Weedless Gardening by Lee Reich & Lee Reich

Author:Lee Reich & Lee Reich [Reich, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Published: 2000-01-08T06:00:00+00:00

Row Spacing for Various Numbers of Rows in 36-Inch-Wide Beds

Number of Rows Down Bed

Inches from Edges of Bed to Outside Rows

Inches Between Rows

1

18

—

2

9

18

3

6

12

4

4.5

9

5

3.5

7

Digging for Our Roots

In Weedless Gardening, root vegetables must be harvested while leaving the soil minimally disturbed. The procedure is actually pretty much the same as that for removing any stout-rooted weed.

With nothing more than a tug at their crowns, some root vegetables slide intact out of the soil; others need some coaxing. After oodles of compost mellow the soil over the years, you’ll find roots more easily releasing their grips on the soil. When the soil is moist, almost all my carrots (even large ones) slide right out of the ground if I just pull up on them by hand. Harvest is even easier if I first slide a garden fork into the ground along each row of carrots, then push away from the plant on the handle to lift up and slightly loosen the soil. The thin, brittle roots of salsify demand such loosening, and sometimes require sliding a trowel or spade into the ground right alongside each root, then pushing the handle while pulling on the plant—like digging out a burdock weed.

Harvesting potatoes, both white and sweet, presents more of a challenge to the integrity of the soil. Admittedly, some disruption is inevitable. It can be minimized by loosening, but not inverting, the soil with a garden fork and then gingerly grubbing around for tubers by hand. If the stems are intact enough to pull on the tubers or roots, grab them for help. Again, the way you loosen the soil is by thrusting the working end of the tool into the ground, then pulling the handle toward you just enough to lift up the soil a little.

Sometimes the soil gets more than a little disrupted when digging up potatoes. It’s not a catastrophe—just smooth the surface and lay on that icing of compost in preparation for the next crop.

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