snow, it is imperative to inspect the trees and determine the degree of damage to them by mice.

How to do it?

At the time of sap flow, a small (3-5 cm) longitudinal incision is made on the trunk with a knife, capturing the healthy and damaged parts of the tree. If the bark from the wood lags behind on both parts, then damage is not dangerous, since the cambium will soon restore the lost tissues.

If, in the part gnawed by mice, the tissue does not separate and only wood remains, then this is a sign of dangerous damage; the gardener must prepare for grafting with a bridge (Fig. 3).

Rice. 3. The lower part of the apple tree was eaten by mice. The damaged area was smeared with clay and tied with burlap. After removing the strapping, the living areas of the bark are washed and wiped dry, and then the cuttings are grafted with a bridge. In case of ring damage, the cuttings of the shoots are placed evenly around the bole. After grafting, the places where the cuttings are inserted under the bark are carefully lubricated with garden pitch, and then all the bridges are tied (bandaged).

The damaged part of the tree is covered with a mixture of clay and mullein (1: 1), and then tied with burlap. After some time, the bandage is removed, the healthy part of the bark is washed from above and below and proceed to the vaccination itself.

Having chosen a place to insert the cutting, first a transverse incision is made, and after it, a short longitudinal one. In order for the cutting to fit more closely to the wood, a little bark is cut off on both sides of the damaged part. These notches are clearly visible in Fig. 3 (second photo from the left).

An oblique cut on the lower part of the cutting is inserted into the lower incision. Having determined the place, make a second oblique cut at the upper end of the cutting and insert it into the cut of the bark. This is a rather complicated operation, because the arcuate shape of the handle and its weak elasticity often cause its tip to break off. After grafting one bridge, the insertion site must be immediately coated with garden pitch and then continue grafting. After all work is completed, the bridges must be tied (bandaged) with some material.

Quite often there are cases when shoots form below the grafting site or from the roots. It can be used for unilateral grafting by selecting only the most suitable shoots. They are injected, as in the first case, under the cortex above the site damaged by mice (Fig. 4).

Rice. 4. If the tree trunk is damaged and it has a shoot, then it can be used for grafting above the damage site

Figure 5. To cut a branch, it is first filed from the opposite side, and then cut out completely. After that, they clean the wound on the ring with a garden knife. Rice. 6. The correct cut of the branch on the ring is shown. In this case, the fold of the bark fits the cut from all sides, and the wound quickly overgrows with callus. Rice. 7. The cut of the branch is poorly done, and the wound will not heal for many years. Rice. 8. To make it easier to cut a large branch, it must be bent in the opposite direction from the knife blade. Rice. 9. The figure shows how correctly (in the center) it is necessary to shorten the one-year growth with a knife or pruner. A very long stump is left on the left, and a very deep cut is made on the right, which can lead to poor growth of the upper bud.

After grafting with a bridge, flowers should not be left on the tree. This is too much load for a damaged tree. Flowers take a lot of nutrients from him, and very few of them enter the crown. Therefore, at the time of the appearance of the buds, it is necessary to cut off all of them if the bole has ring damage, and part of them if certain parts of the bark are damaged. During the summer, the formation of root shoots or shoots from the lower, untouched by mice part of the trunk may begin. They should not be removed, as at first they supply the root system with plastic substances. In case of unsuccessful grafting with a bridge, shoots (if it is cultivated) can be the basis for building a new crown.

If the bole is partially damaged, then this year you can not graft with a bridge, but plant the wild animals of the breed that are damaged (for an apple tree - apple tree seedlings, for a pear tree - pear seedlings). To do this, a hole is dug from the side of the damaged bark and wild rootstocks are planted obliquely. Their shoots should touch the trunk. In the first year, the wildling is allowed to grow only upwards; for this, all side shoots are pinched. The following year, in the spring, the upper end of the wild game is grafted “by the bark” into a bole above the injury site. The larger the wound, the more wild animals are planted.

April. Spring work in the garden

Pruning fruit trees

The time when it is necessary to form fruit trees and shrubs, cut and cut branches in young and adult gardens. We advise you to start these spring work in the garden with black currants, then gooseberries, white and red currants, pear and apple trees, and lastly cherry and plum.

Since the beginning of April, berry crops can still be under the snow, and therefore it is quite a difficult task to properly prune or cut their branches. In this case, they usually begin to prune tall plants. The cutting technique is shown in fig. 5-9.

In garden plots, various methods of maintaining branches are used. In some cases, they are lifted from the ground with ropes, ribbons, wire; in others, stakes or whole fences from supports are placed under the branches. All this suggests that the cropping is not done.

A well-formed fruit tree, with the exception of varieties with brittle wood, or a berry bush does not need supports to support its crop. Only, as an exception, sometimes you can use a chatalovka (wooden support) or some other methods. If you decide to prune a tree whose branches are supported in this way, then first of all you need to remove all garters, various supports, slingshots, etc. When pruning and shaping a tree, you need to see the natural arrangement of the branches.

It is usually recommended to start pruning when the air is already heated by the sun and the thermometer shows a positive temperature. At this time, the snow cover settles. In the Moscow region, this happens approximately at the beginning of the second decade of April.

I must say that the snow cover in some cases makes it easier to trim the garden. Firstly, climbing onto a snowdrift near a tree, it is easier to work closer to the top of the crown. It is more convenient to collect branches in the snow. True, by noon, work in the garden is complicated. The sun heats the snow, it becomes loose, and the support under the feet is unreliable; every minute you fail, and the work in the garden moves more slowly.

In these cases, you can put boards on the snow or stand on skis. But all this, of course, is not so effective, because it is not very convenient and familiar. Pruning should be carried out in the early morning, when the snow is not yet heated by the sun, dense enough and you can walk on it.

Often, pruning is not completed before the snow melts in the garden. At this time, the topsoil thaws by 5-15 cm. Water runs from the hillocks in friendly streams, collects in puddles, but snow is still visible in the garden, gradually disappearing in the rays of the bright spring sun. It is at this moment that one should not walk around the garden with belated garden work, because there is only one harm from walking. Each step leaves a deep mark in the swollen and sagging soil, and it is easy to step on and damage undersized crop plants. Especially when the garden plot is densely planted.

After a week or two, the deplorable results of such belated work in the garden are visible: strawberries, bulbous plants are dented, branches of berry crops mixed with cut ones are trampled into the mud, earthen paths are damaged.

That is why it is impossible to walk in the garden at the moment when the spring water comes down.

Late pruning of fruit trees in spring

Pruning of fruit trees and shrubs in the garden is done before the start of sap flow!

If pruning is not completed in the snow, it can be continued after the soil has dried out a little. Do not be afraid of the sight of swollen buds on fruit trees, especially on berry bushes. Pruning can be continued in this case.

Recent scientific studies allow pruning until the flowering of adult fruit trees.

Late pruning of stone fruits is undesirable: plums, cherries, sweet cherries, apricots, because. they may develop severe gum disease. If the trees have already begun to awaken, the buds are swelling, then pruning, if there is no urgent need, is better to postpone until next year. In the same year, you can carry out minimal pruning: cut out broken branches, cut out branches that interfere with others, some small twigs. All sections must be covered with garden pitch.

If a branch is poorly placed in the crown of the tree, try gently pulling it to the side, tilting or lifting it so that it takes up the free space of the crown, does not interfere with others, and finds itself in better conditions. To fix it, you can use slats and ropes.

If the trees are very frozen, then it is better to carry out a full pruning after the surviving buds start to grow and it becomes clear which branches are frozen.

Top dressing of fruit and berry crops in early spring

For rapid growth or restoration of parts damaged by frost, fruit trees and berry bushes need enhanced nutrition. In spring, nitrogen becomes especially important for plants. It is part of organic and mineral fertilizers.

The introduction of nitrogen fertilizer of one form or another into the soil in early spring contributes to the rapid growth of all parts of a fruit tree or berry bush. Such fertilizer is necessary for plants after severe winters, when they lose either fruit formations or growths of recent years due to low temperatures. If last year the trees did not bear fruit, but laid a large number of flower buds, then nitrogen fertilization from spring is also necessary.

At the beginning of the growing season, nitrogen in the form of mineral fertilizers is usually easier to apply than manure. But these fertilizers give a high effect only if the soil is sufficiently moistened: nitrogen moves more easily in the soil and is more fully absorbed by the root system. Mineral forms of nitrogen fertilizers should be applied in early spring.

How to determine the best time for the first feeding?

If nitrogen fertilizers are applied when the snow has not completely melted and the soil has not thawed everywhere, then dissolved nitrogen, together with spring water, can leave the garden in large quantities. Therefore, this period does not fit at all. - too early.

If mineral nitrogen is introduced when the soil has already dried out, then it will dissolve more slowly and will not be able to fill the entire root layer of the soil. This means that this period is also not suitable - too late.

