Thank you for subscribing to 'Easy vegetable gardening'.

This free e-zine will provide you with regular information (bi-monthly, or when there is something of value) to help you grow vegetables more easily, plus a tip/ learning from my experience, the new pages added to the website and an insight into my own vegetable garden.

If you like this e-zine, please do a friend and me a favour and "pass it on."

If a friend forwarded you this e-zine and if you like what you read then please subscribe by following this link. Thank you.

Vegetable garden soil eBook launch
(Issue 10: - 28th January 2011)

As winter progresses in the northern hemisphere, time is the essence as regards soil preparation for the spring planting. As summer progresses in the southern hemisphere you too can get ahead with planning.

Each year you grow crops in your garden you take off much organic goodness and huge amounts of nutrients in the vegetables eaten and foliage removed. If the organic matter and nutrients are not replenished the soil will slowly decline in quality;

• decreasing nutrient levels will results in slower crop growth and lower yields
• lower organic matter content will result in poorer soil structure
• over a few years the soil will become less fertile and harder to work and will retain less moisture
• nutrient deficiencies may develop if certain crops are grown in the same soil regularly
• tastiness of produce will decline

You may think it is OK - I just need fertilizer - but fertilizer can only replace the major nutrients and is a blunt tool as it is easy to over dose and also easy to variably dose the soil resulting in poor crops.

The best answer is to do as nature does, regularly add organic matter to the soil. Organic matter comes in many forms, but a good time to add it is during the winter months. You don't even need to dig it in - instead spread it evenly over the soil for the garden worms to drag into their burrows. Just be careful which crop you are growing after applying organic matter as some don't like it.

Much more information is present in the newly launched eBook 'The Secrets of good soil preparation' - see below.

• cover soil you have dug and worked down with weed membrane to stop fresh germination in spring
• lightly work in leave organic matter: leaves/ compost/ muck into the top 5-10cm of soil for the worms to incorporate
• cut autumn raspberries canes down to the ground by the end of February before new growth starts
• top up paths with a fresh layer of cover (gravel, chippings, bark)

After a huge amount of work (yes, I totally under-estimated how much time it would take) the soil eBook will be available to website visitors on Friday 7th February 2011. 42 pages packed with essential information to help you improve your soil.

• identify what soil problems are holding back your vegetable garden productivity
• decide what form of cultivation to use and how to do it
• learn how to save time and effort
• discover how to improve your soil
• decide which source of organic matter to add
• learn what soil preparation to do for particular crops
• discover how to amend soil pH
• and much more...

The benefits of good vegetable garden soil preparation include;

• higher yields
• easier cultivation
• more tasty produce
• better moisture retention

Thank goodness the micro-ice age has passed. We are now experiencing more normal temperatures of 7C with odd light frosts. This has not only encouraged me to get out more, but allowed work on the allotment.

I have taken care of the weeds, pruned the cane fruit and started the process of clearing the site from last years crops that had finished.

But oh a 4-legged visitor has been a munching. Deer have been visiting the allotments and eating the winter vegetables, presumably due to the very cold weather. Whilst I love deer, they are not welcome in my garden so I am having to deter them with netting and hope warmer weather and fresh grass growth distracts them soon.

The purple sprouting broccoli is showing signs of growing it's tender shoots. We are still eating parsnips and potatoes and curly kale.

Next jobs include spreading compost and cultivating plots ready for planting in March.

But first I must draw up my 2011 planting plan so I know which plots need compost and where the crop rotation goes directs how much cultivation and to what depth in each plot. Complicated, but it saves lots of cultivation.

Only the potato plots get dug to a forks depth. Other plots get cultivated to 1cm to 10cm depending...

Thank you.

Best wishes and happy vegetable gardening

Colin (easy-vegetable-gardening.com)