Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 12 · column 5 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
As you might imagine, with the primary part of the vegetable to be eaten growing below ground, soil quality needs careful attention for successful crops. With the exception of potatoes, which like acid soil, root vegetables prefer neutral soil with a ph level of 6.5 or 7. Sandy loam, too is needed, not what most of us find in our gardens. If I am preparing soil in a garden for the first time, I do the following, which creates perfect soil conditions for roots and most other vegetables, too.
First, I lay out a large tarp and dig up a section of a bed, down to a shovel’s depth. For good drainage and soil structure, I layer the soil back in with a basic amendment mixture of all-purpose sand (1 part to 8 parts soil) and peat moss (1 part to 3 parts soil). If the soil is too acid (below 6.5), I’ll add 1 part high calcium lime to 16 parts soil. Additionally I’ll mix in leaf mold (1 part to 10 parts soil), bonemeal (1 part to 19 parts soil) and compost (4 parts to 9 parts soil). This may take some eyeballing, for measurement, or you could count shovels full — it’s not an exact method, more like intuitive cooking.
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