The best period should be considered a short period after the complete descent of the slug. By this time, the soil is already thawing, although it is very saturated with water; the water freezes at night, and in the morning a thin crust of ice breaks under your feet, especially if you walk along a lowland, between rows, along large clods of soil. Top dressing at this time is usually called by the "shard" (Fig. 10). During the day, the ice melts, there is little water, it is not enough for the streams that run along the slope. The nitrogen remains in the garden. This period, when the fertilizer is most fully used, should not be missed.

Once again, it should be recalled that this state of the soil does not last long and it is very important not to miss it. On light sandy soils, this period begins earlier and ends faster than on heavy clay soils.

Fertilizers are applied by spreading them over the soil surface. If it is ammonium nitrate, then 10 g of fertilizer is applied per 1 m 2 of the trunk circle, if ammonium sulfate or calcium nitrate - 15-20 g, urea - 5-8 g. The second top dressing is carried out in May - June.

Regrafting trees

Orchards often use grafting on fruit trees to quickly change varieties without planting new trees; for the better preservation of some low-hardy varieties by grafting them into the crown and, finally, for the treatment of boles and bases of skeletal branches if they are damaged by rodents or have bark that has died from sunburn or frost.

Almost all fruit and berry plants can be re-grafted, but in country gardening, vaccinations are used in a limited number of plant species. So, any varieties of apple trees are grafted onto an apple tree, including a wild one, pear varieties - onto a cultivated and wild pear, as well as quince, and chokeberry and red mountain ash varieties - onto forest ash.

The most convenient time for grafting in the spring is the period of active sap flow, when the bark of the plants (where this grafting is done) is easily separated from the wood (end of April - first half of May).

Of the large number of grafting methods for your first experience, we advise you to use cuttings grafting according to the bark method.

The grafting of a new variety should be done on a trunk or in the main skeletal branches of such trees, which have proven themselves in the garden as highly winter-hardy. These include many seedlings of apple and pear trees that have survived severe winters, selected forms of Chinese women, a number of varieties of Siberian, Ural and northwestern origin, as well as a number of zoned varieties.

In the gardens of the Moscow region there is a fairly high percentage of trees that have sufficient frost resistance, but their quality cannot be considered good. Tentatively, we can assume that gardeners in the Moscow region grow about 6% Moscow Grushovka, 5% Anise, 1% Chinese, 5% Cinnamon striped. This is a very large reserve for improving the assortment by regrafting. All these varieties are good skeleton-formers. And, finally, the variety Antonovka ordinary, it takes about 30% of all varieties of apple trees. If there are several trees of these varieties in the garden, then some of them can be re-grafted onto new, more valuable ones.

By using regrafting, you can make a major overhaul of your garden without planting new trees, with minimal effort and expense.

What is the transfer technique?

Take, for example, a ten-year-old Cinnamon Striped tree. The variety is quite winter-hardy, so there is no reason to think that the tree froze over in winter. First of all, it is necessary to decide whether to remove the entire crown or re-graft in two years. It depends on the place of vaccination. It is possible, for example, to graft into a bole, then you need to make the least number of vaccinations; can be grafted into the base of skeletal branches, then the subsequently grown branches will replace the existing crown; it is possible to graft cuttings on two-three-year-old wood, i.e. almost along the periphery of the entire crown; in this case, you need to do a lot of vaccinations (this technique is used very rarely).

The cuttings grafted along the periphery of the crown come into fruition the earliest of all, the cuttings grafted into the stem later than all come into fruition.

Regrafting on the main branches of a ten-year-old tree of the Cinnamon Striped variety can be traced in Fig. 11. He has a good crown, however, the left lateral bough has somewhat surpassed the leader shoot in growth, and the formation of a fork is planned at the front right bough.

Rice. 11. A - general view of a 10-year-old tree before regrafting; B - the crown of an undesirable apple tree variety is cut off; B - in each main skeletal bough, depending on its diameter, a different number of cuttings are grafted (one variety can be grafted into each bough); D - in the summer in the year of vaccination, strong growths are formed, which create a new crown of the tree.

When cutting the crown, the leader bough should be left in the center. and cut the rest of the branches below. The cuts themselves should not be made strictly horizontal to the soil surface, they should be perpendicular to the branch axis. Slices are cleaned with a sharp garden knife and proceed to grafting. They start with the leader bough, then graft the side branches and then the lower branches. This garden work cannot be carried out in the reverse order, since here you can inevitably touch the already grafted cuttings. In each branch, the part that is closest to the center of the tree is first grafted. The places where the branches are cut are cleaned with a garden knife. Then a perpendicular incision is made with a copulation knife. It is better to start grafting at horizontal and inclined branches in their upper part. After grafting one cutting, the place of grafting, part of the end of the stock and the end of the cutting, if it does not end with an apical bud, are covered with pitch. Then proceed to the next vaccination. Having finished it, several turns of strapping tape are applied to the edge of the stock; they check the quality of coating with garden pitch on the parts subjected to this operation and, in conclusion, hang a label indicating the variety, the number of grafted cuttings, and put the date of vaccination on the back of the label.

Very often in the gardens there are non-hardy varieties that freeze slightly above the stem from year to year. Then the gardener decides to regraft such a tree. In this case, cut off all branches previously damaged by frost; shtamb at first sight is absolutely healthy. But he's not hardy. In the event of an unfavorable winter with little snow, the grafted parts may not freeze, but the trunk will freeze, and then a lot of work in the garden will be in vain. On fig. 12 shows a regrafted Chinese Kulon tree with new, quite resistant varieties. Years passed, the grafts turned into strong branches with an abundance of good quality fruits. But after a harsh winter, the bark of the trunk froze. The sap flow was disrupted, and the dying trunk of the non-hardy variety Kulon-Kitayka brought death to all vaccinations, although they were not damaged by the past frost.

It is absolutely unreasonable to graft new varieties into the crown of such non-hardy varieties as Papirovka, Melba, Pepin saffron, Bellefleur-Chinese and similar ones. Even the Antonovka and Anis varieties, under especially unfavorable conditions, cannot always be used for this purpose, since both the trunk and the skeletal branches can be damaged in some very severe winters.

When re-grafting trees, it is necessary to carefully look for completely stable skeleton-forming ones.

But what if the variety is not winter-hardy and you still want to replace it with another, better variety? In this case, it is necessary to cut off the entire part of the tree in early spring to the place of grafting (preferably along the root collar) and graft cuttings (Fig. 13) of a new variety into it.

Raspberry

In early spring, raspberries tied and bent in autumn must be untied and then tied either to a trellis (stretched wire) or to a stake. Some gardeners pay little attention to this work in the garden and carry it out late, when the buds on the shoots are already swollen or, even worse, the shoots themselves have appeared. Decoupling and distribution of shoots on the trellis at this time results in many buds or tender shoots being mechanically broken off, reducing the yield of this crop.

Bending down raspberries in autumn sometimes leads to the hollowing of individual shoots in the bush itself. Therefore, in the spring, before tying raspberries to the trellis, it is necessary to view and remove all damaged shoots.

After tying, the ends of the tops of all shoots are cut with secateurs. They are shortened by 10-15 cm. This technique enhances the growth of branches, which give the most valuable and high yield of berries. Raspberry shoots should not be cut to size as an ornamental crop.

In gardens, raspberries are propagated by offspring. They are formed on the roots and can grow close to the bush, as well as 1.5 m from it. It all depends on how far the superficial root system of the raspberry bush extends.

Under normal growth conditions, an adult raspberry bush produces a small number of offspring. Those of them that are on the periphery and come out of the general row of plants (during a row planting) are dug up in the fall and used for new plantings.

If you need to propagate a new valuable variety and get a large number of offspring, then in late autumn or early spring, the aerial part of the plant is cut off and the center of the old rhizome is removed. In the spring, a large number of shoots will develop from dormant buds on raspberry roots. This year they will not produce a crop. Digging up shoots is usually carried out with a garden pitchfork in order to less damage the roots of the plant.

For better growth of new shoots, care for such a mother bush consists of early spring mulching of the soil with peat and several waterings, which must be completed at the end of July.

It is important to protect young shoots from the raspberry fly. To do this, during the period of the appearance of buds (controlled by nearby fruit-bearing bushes), periodic spraying with a solution of chlorophos (20 g of an 80% preparation per 10 liters of water) is carried out.

strawberries

In the non-chernozem zone, spring work in the garden on a plot with strawberries is started in late April - early May. Strawberries at this time look rather deplorable: the leaves are almost all dry, dusty, drooping, and only two or three fresh green leaves stretch from the middle of the bush. The soil between the rows was compacted, dried out and cracked in places.

First of all, all last year's leaves are removed in such a site (Fig. 14).

What is the best way to do this?

With the left hand they grab the leaves located on any one side of the row, and with the right hand they cut their petioles closer to the base of the bush with a garden knife. The cut sheets are taken out and burned immediately.

