Maintenance Cheat Sheet (Copy)
A well maintained garden is a bountiful garden.
The key to maintenance is good observation. When you keep a close eye on your garden, you may notice:
Yellowing leaves
Decomposing critters (like rolly pollys)
Bite marks from critters
Poop from critters
Dead parts that need to come off
Signs of disease
Pruning:
We prune the parts of the plant that are yellowing, dead, or touching the ground in order to make room for new life and redirect the energy of the plant.
An example of this is “deadheading” a flower plant.
We may also prune parts of the plant that are covered in powdery mildew, though wet try not to take more than ⅓ of the plant at a time or it will go into shock.
Succession Planting:
This is a gardening technique where you stagger the planting of crops to maximize your yield and keep the soil healthy.
n other words, you know which plants are going to come out so you plant others before they do to maintain the rhizosphere.
A key example of this is planting beans as a cover crop to bring more nitrogen to the soil before planting you heavy feeders
Gardeners often utilize succession planting to shade the create an overstory/understory of vegetation.
Topdressing:
Topdressing with compost helps provide more nutrients to the plants as they grow.
Ideally, we are topdressing the soil with compost throughout the season.
To topdress, layer 2-4 inches of fresh compost on top of the soil as needed.
Fallow:
Sometimes, the best thing to do for your soil is to let it sit “fallow” , meaning leaving it unplanted for a season so it can rest and recover it’s nutrients.
Letting a garden sit fallow can also help break pest and disease cycles.
Integrative Pest Management (IPM):
We can plant out our garden in a way that reduces pest damage, such as planting onions, garlic, and flowers on the perimeter of our garden bed.
Through observation, we can identify pests and the potential ways they are impacting the gardens
Curled leaves are a sign of distress, check for hornworms, ants, and caterpillars when you see curled leaves
Supports/Trellising:
Trellising is adding vertical support structures to a plant to promote better architecture, save space, reduce disease, improve air circulation, and increase yield
This can be accomplished with stakes, mesh, or netting
The earlier you trellis a plant the better. Once a plant is mature, it is more likely to break when trying to add supports
You might also want to add support to your immature plants using cloches if you are worried about hungry critters
Harvesting:
When you consistently harvest, the plant is encouraged to flower and fruit due to trigger response.
Otherwise, the plant will focus on seedmaking and near the end of its life and die off
