Read and translate the text. PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING

PLANTING AND TRANSPLANTING

Before planting seeds, gardeners prepare, or till, the soil using a variety of methods. Some turn over the soil with a spade, while others loosen it with a garden fork. Then, they rake it smooth before planting. Some gardeners prefer not to turn or loosen the soil because the oxygen that enters the soil when it is tilled by these methods hastens the breakdown of needed organic matter in the soil. Instead, they just dig a small hole for each seed or plant. To keep the soil loose so that roots can develop easily, they keep it covered with grass clippings, compost, or other organic matter. The presence of this organic matter encourages large populations of worms, whose tunneling breaks up the soil.

Gardeners plant seeds at different depths, depending on the seed’s size and its requirement for light. Seeds contain starch and oil, stored food that provides the energy needed for sprouting, or germination. Small seeds do not hold much food, so they are sown on or close to the soil surface, where they will not require a lot of energy to push through the soil. Larger seeds have enough food reserves to be planted deeper. This gives the root system more time to develop as the seedling, or young plant, grows up through the soil. As a general rule, a seed can be planted three times as deep as the seed is wide. Some seeds, such as lettuce,require light to germinate; these seeds must be sown on or very near the soil surface. Once the seeds are sown, the gardener gently presses down the soil to ensure that the seed touches soil, not air pockets—this soil contact helps keep the seeds moist.

Seeds usually are sown close together in case some of them do not germinate successfully. Once the seedlings that emerge are several inches tall, the gardener removes extra ones so that the remaining seedlings are evenly spaced and not crowded. The correct spacing between seedlings depends on how much room the mature plant needs. To prevent the seeds and seedlings from drying out, the gardener keeps the soil damp—not wet—until the seedlings are several inches tall and then gradually tapers off watering.

Rather than starting seeds directly in the garden, some gardeners opt to use transplants—young plants purchased from nurseries or grown by the gardener indoors. Transplants are a particularly popular option for gardeners who live in cooler climates with short growing seasons. In a short growing season, good weather does not last long enough for plants grown from seeds to mature. Transplants give the garden a head start. They can be placed in the garden in early spring, but must be protected from the cold. One protective method is to cover each transplant with a transparent milk jug or plastic soda bottle with the bottom cut off, which acts like a small greenhouse to trap heat around the plant. Using the same principle, some gardeners place transplants, still in the pot, outdoors in a large bottomless box with a clear top called a cold frame. The sunlight passes through the top and heats the air in the cold frame.

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CONTROLLING GARDEN PESTS

Three types of pests can plague gardens: weeds, insects, and diseases. A weed is any plant that grows where the gardener does not want it. Weeds are undesirable because they compete with garden plants for light, water, and nutrients. Common methods for controlling weeds include pulling them up by hand; digging them out; and cutting them off using a hoe or mower. One way to slow the growth of weeds is to cover the soil with a layer of mulch, which blocks out the light and air that weeds need to grow. Weeds also can be controlled by treating them with a weed killer, or herbicide. Like fertilizers, weed killers can be organic or synthetic.

Insects damage plants by chewing leaves or other plant parts by sucking the liquid from the plant, or in some cases, by transmitting viruses. The number of damaging insects can be reduced by growing a variety of plants in the garden. Different plants attract different insects, including some that attack insect pests. Another method for preventing insect damage is to cover young plants with a floating row cover, which is a very thin, white, gauzy blanket that keeps many insects away from the plants. Another preventive method is to grow plants bred for resistance to insect pests.

Some insects can be kept in check by introducing beneficial bacteria or insects to the garden. This method exploits the natural ecological relationships between garden pests and other organisms. Ladybugs, for instance, eat aphids, one of the more notorious garden insect pests, and certain types of bacteria kill insect larva. Another method to help control insects in vegetable and flower gardens is to rotate crops instead of growing the same type of plant in the same place every year. Many insects have a life cycle that depends on the presence of a certain type of plant. By removing the plant for at least two years, the life cycle can be interrupted, thus controlling the pest. Both organic and synthetic insect-killing materials, called insecticides, also are available to control insect pests.

Diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, or viruses also can damage plants. In most cases, once a plant has a disease it cannot be saved, though some fungal diseases can be controlled with a fungicide. The best approach to disease prevention is to provide plants with optimum soil, nutrients, light, and water so they can fight off disease, and to grow plants that have been bred for disease resistance or have natural resistance.