The leaves can also be used for composting. In this case, they are stacked in heaps so that under the gusts of wind the leaves do not spread throughout the site.

Following the removal of last year's leaves, they start small (5-8 cm) digging of the plantation. Before that, phosphorus-potassium fertilizer and manure are applied, if these fertilizers have not been applied since the autumn of last year. After that, the plantation is loosened with a rake and mulching material is laid out along the rows.

Peat is often used for this purpose. It not only contributes to good moisture retention in the soil, but also creates a favorable temperature regime for the root layer of the soil in spring.

If the planting of seedlings was not carried out in the autumn (it remained not taken out of the soil on the plantation), then they proceed to its selection and planting. Since the weather is clear at this time, the planting must be carried out quickly so that the root system of the strawberries does not dry out. The soil for planting should be prepared in the fall.

In some years, a young planting of strawberries bulges out, which is expressed in the appearance of a root base on the soil surface. Such seedlings must be deepened into the soil to the level of the heart. This work in the garden in the spring is done as early as possible, while the soil is in a soft-plastic state.

Strawberries two weeks earlier. The dream of every gardener is to get the earliest first berry or first fruit. The dream turns into a real necessity if there are small children in the family.

Growing early strawberries with a high yield has begun to find a large number of fans in recent years.

They begin by choosing a place on the site that is illuminated by direct sunlight. Then, in early spring or in the second half of summer, high-quality seedlings of strawberries, mainly early varieties, are planted. It should be planted in one row. The distance between plants in a row should be 25-30 cm. Each row of strawberries is covered separately. To do this, use a tunnel shelter. Due to the fact that the edges of the covering material are either buried in the soil or strengthened in some other way, the distance between the rows of strawberries has to be 100-110 cm.

In the first year of growth, strawberries are carefully looked after. All whiskers are removed immediately as soon as they appear. In late autumn, frames are installed along the rows. For this purpose, it is best to use hollow tubes with a diameter of 15 to 25 mm, made of plastic materials, an iron rod with a diameter of 5 to 8 mm, willow branches and, finally, a frame can be made of wooden slats. In the first cases, it will be semicircular, and in the latter - in the form of a trapezoid.

The height of the frame should be 35-50 cm, and the width (near the ground) - 60-70 cm. Separate arcs are placed with a distance of 80-100 cm between them.

It is more expedient to put the frame in the fall, but it is also possible in early spring, as soon as the snow melts and the soil thaws.

If the frame is set in the spring, then before covering it with covering material, twine or soft wire should be pulled between the arcs. This is done so that the material does not sag in case of rain.

It is usually enough to stretch the twine along the very top of the arches and along the sides. The ends of the twine are pulled tightly to a stake obliquely hammered into the soil, which is located in the center of one of the ends of the tunnel shelter. This achieves sufficient rigidity of the entire structure (Fig. 15).

The covering material is cut 100-120 cm more than the length of the entire frame. In calm weather, excess material can be decomposed. First, it is placed on the frame and trimmed. Then, for better tension, bricks are placed along the edges. Now, along one long edge of the frame, the earth is selected to a depth of 10-15 cm. The end of the material is filled into it and compacted with earth, if it is a film. The same is done from opposite edges. The edges of the covering material can be pressed to the soil with a brick or board.

If the frame is made of slats, then the covering material can be strengthened with thin slats.

Strawberries should be covered in early spring as soon as new leaves begin to appear. Before shelter, you should loosen the beds and remove all old leaves.

During April, watering strawberries is not necessary, as there is enough moisture supply. When flower stalks appear, the bushes should be sprayed with a solution of chlorophos (20 g of 80% chlorophos per 10 liters of water) to kill the weevil. After spraying, close the bed tightly again. If the bed is covered with a film, then on sunny hot days moisture appears on the inside of the film. This is good. At the beginning of flowering, either the ends of the shelter, or one of its sides (preferably the southern one), are slightly opened for a day. Berries are picked daily. By the end of the harvest, strawberries begin to ripen on an ordinary plantation. By this time, the covering material is removed (the frame can be left). Further care consists of loosening the soil, removing weeds and mustaches, which form very early and in large numbers.

Reproduction of currant

Of the berry crops, currants, especially black ones, are easily propagated, and in more than one way. If the gardener wants to get two or three seedlings, then for this purpose, branches from a perennial bush are rooted; if you need to get a larger number of plants, then use lignified cuttings.

With any method of propagation, branches or cuttings are taken from the most productive and free from bud mites and terry bushes. In order to make sure that they are free from diseases and pests, the bushes are carefully examined in early spring, when it is easy to detect rounded buds damaged by mites; during flowering, check whether the flowers are damaged by terry. And finally, the final conclusion about the state of the bush is helped by determining the yield from it, since the healthiest plant can give the highest yield. But in view of the fact that the yield sometimes decreases due to low temperatures, not only in winter, but also during the flowering period, as well as after flowering, when negative temperatures can occur and the ovary falls off, a real assessment of the degree of yield of a blackcurrant bush should be given only after three to four years of fruiting. By this time, you can accurately evaluate the plant.

In spring, the soil under the bushes is dug up and harrowed. Then, departing from the center of the bush by 30-60 cm, they make a hole half a bayonet of a shovel deep. Compost, rotted manure or garden soil is placed in it. Then a two- or three-year-old branch is bent down and, if it is difficult to do this, pressed to the hole with an iron pin 40 cm long (with a rod diameter of 3-4 mm), the bases of the branch are covered with peat (one - two shovels), and earth is poured on top. The entire mound is compacted. By autumn, the bent part of the branch forms roots; if they are weak, then the layers are not separated for another year. White and red currants usually form very weak roots in the first year, so both are grown for two, and sometimes three years.

In case of drought, the mounds are moistened. In the autumn of the first or second year of cultivation, the cuttings are separated from the mother bush with secateurs and planted in a permanent place. The aerial part of the layering is somewhat shortened. In the first year, from 5 to 12 layers can be obtained from one bush, depending on the variety and type of currant.

The roots of the cuttings form faster if you make a longitudinal incision in that part of the branch that is sprinkled with soil, or make semicircular cuts in the bark and treat them with growth substances (one tablet of heteroauxin per 1 liter of water). This solution either treats the wound or waters (once) the hole with the branch at the time of its laying.

Currants of all kinds also propagate by cuttings. To do this, one-year strong shoots are used, which are not cut from the end of perennial branches, but take the so-called zero shoots, i.e. those that are formed from the soil or from the base of perennial branches.

The thicker the diameter of the shoots, the better the quality of the resulting plant. Therefore, from a shoot 65 cm long, you can get three cuttings of 20 cm each, with the lower and middle ones giving good bushes, while the upper one is worse.

To obtain a large number of high quality annual shoots in the spring, almost all perennial branches are cut out in the bush. By autumn, the bush forms new shoots, not only of high quality, but also in large quantities.

For cutting blackcurrant cuttings, bushes from two to five years old are used, and for red and white currants, it is permissible to use older plants for this purpose.

Chopped cuttings are immediately planted in pre-prepared soil. The depth of its digging is 30 cm. It is very good to add peat or compost to the soil for digging in the amount of three buckets per 1 m 2.

The best time for currants when planting cuttings is autumn. The cutting is obliquely buried in the soil so that one or two buds are on the surface. The distance in a row is 15-18 cm, between rows - 30-35 cm. Late autumn or early spring, after loosening the rows, mulching with peat is carried out.

In some unfavorable winters, cuttings may bulge out of the soil. Then in the spring, as soon as the soil thaws, they are again buried, and the soil is trampled.

During the summer, the site is periodically watered using sprinkling. If it was not mulched, then loosening is carried out.

At the end of June, a young annual shoot is pinched over the third or fourth leaf. At first, this retards growth, but then more and more new shoots form from sleeping buds, and by autumn the one-year-old shoot turns into a branching plant that can be planted in a permanent place.

To obtain high quality seedlings, blackcurrant plants are not dug up in the first year, and in the spring of the next year they cut off the entire aerial part, leaving three to five buds. In the second year, strong two-year-old seedlings develop from them, which produce a crop in the first year.

May. Spring work in the garden

Check the planting of young seedlings of fruit crops. Sometimes they incorrectly plant fruit and berry crops - for example, plants of apple trees, pears, cherries, plums are too deep. Subsequently, this leads to inhibition of the growth and development of the tree, to a decrease in yield, and in conditions of heavy wet soils, even to the dampening of the bark on boles. After a few years, these trees die.

It is better to carefully check last year's plantings and, if it is found that the root neck of the trees is deepened, immediately correct the mistake made.

Usually, when planting, it is recommended to raise the root collar of a tree 3-4 cm above the soil level on light sandy soils and 5-6 cm on heavy loamy or clay soils.

How to correctly locate the root collar in a grafted apple, pear, cherry, plum or mountain ash? The root neck is the place where the roots pass into the aerial part of the tree, i.e. in a stem. To accurately determine this place, it is necessary to wipe a part of the trunk and the beginning of the main roots with a damp cloth: the border of the change in the color of the bark from greenish tones to light brown will be the root collar.

Sometimes a thickening on the trunk is mistaken for the root neck, while this is the part of the game where the inoculation was made. And this mistake entails another: focusing on thickening, trees are planted incorrectly - very deep.

It is equally important to pay special attention to the advance preparation of landing pits. Very often, a planting hole is dug and filled in on the day or on the eve of planting a tree; the necessary fertilizers are laid in it and filled with earth. This is completely unacceptable. The hole should be dug five to six weeks in advance and filled with soil and fertilizer three to five weeks before the fall planting.

If planting is carried out in the spring, then the pit should be prepared in the fall. Only in this case, the loose soil completely settles and the tree planted later will not have a deepening of the root collar.

In the spring, the gardener has a lot of urgent things to do in the garden, often the weather also drives him on. But, despite the short time of spring work in the garden, deepened by improper planting or settled young grafted fruit trees must be raised before the leaves bloom (Fig. 16).

How to do it? Carefully remove the top layer of soil above the roots with a shovel, then pull the tree (if it is a new plant) up until the root collar appears (2-4 cm above the soil horizon). When a young tree is pulled out of the hole, it must be held by the wild bole, i.e. that part of it, which is located between the root collar and the grafting site.

Earth is added to the resulting hole and compacted, especially under the roots (you can use a stick with a blunt end). After that, a hole is made in the pit and one or two buckets of water are poured into it.

It is much more difficult to raise mature trees - from five years or more. In this case, you have to dig a lot of earth, removing a large layer of soil above the roots, under which, in order to carefully lift the tree, they bring a wag wrapped in soft material. (Mature trees that have undergone such an operation are given especially careful care.) Unfortunately, sometimes I do it wrong. Above the roots, a layer of soil is removed until the root collar is exposed, sometimes deepened by 10 or even 25 cm, and this work is considered completed. And it turns out that tree plantings are much lower than the level of the soil surface of the garden, i.e. the tree turns out to be sitting in a hole. In spring or late autumn, water flows into this depression, and the bole is in abnormal conditions for a long time. And the tree sooner or later dies from the decay of the lower part of the trunk. This is one of the reasons for the annual death of a large number of trees in country gardens.

As for berry bushes - currants and gooseberries, a slight deepening does not harm them, on the contrary, it creates favorable conditions for further growth. You can plant these crops in spring and autumn.

The central non-chernozem belt is located in a zone of sufficient moisture, however, in May and June, there is still little precipitation, at this time there is not enough of a fruit tree. Early in the spring, they start digging. Unlike the autumn spring digging is carried out necessarily with subsequent harrowing (hand cultivator or rake).

Finely cloddy soil better retains moisture accumulated during the autumn-spring time, protects it from evaporation. This technique is called “closing the moisture”.

Sometimes, having dug up the garden, they start harrowing only after one or two weeks. This must not be allowed. Over such a long period of time, large clods of soil quickly evaporate moisture from the surface, harden, and later they are no longer easy to break.

If on soils of heavy mechanical composition one has to work in the garden with a shovel and rake, then on sandy ones, if the garden was previously kept under black fallow (it was loosened throughout the summer), the soil can be loosened either with a cultivator or with a rake.

Since spring, the soil in the garden is harrowed without digging. During the summer, the earth is covered with a green carpet of various herbs. They are cut down: for the first time - by the time the colza and dandelion begin to bloom, and later - as the grass grows up to 15 - 20 cm.

Mowed grass is evenly scattered under the crowns of fruit trees. In this case, it takes on the meaning of mulch. They mow the grass in the garden not only in those places where the garden is kept under turfing, but also in others where the most malicious weeds have grown: dandelion, colza, couch grass, creeping buttercup, etc. At the same time, the grass is also transferred to tree trunks.

True, sometimes neither weeding nor other methods help to clear the garden of weeds. But the cutting of grasses during flowering protects the territory of the garden from self-seeding of various weeds. This is very important for a gardener to know. In addition, the turfing of a fruit-bearing garden helps to improve the mechanical composition of the soil. However, it can also be harmful. This happens, as a rule, in dry summers, when the garden is left without water.

This situation is especially dangerous for fruit-bearing trees, since a lack of water in the soil can lead either to shedding of the ovary, or to obtaining small and poor quality fruits. This happens because the grass that has grown in the garden takes a lot of moisture from the root layer of the soil, thereby weakening the general condition of the trees. Therefore, if your garden is grassed, we recommend watering it in case of prolonged dry weather.

Gardens located on waterlogged soils are best kept under turfing and periodically mow the grass.

For turfing, the following herbs can be sown: meadow fescue - 1.2-1.6 g per m 2; meadow timothy - 0.5-0.6 g per m 2; wheatgrass - 0.9 g per m 2; bluegrass meadow - 0.5-0.7 g per m 2; awnless fire - 0.4-0.5 g per m 2; hedgehog team - 0.4-0.5 g per m 2; white clover - 1.2-1.5 g per m 2; perennial ryegrass - 1.5-2 g per m 2.

Some gardeners cover tree trunks with peat or manure (mulch) to insulate the roots of fruit trees in autumn.

How in this case it is necessary to carry out digging in the spring? The amount of mulch applied here matters. If its layer is 5 cm or more, then in spring bad conditions are created for warming the soil. In this case, the vital activity of the root system is somewhat delayed, while the aerial part of the tree is already showing signs of growth.

Therefore, first of all, the mulch from the trunk circle must be removed with a rake, and the soil should be dug up and harrowed. After one to two weeks, when the soil in the trunk circle warms up, it can again be covered with mulching material. If since autumn the mulch has been laid in a layer of 2-3 cm, then the heating of the soil in the near-trunk circle will proceed normally, if only peat was used as mulch, then faster.

Should the mulch be dug up in the spring with the ground in the trunk circle and will it improve the nitrogen nutrition of the tree?

First of all, we must proceed from the fact that, firstly, if the amount of mulching material is limited and it is not possible to provide the garden with sufficient watering, then it is better to keep the mulch on the surface of the near-stem circle; secondly, almost any mulching material either does not contain nitrogen at all, or contains it in small quantities (if straw manure has been introduced since autumn), or, even worse, reduces the nitrogen content in the soil.

For example, if sawdust, sawdust manure (containing 80% sawdust), shavings, wood chips, forest floor, etc. are used as mulching material. The soil gives a lot of nitrogen to the decomposition of these wood wastes, and in order to replenish it, when digging such a mulch, it is necessary to apply nitrogen mineral fertilizer.

As you can see, mulching materials as nitrogen fertilizer are of no value. They only contribute to the conservation of moisture in the soil, and when digging, they create a better soil structure, in which air exchange and the beneficial activity of microorganisms are enhanced.

watering

Fruit and berry plants from the beginning of snow melting to the last decade of May are provided with a sufficient amount of moisture in the soil. At this time, irrigation can be replaced by loosening, especially after heavy rains, when the compacted soil quickly forms a crust on its surface, which contributes to the evaporation of moisture from the soil. Loosening to a depth of 6-8 cm with rakes, cultivators or rippers protects the soil from intensive evaporation.

In the first half of summer, when shoots, leaves and ovaries are actively growing, water consumption by plants is especially high. Therefore, they need watering at this time (June - July).

If during the summer months, with clear weather, rains do not fall for 5-10 days, then some crops begin to experience a lack of moisture. This is primarily observed on light sandy soils in high relief conditions or in areas where perennial forest trees grow. Irrigation is also needed here. Among the crops that need them, first of all, it is necessary to name all the plants planted either in the spring of the current year or in the autumn of the last. Plants transplanted in adulthood require mandatory watering, and first of all during the first two to three years.

The sequence in watering adult plants is approximately the following. Raspberries are watered first, then strawberries, currants, plums, gooseberries, cherry, pear and apple trees.

Watering, if possible, should be timed to coincide with certain phases of growth and development of a particular crop.

Apple tree and pear it is best to water in June, when the fruit-bearing trees shed their excess ovaries. During this period, the trees begin increased growth of fruits and shoots.

The second watering is carried out a month after the first (July 15-20), two to three weeks before the collection of summer varieties, the third watering - in August (autumn and winter varieties of apple and pear trees are watered first).

stone fruit crops - plum and cherry the first time is watered after flowering, the second - two weeks before harvesting the fruit and the third time - after harvesting.

Blackcurrant, white, red and gooseberry watered once every two weeks before harvest and after harvest.

strawberries in case of drought, water for the first time during the flowering period. There are often frosts at this time, and watering can be timed to coincide with the days preceding the cold snap. The flowering of strawberries is extended, therefore, if watering is carried out even at the end of flowering, it will still have a great influence on the growth and increase in the ovary. The second watering is carried out two to three weeks after harvest.

Raspberries are watered for the first time in a dry summer at the end of May, then every 10-15 days. Finish watering during the period of maximum harvest.

In the garden, it is difficult to control the effect of watering, i.e. how deeply the water penetrates the soil and how much it saturates the soil layer where the bulk of the horizontal roots lie.

Under favorable conditions, the bulk of the horizontal roots of fruit and berry crops in the Moscow region reaches a depth: for raspberries - 20 cm, for strawberries - 30 cm, for currants and gooseberries - 30-40 cm, for plums and cherries - 30-40 cm, for pears - 50 cm, in an apple tree grafted on dwarf rootstocks - 40 cm, grafted on semi-dwarf rootstocks - 50 cm and grafted on seed rootstocks - 70 cm. The depth of the bulk of the root system on sandy soils is 10-15 cm more.

For each crop, it is important to moisten the soil exactly and to the specified depth. Approximately 1 m 2 of the trunk circle, i.e. zones where the root system is located, it is necessary to use water for one-time watering of apple and pear trees (at a groundwater level below 3 m) on sandy soils 4-5 buckets, on light loamy soils - 5-6 buckets, on loamy soils - 6-7 buckets, on heavy loamy and clayey - 8-9 buckets.

The irrigation rate for strawberries, currants, gooseberries, plums and cherries can be reduced by 2 times, and for raspberries - by 3 times.

In dry summer conditions, three irrigations are carried out. You should not water the garden uncontrollably, saturating most of your garden with water. Such irrigation often brings harm rather than benefit, since water completely fills the soil, displaces air, and therefore normal gas exchange is disrupted. The growth of the root system and the vital activity of microorganisms are suppressed. When excessive watering is replaced by a long period of rainy days, fruit and berry plants fall into a critical situation, in which the activity of the active (suction) root system ceases, which is partly manifested in abundant and premature yellowing of the leaves and their fall. Excessive watering is especially dangerous on dense, non-structural soils with a high level of groundwater.

Young fruit trees up to 10-12 years old grafted onto ordinary seed rootstocks, apple trees grafted onto dwarf rootstocks up to 15-18 years old years, it is possible to irrigate within the near-stem circles both by the inlet of water along the near-stem zone, and along the annular grooves. In the latter case, the duration of watering increases, as the water in the groove is slowly absorbed. Currants and gooseberries are watered within the crown of these plants. Raspberries and strawberries are watered over the entire area occupied by these crops. For these two crops it is very good to use sprinkling.

Watering adult gardens at the age of 15 years and more is carried out using furrows arranged either around trees or along their rows. The distance between furrows on light soils should be 50-60 cm, on heavy soils - 80-100 cm. do with a hoe, not a shovel. Furrow irrigation gives poor results on sloping plots, as it increases soil erosion in the garden. They do not suit him in those places where mature trees have perennial grassing. Because it is not always advisable to spoil the area with the sowing of grasses by making furrows. In such cases, gardens are most conveniently watered from a hose with a special nozzle that sprays water.

Watering with sprinkling is most suitable for a country garden.

Control over the rate of water during irrigation is carried out as follows. If the garden is watered with furrows, then it should be noted how many minutes the bucket is filled with water supplied from the hose, then calculate the area occupied by one furrow. It can be roughly assumed that one furrow serves one square meter of soil. If it is necessary to calculate the watering of a tree at the age of 10 years with a furrow 3.5 m long, then, for example, for light loamy soils, 5-6 buckets are required multiplied by 3.5.

When watering by sprinkling or otherwise, the degree of soil moisture can be determined as follows: the next day after watering, under the crown of a fruit tree, they dig a hole to the depth of the main mass of the root system. Take a handful of soil and squeeze it in the palm of your hand. If a lump is formed that does not crumble, then the soil is sufficiently moistened.

In a dry autumn, the last, so-called winter watering, is carried out. First of all, fruit-bearing apple trees, cherries, plums and pears need it. The rate of this last watering per 1 m 2 is increased by one or two buckets compared to the one that was already indicated above.

Berry crops do not need winter watering as badly as fruit crops, because they have enough of the rains that fall in the fall.

Watering the garden during a drought should be carried out as sparingly as possible. The most complete absorption of moisture occurs on loose or previously loosened and mulched (needle bar, grass, shavings, straw manure) soil. Peat (dry) mulch does not allow rapid absorption, so watering the soil covered with peat has to be done with intermittent sprinkling with a finer spray of water.

In an adult garden, if it is under long-term turfing, the soil is somewhat compacted, and therefore water runoff is possible. In this case, the watering rate is slightly increased.

Deep watering gives good results when the tip is from a hose with a jet of 1.5-2 atm. injected into the soil to a depth of 40 - 50 cm.

As seen in fig. 17, watering with one watering can of water did not allow deep penetration of moisture into the soil. Watering on the same soil with three watering cans already gives better moisture for the root systems of berry crops, as well as cherries and plums (a, b).

Rice. 17. Scheme of moisture penetration in the garden to different depths (cm) with different irrigations:

a - along the furrows; b - on a black pair; c - for many years of turfing. The top three diagrams show the penetration of moisture during irrigation in one bucket, the bottom three diagrams - three buckets per 1 m 2.

However, in the first and second cases, watering the soddy soil by sprinkling did not give the necessary penetration of moisture to the roots (c). Irrigation with a furrow (a) contributed to a deeper penetration of moisture into the soil. This suggests that during a drought, a garden kept under turfing should (per one square meter, in loamy soils) have a high watering rate - not less than 4-5 buckets. And in order for the soil to absorb all this moisture, the irrigation itself must be done intermittently, otherwise part of the water that has not been absorbed into the soil at the time of irrigation will drain to lower places.

Protecting the garden from spring frosts

In the Moscow region, once every 5-7 years, frosts are observed during the flowering period of the apple tree. Plum, cherry and pear trees are more likely to be damaged than apple trees because they bloom a week earlier.

The danger of damage to flowers by frost is especially high in early spring, when gardens can bloom in the second decade of May. This is especially true for gardens located in lowlands, hollows, ravines, as well as in tight clearings. Orchards located on the upper parts of the terrain, as well as near large water bodies, are less susceptible to frost.

Buds of an apple tree die at a temperature of -2.75 to -3.85 °, stamens and pistils of a blossoming flower - at a temperature of -1.5 to -2.5 ° and a young ovary - at -1 °.

Due to the uneven blooming of flowers, the fruit tree, with small frosts, manages to maintain the ability to bear fruit so as to give a relatively good harvest in the future. It helps to even out the overall yield of the garden and the selection of varieties with different flowering periods, for example, the Pepin saffron variety always begins to bloom much later than other varieties.

When the temperature falls below the critical temperature, heat-loving crops in the garden are damaged, from which they die. It is interesting to note that such critical temperatures occur for 1.5-2.5 hours, and temperatures below 0 ° are observed for 4-5 hours.

When forecasting weather with critical temperatures in the garden, smoke should be carried out for fruit crops, for berries and strawberries - shelter or for both - general watering.

What is the essence of such plant protection? Frost in the spring occurs due to the influx of cold air masses and the loss of heat by the soil and plants (at night).

When smoking, the intensity of heat transfer from the soil decreases, thereby weakening the cooling of the plants themselves, for which it is enough to increase the temperature by only 1-1.5 °.

When watering, the soil and plants receive an additional amount of heat, since the temperature of the irrigation water is always higher than the air and soil surface during frost hours. When watering, the deeper horizons of warm soil are moistened, which increases its thermal conductivity, as a result of which the upper layers receive a large influx of heat and the effect of frost is reduced.

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to spraying the crown and watering the soil under the trees. Water is applied to flowers, leaves and branches in the form of the smallest spray. In frost, they are covered with a thin crust of ice, which protects the plants from the cold.

When sheltering berries and strawberries, plants cool less.

Strawberries under the film (when receiving early harvests) on frost days are additionally covered with burlap, cloth or matting.

In the conditions of a country garden, wood chips, shavings, sawdust, rotten straw, hay, needles, forest floor, last year's leaves, tops of potatoes, phloxes, irises and other perennials, as well as small branches from tree pruning and raspberry cuttings, moss are used to create smoke piles. , peat.

Smoke can be increased by adding pieces of roofing felt or roofing material to the pile, and flaring up by watering it with used mineral oils or fuel oil. You can also add waste of various resins.

Smoke piles are placed perpendicular to the direction of the wind, the distance between them should be 5-8 m. In a garden of 6 acres (600 m 2), 6-9 piles are lit. In a garden with an area of ​​12 acres (1200 m 2), 12-18 heaps are lit.

The smoke pile is arranged as follows. First, dry material is placed on the ground, which can easily burn. Dry branches are inserted into the middle of it and a layer of dry material is poured on top. Peat, forest floor or other damp material is placed on top of it. Then the whole pile is covered with sawdust or garbage. The diameter of the heap is 1-1.5 m, the height is 1-1.2 m. If the heap gives a lot of fire, then it must be sprinkled with damp material or earth or poured with water from a watering can. If the necessary material is available, one gardener can prepare a garden for frost protection in 4 to 5 hours.

All these methods are well known to gardeners. However, it must be said that not all of them are correctly applied. Often one or two fires are lit in the garden all night and early in the morning "just in case". Even if the frost had passed, then a small number of fires would not heat the entire territory. Work in the garden in the spring is wasted, material is wasted.

In addition to the forecasts that can be heard on radio or television, an ordinary outdoor thermometer should be hung in the garden (in the flowering zone of fruit trees). If the temperature starts to drop to 0.5°C and continues to drop, then it's time to start smoking the garden. Here it should be taken into account that critical temperatures occur for 1.5-2.5 hours, and the temperature below 0 ° C lasts 4-5 hours.

Smoke is best done in collaboration with neighbors, by common efforts. After all, if one gardener burns heaps in his garden, and the other - no, then in calm weather the smoke will cover the trees of the neighboring garden with a thick veil. And you need your neighbor to take care of you too, otherwise your garden will have a bad time.

There will be no benefit from smoking if instead of smoke from a fire there is a strong flame. After all, a smoke screen is needed, and the richer it is, the more reliably it will protect a flowering garden.

A good material for smoking is smoke bombs. They are very convenient to use, as they can be moved from place to place and thereby regulate the smoke density in the garden.

The strongest drop in temperature occurs an hour before and during the first and second hours after sunrise. One must always be prepared for this: prepare heaps for a fire in advance, material that can easily kindle them.

If the air temperature at sunrise does not fall below 0.5°C, then smoking must be stopped.

There is an opinion that morning frosts are terrible only for fruit trees. It is not right. Very often, berry bushes suffer from them, and first of all, gooseberries and currants, both in the state of flowering and at the time of formation of the ovary (the berries that have just started fall off).

Perhaps more than other horticultural crops, strawberries are subject to spring frosts. This is due to the fact that frosts on the soil surface are much more frequent in spring than at the level of crowns of fruit trees.

There are a number of ways to protect berries.

First way. Tie the currant with a rope, and cover the bush with paper, some kind of cloth or film.

The second way. With the help of sprinkling devices during frost hours, constantly spray bushes with water.

The third way. Cover strawberries with straw or rolled strips of paper, film and especially good covering material. Before sheltering, the beds should be watered, and in order for the shelter to hold tighter, the edges of the paper or film are covered with earth. Work in the garden should be carried out on the eve of the expected frost.

Remontant strawberry

It is possible to extend the collection of strawberries until August - September only through the use of its remontant varieties: Ada, Inexhaustible, Sakhalinskaya, etc. But there is one peculiarity here. The first fruiting in remontant varieties occurs at the same time as in ordinary ones. And after a pause, it resumes again. But since the first fruiting coincides with the fruiting of ordinary varieties, it is advisable to remove all the first flower stalks on remontant strawberries by plucking. Then growth intensifies, mustaches appear, and flowering resumes on them and on the mother bush.

In September, when cold weather or frost sets in, the flowers are poorly pollinated, and the ovary is either deformed or completely absent, and often at this time there is not enough heat for its growth and development. In this case, a frame must be placed on the bed with remontant strawberries and covered with material. On sunny days, it must be slightly opened.

Remontant strawberries bear fruit abundantly and for this require not only rich soils, but also large planting distances. The best of them - 70x40 cm.

The peculiarity of this variety of strawberries is that flower stalks form on the mustache that appears during the summer. They take a lot of nutrition from the mother bush. Therefore, you can remove all the whiskers, this achieves more abundant fruiting of the main bush.

Remontant large-fruited strawberries give the highest yields in the second - third year. Therefore, by the end of the third year, the plants are removed, but before that, the most rooted rosettes are isolated for new plantings.

With good agricultural technology, gardeners get a little more than 1 kg of berries from 1 m 2, and the main collection occurs at the end of summer and early autumn, which is very important.

hunting belts

In the last days of May, trapping belts are placed on the boles of fruit-bearing trees: these are strips of paper, burlap ribbons and some other material. They are reviewed periodically. All pests found under the belts are destroyed.

Trapping belts should not be applied very high - at the point of departure from the stem of the main skeletal branches. The most suitable place for them is the lower part of the trunk, about 15-20 cm from the soil surface (Fig. 18).

Rice. 18. Trapping (sticky) belt, superimposed on the trunk of an apple tree. If there is no pronounced bole, then one trapping belt is applied to each skeletal bough

Removing dead branches

In May, you can notice that individual branches and branches of fruit trees and shrubs are either strongly delayed during bud break, or do not bloom at all. These are branches that died from various causes. They need to be cut. For example, currants are very badly damaged by glass and gall midges, from which shoots and entire branches have an oppressed appearance.

In raspberries, some of the young shoots that started growing this year have drooping tops, which usually darken and dry out. This means that the young shoots are damaged by the larvae of the raspberry stem fly. They should be cut down and destroyed immediately. Gardeners must know for sure that in no case should dead branches be left on fruit trees or shrubs; uncut, they can be a breeding ground for various fungal diseases, as well as woodworm pests.

When spring fully comes into its own, summer residents, gardeners and gardeners have a lot of trouble. However, not everyone knows what work is done in the garden in the spring. To understand this issue, you need to study in detail what the soil, shrubs, trees and plants individually expect from us.

Preliminary work in the garden

First of all, you need to prepare the land for future work on it. First, get rid of the winter debris. Dry leaves, remnants of supports and shelters, windbreak - we do not need anything. It is important to thoroughly approach this issue, since unnecessary trash not only spoils the appearance of the summer cottage, but also creates a favorable environment for the reproduction of pests and insects. In the course of clearing the territory, weeds that have appeared should be removed from the soil. Until they get stronger, they can be easily pulled out of the ground. You can also get rid of larvae and live insects, which you will definitely meet in your spring garden.

Soil work

Earthwork in the garden in the spring requires strength and some skills. You will have to work hard with a shovel and a wheelbarrow, which will be needed to transport fertilizers. Before planting plants, the soil must be nourished.

Organic fertilizers are the best way to create favorable conditions in the soil for the life of plants, shrubs and trees.

For perennial plants, minerals that contain potassium are suitable. Regular chicken manure can replace it. The soil for garden plants and root crops can be cultivated using purchased, rotted manure or ready-made compost. Preparing a garden in the spring is a very important event, so you need to take this seriously. Groundbaiting and mulching is possible only when the soil is thoroughly moistened.

After last winter, you need to evaluate the quality of the soil:

• If the ground is heavy, add airiness in the form of fine gravel or coarse sand. In this case, you will get rid of stagnation of water at the roots.
• If the soil is too crumbly, then a small amount of clay rocks should be added to retain nutrients and moisture on the surface.

The next stage of spring work in the garden is the process of loosening the soil.

Experienced summer residents know that it is impossible to constantly dig up the ground on the site. During digging, all useful and nutritious substances go deep into the soil, plus its structure deteriorates.

The garden in the spring requires a little loosening to a depth of no more than 5-8 cm. Porous and granular soil is a favorable environment for planting plants, in which the root system will quickly gain strength and growth.

Spring work in the garden with trees and shrubs

Working in the garden in the spring requires not only the preparation and fertilization of the soil. In the coming warm period, special attention should be paid to perennial plants and garden trees.

What can and should be done with them in the spring?

• Starting from April, you can start planting shrubs, evergreen, fruit and garden trees. In addition, at this time they can be transplanted.
• Before stone fruit trees and some berry bushes - raspberries, gooseberries, currants, etc. begin to grow again, they need to be cut.
• Trimming ornamental shrubs and trees is possible only if they bloom in spring and summer, such as roses. However, plants that bloom on last year's shoots should be pruned only after flowering - that is, in spring or early summer.
• You can in the spring.
• At the beginning of the season, you can begin the process of reproduction - cutting trees and dividing perennials.

Spring work in the garden

When the soil warms up to 6-7 degrees, you can start planting some types of garden plants. Usually potatoes, bulbous breeds, garlic or seedlings are planted at this time. In order to get an early harvest of rhubarb and asparagus, they make a special forcing on open ground and blanching.

In late April - early May, other berry crops can also be planted. If the roots of the plants are bare, then they need to be covered with earth and water should be drained from the beds.

The second half of April is the time for sowing cold-resistant crops - radishes, dill, parsley, etc. White and color are planted in nurseries under shelters.

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and cucumbers are planted in open ground in late spring. Some summer residents use for this.

Do not forget that many plants are afraid of frost, so you can finally unpack them only after the final warming.

What to do with the lawn in spring?

After the snow has melted, special attention should be paid to the lawn. Last year's grass needs to be torn out with a rake. Potholes that appeared on the grass should be covered with earth mixed with sand. The surface of the lawn is leveled, sprinkled with sand and seeds are planted in areas where there is no grass. In addition, spring work in the garden involves cutting hedges and repairing if necessary.

Preparing a garden in the spring is an exciting and interesting activity. The appearance of the summer cottage, the quality and quantity of the future harvest depend on how you carry out these works. Arranging your own garden, planting vegetables and caring for flowers will be a pleasant event if you give yourself to this process with all your heart.

Video conference - garden work in spring

With the advent of spring, gardeners and gardeners in summer cottages and other areas begin a hot period, you need to have time to complete all the work and prepare the ground for a good harvest of fruits and vegetables. The owners’ hands are “itching”, because the winter worries and cold are fed up with the order, and I want to quickly go out into the garden and the beds, determine for myself the scope of work and begin to implement it. The harvest will depend on properly carried out spring work in the garden (we will not forget about summer chores too). Therefore, spring is a responsible time for gardeners and vegetable growers.

Works in the garden and vegetable garden in spring (March - April - May)

What kind of work is required to be done in the garden and garden in the spring? Everything needs to be done better according to a plan drawn up in advance, taking into account personal experience. All work in the garden and garden is carried out slowly, in compliance with agricultural practices and in accordance with climatic conditions. This is the only way to be sure that the work will give a positive result. As soon as the sun warms up, the first thing to do is fruit trees.

Freeing fruit trees from the snow cap

In early March, the gardener's first priority is to free the branches of fruit trees from the ice crust that occurs when snow melts. All work should be carried out with a garden pitchfork so as not to harm the young branches.

Experienced gardeners after a heavy snowfall carry out "dusting" of trees with peat or wood ash. In the trunk circles, you need to do the same, since the sun's rays will heat up the dark snow faster, and it will begin to melt.

Is the "Snow Accumulation" technique so good?

Due to the unstable spring weather and lower night temperatures, many summer residents want to restrain the blooming and flowering of trees so that frosts do not affect the future harvest. They practice the technique "Accumulation of snow". After a heavy snowfall, gardeners pour snow under the trees and cover with sawdust. They believe that the accumulated snow will melt more slowly, delaying the awakening of plants. The growing season is slightly shifted and flowering does not fall under spring frosts. But from a scientific point of view, this cannot be done, because each plant has its own development cycle and intervention in nature can destroy trees.

Spring whitewashing of trees and shrubs

After the snow melts, it is necessary to whitewash the trunks of trees and shrubs with lime mortar. This procedure is carried out not for beauty, but to protect plants from pests and scorching sunlight. To prepare 10 liters of solution, you need to take a pound of copper sulfate diluted in a small amount of hot water, 2.5 kg of chalk or lime and casein glue - 100 g, and adding more water. Mix all the components and apply on the trunks in 2 layers.

Pruning bushes and trees

Maintenance pruning is carried out on mature plants. Its purpose is to ensure growth, increase the formation of fruits and preserve the crown.

Formative - this is the pruning of the crown of young plants in order to give it a beautiful and compact appearance, stimulate the formation of fruits and facilitate harvesting. Runs until early May.

Regulatory pruning is carried out in conjunction with supporting pruning. She can control the load on the branches during abundant fruiting.

Anti-aging pruning is carried out on old trees. Thus, fruiting can be stimulated.

Restorative pruning is carried out on highly branched trees, on those that have frozen out during the winter or have been damaged by rodents and pests.

Grafting garden trees in spring

It happens that the taste of the fruit does not suit the owner. There is a way out: you can graft trees with new varieties. It is not necessary to buy a new plant.

Scion preparation

To graft a new variety, cuttings must be cut from young trees: stone fruits must be no older than 5 years old, and pome fruits - 7 years old. The best time for harvesting cuttings (scion) is the beginning of winter, as annual growths need to mature and harden. For cuttings take annual shoots. Carefully inspect and cut them into segments of 40 - 60 cm and hide in the snow. Also, cuttings can be harvested in early spring, but provided that the winter was not hard and frosty.

When should you get vaccinated?

April is the best time for grafting, as active sap flow begins in the rootstock. In order for the place of the scion with the stock to take root well, it is necessary to prevent the scion from becoming active, so it must be stored in the refrigerator or under snow until the very last moment. The scion must not be allowed to dry out. During storage, it must be in a bag or wrapped in a damp material.

Cherries, sour cherries, and plums (stone fruit) should be grafted first, followed by pears and apples (pomaceous crops), as the latter begin to sap later.

Common methods of vaccination:

• in a split;
• for the bark;
• into the side cut.

First you need to cut off the skeletal shoots, leaving a trunk length of 40 cm and graft with prepared varieties. The place where the scion is combined with the stock is wrapped with a film, and the stalk is smeared with pitch. This procedure will halve evaporation and prevent the shoot from drying out. After 3 weeks, the film must be removed.

re-vaccination

It is impossible to re-graft a plant in 1 year, the whole process must be extended for 3 years. During regrafting, most of the branches are pruned, so 3 years is the optimal period for the correspondence between the roots of the tree and its aerial part to be established. Re-grafting should be done from top to bottom. In 1 year, the upper part is grafted, in the second - the middle, and in the third - the lower. For stone fruit trees, such a grafting method as "split" is an inefficient method. The survival rate of cuttings in stone fruit crops is 60%, in pome crops - 90%.

top dressing

Caring for trees and shrubs in the spring involves fertilizing. You can feed with organic matter, make mineral supplements.

Of the organic fertilizers, chicken manure has proven itself well. You need to bring it into the soil in the near-trunk circle. Chicken droppings feed apple, plum, pear, quince, cherry, peach. Organics are necessary for the growth and fruiting of apricots and cherries.

Note!

Fresh chicken manure, not diluted with water, can kill the roots, so it must be infused in water before use.

Feed preparation

• For 10 liters of water, you need 1 kg of dry litter.
• Organics are placed in a bucket and pour 3 liters of water.
• Diluted litter should ferment within 1 - 2 days.
• Then you need to fill the bucket with water to the top, mix and feed the plants.

If there are no chickens on the farm and there is nowhere to get fresh litter, you can buy it in dry form. It should be remembered that improper storage of litter leads to the fact that it turns into ammonia, as evidenced by a pungent and pungent odor.

Trees can be fed with compost or manure. We bring in only rotted manure, which, unlike chicken manure, we do not dilute in water, but immediately bring it into the soil. Not only coniferous trees should be fed with manure: cypress, spruce, yew, pine, thuja, but also apple trees with pears.

Protection of plantings of fruit trees and shrubs from spring frosts

During the flowering period of trees and shrubs and during the setting of berries and fruits, low night temperatures cause great damage. It is very difficult to preserve the crop, but protecting the garden from frost is the main task of the gardener.

Fruit and berry plants at a temperature of -4 degrees drop the buds that have appeared. An air temperature of -1 degrees damages young, tender ovaries, and a temperature of -2 degrees is detrimental to blossoming flowers.

If the garden is located on the shore of a large reservoir, a decrease in temperature will not harm it. But he, located in an open area, in low places, needs protection.

When laying a garden, it must be taken into account that dry and loose soil cools faster than moist soil. Therefore, it is important to choose a place in advance for the future "residence" of trees and shrubs.

Reception "fumigation (in other words: smoking) of trees". A reliable way to protect against low temperatures. To do this, you need to lay out piles of garbage throughout the garden: old foliage, wet grass, tree branches, weeds. To prevent rapid combustion, heaps of garbage are sprinkled with turf, garden soil, weeds or grass. Combustible material will smolder, giving off a lot of smoke. When the sun rises (after 1.5 hours), it will be possible to finish smoking.

Smoke bombs. You can buy them in specialized stores. Smoke spreading from smoke bombs envelops trees and shrubs with a layer of paraffin. Plants are protected, as paraffin does not allow low temperatures to damage swollen buds, flowers and ovaries. Smoke bombs are effective even at a temperature of -4 degrees.

Spraying trees with cold water and abundant watering of the soil is also considered an effective procedure for protecting against low temperatures.

Summer residents, who have extensive experience in caring for a garden behind them, place basins and other containers under the trees and near shrubs, and fill them with water. The procedure is laborious, but significant. It is worth arranging the bowls with water once and you don’t have to worry that fruit trees and shrubs will be damaged.

Protecting the garden from pests

When the plants wake up from their winter sleep, the pests become active. In early spring, when there are no swollen buds, trees and shrubs can be treated with any pesticides.

Spraying is the most effective method for preventive maintenance and for insect control.

If last year there was no big invasion of insects, it will be enough to spray the trees with Bordeaux mixture, urea or blue vitriol according to the instructions.

To prevent the development of such diseases as scab, cocomycosis, moniliosis, curliness, it is required to treat sleeping kidneys with Bordeaux liquid (1 - 2%). Processing is carried out only at temperatures above 0 degrees.

In case of massive damage to shrubs by harmful insects, it is recommended to treat with phytoverm or fufanol (20 and 10 ml of the product per bucket of water, respectively). "Fitoverm" is a biopesticide that breaks down within 5 days, the validity of Fufanol lasts 10 days. During this time, young insects appear from the larvae and continue to destroy plantings, so it is necessary to carry out 3-fold treatment of plants. The drugs are dangerous to human health, but they cannot penetrate deep into the plants and destroy the pest. For example, in order for the fight against the currant bud mite to give positive results, it is necessary to "catch" the moment when the pest individuals will move from old buds to young ones.

In the spring, you can see cracks and wounds on the bark, they need to be treated with 3% copper sulphate and covered with pitch. To prevent fungal diseases, trees are sprayed with urea (5%).

If brownish-red spots with black tubercles appear on trees and shrubs, these are signs of cytosporosis disease. All damaged branches are cleaned to healthy tissue, thin and weak shoots are completely removed.

How to arrange trapping belts?

During bud break, aphid larvae, caterpillars of leafworms, moths, moths and apple suckers begin their violent life. During this period, an apple flower beetle crawls out of its shelter.

At first they cannot fly, but in search of food they actively climb the bark of trees to young buds and foliage. This can be prevented by placing adhesive (trapping) belts on the tree trunk. For their manufacture, they take thick paper or soft thin cardboard and generously smear it with glue.

A belt made from loosened cotton wool and attached to a tree does a good job of catching bugs. To protect the cotton wool from getting wet during bad weather, a film visor can be attached above it. Cotton wool hunting belts are installed on the upper and middle parts of the trunk. If the apple flower beetle has damaged the kidneys, black dots can be seen on them, similar to a needle prick.

Lawn care

When the air temperature rises above 5 degrees, grass begins to grow. In the spring, it is required to remove the territory from debris: old leaves, moss, tree branches. The mechanical cleaning of the lawn is carried out (or you are just about to lay the lawn, here are articles about preparing the site for it and the planting itself) using a metal fan rake.

If the site has heavy soil, it can be improved by scattering sand over the surface of the lawn. It will help fill in the gaps. It is not necessary to pour clean sand, but along with humus or garden soil. For 2 parts of sand, 1 part of leaf humus or summer cottage land is required. Level the embankment with the back side of the rake.

The main spring work of the gardener - vegetable grower

April is a hot month for summer residents. At this time, spring work in the garden is in full swing. It is necessary to prepare the soil for planting plants, apply complex fertilizer for planting perennial crops, prepare a greenhouse and plant seedlings.

Soil preparation for planting

In order for the seeds of cold-resistant crops: cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, beets and lettuce to germinate, the soil must warm up to +8 degrees, and heat-loving crops such as pumpkin and cucumbers will need a temperature of +12 degrees.

Often winter does not want to give way to spring and the soil does not warm up for a long time. In this case, it should be warmed up artificially. It is required to calculate the sowing time and cover the beds with black plastic or garden material in 2 weeks. Thus, the soil warms up faster and moisture remains in the garden. After planting seedlings in warm soil, it will quickly start growing.

Planting seedlings of flowers and vegetables

Young plants grown at room temperature should get used to lower temperatures before planting in the ground, so they should be hardened in advance. When there is a positive temperature outside the window and there is no wind, boxes with seedlings (read how to grow them correctly) must be taken out into the garden. Sunbathing will only benefit her. In the evening, the boxes are brought into the house, and if night frosts are not expected, they are left on the street, but wrapped with a film or spandbond.

When growing seedlings in a greenhouse, it is necessary to increase ventilation in order to harden young plants. It is necessary to prepare seedlings a couple of weeks before planting in open soil.

Before planting, from the abundantly spilled boxes with seedlings, we remove the seedlings along with a clod of earth and plant them in the prepared recesses in the garden. You need to transplant in the evening or on a cloudy day. During transplantation, a part of the main root is removed and the plant is deepened to the first leaves. New plantings are well watered and once again compact the soil near the plants, trying not to damage the young leaves.

Calendar vegetable grower - gardener

Jobs in March

At the beginning of the month, you need to start preparing the nutrient soil for seedlings, steam it and disinfect it. Soak the seeds (be sure to check them for germination) of eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and sow them for seedlings. Celery also requires planting.

It's time to review the bulbs of flowering plants, remove all diseased and dried up.

The second decade is suitable for picking and feeding cabbage seedlings.

Beds with perennials should be sprinkled with ash or peat, and covered with some kind of insulation. This technique will help the plants start growing faster.

The third decade of the month is suitable for picking peppers and tomatoes. After transplanting, they should be fed.

You can start preparing greenhouses for the season, repair them and treat them with disinfectants, pinch raspberries bent to the ground for the winter.

Work in April

In the first decade, it is required to put potatoes for germination.

It's time to sow late varieties of cabbage: cauliflower, white and red.

If the winter sowing of vegetable seeds was carried out, now is the time to remove the shelters and loosen the soil between the rows.

Do not forget!

Plantings of rhubarb and sorrel are fed with nitrogen fertilizer, spreading 3 tbsp in a bucket of water. l. urea and pouring obtained between the rows. Compost should be spread around the rhubarb bush and covered with a bucket. The plant will become warm and it will start to grow faster, and the petioles will become more tender in taste.

Works in May

An unpredictable month, the probability of a return of frost is quite high, so you should not rush to plant heat-loving crops in open ground, despite the warm daytime temperature.

At the beginning of the first decade of May, you can sow parsley, lettuce, black onion, dill, radish, spring garlic, carrots.

Tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers can be planted in a greenhouse or in a greenhouse. Perennials should be inspected, if necessary, spray plantings from pests, feed the plants and mulch the soil near them.

The middle of the month is suitable for planting potatoes.

When all the work has been done, beds should be prepared for cucumbers, pumpkins, beans, squash, basil and zucchini.

Features of spring sowing of some vegetable crops

To get a high yield, it is necessary to prepare the seeds for planting, select high-quality ones, and throw away the “dummy”. Much attention must be paid to the correct fit.

Radish

When sowing seeds, do not thicken the plantings. In order for the roots to be juicy and large, the distance between plants / rows should be 5 cm and 15 cm. The culture is demanding on moisture, therefore it needs daily watering. With a lack of moisture, the radish becomes hard, the stem stretches.

Garlic

Planting beds need to be changed annually. You can return them to their previous place only after 4 years. If you do not adhere to crop rotation, garlic is more susceptible to diseases, yields are reduced and shelf life is shortened.

cucumbers

It is preferable to grow through seedlings. The soil for sowing seeds should consist of peat, soddy soil and sawdust, respectively 1:1:2.

A bed for planting cucumbers should be prepared in advance. The culture is thermophilic, so the basis of the beds should be fresh manure. Then fertile soil should be poured, holes should be made and the plants should be transshipped, trying not to damage the roots. Heat comes from manure, which will allow the root system to gain strength and cucumbers will grow faster.

Vegetable culture needs light, heat and moisture, but plants need to be watered only with warm water.

A common mistake vegetable growers make is overcrowding. The distance in the row between plants should be about half a meter, and in the row spacing 60 centimeters.

It is better to sow fresh seeds, since last year's male flowers are formed, which do not give ovaries.

Watermelon

It is impossible to predict what kind of summer awaits us: hot or cold. But you can experiment with planting watermelons. You need to grow them only in seedlings. Transplant in a greenhouse or in open ground. When the plant grows and gives lashes, they should be shortened, leaving one ovary on the plant. Thus, all the necessary substances will go to the growing fetus, and it will be possible to get a sweet watermelon. One more nuance. The root system of the plant is very vulnerable, so weeds must be removed carefully, trying not to damage it. Many vegetable growers advise not to pull out weeds with roots, but only cut them off. It looks untidy, but the harvest is good.

Carrot

Culture loves good lighting, so the beds should be located in a bright place. The soil is loose, sandy loam. There should be enough space for root crops to grow, therefore, after seed germination, plantings need to be thinned, focusing on a distance between vegetables of 4 cm, between their rows - 15 cm. When they thicken, the roots turn out to be ugly and small.

Salad

The culture is cold-resistant, so it is not afraid of night frosts. Sow seeds in well fertilized soil. When watering plants, you should not get on the leaves, you need to pour it under the root. When sowing small seeds, they can be mixed with fine sand and deepened into the soil by 1 cm. There should be a distance of 8 cm between plants, and 15 cm between rows. Over time, the leaves coarsen and become unsuitable for food, so you need to pluck them when they are gentle. Varieties of head lettuce are best grown in seedlings.

beans and peas

Heat-loving crops should be planted in the garden in May. Tall varieties of peas will need a lot of space, so the distance between rows should be 0.5 m. It is recommended to soak the seeds before planting legumes.

Spring work in the garden and vegetable garden requires patience and diligence from the summer resident. If all the work is carried out in a timely manner, you can provide yourself with a supply of vitamins and the joy of contemplation beautiful for the whole year.