The secret of Bud's success - Bud Stuckey - Special Issue: Spring-Summer 1994 Garden Guide

Sunset, Spring-Summer, 1994 by Kathleen Norris Brenzel

With rich soil and regular fertilizing, Bud Stuckey keeps Sunset's test garden producing generous crops

High performance is called for when gardening space is tight and demands on that space are heavy. In Sunset's 3,200-square-foot test garden in Menlo Park, California, we grow a succession of plants year-round for research and photography. The garden is divided into four test plots, each 23 by 32 feet.

By any measure, it's a high-production garden. In one year alone, we harvested basil (18 varieties); cabbages (20 heads); carrots (40 varieties); culinary herbs (13 kinds, many later used in dishes prepared by our kitchens); gourds (51, of 7 varieties, weighing up to 30 pounds each); lettuce, onions, and spinach (14 varieties each); peas (23 varieties); tomatoes (2 plants each of 12 varieties, yielding more than 500 pounds of fruit); and watermelons (48, the largest weighing in at 38 pounds). Flower beds include bulbs, annuals, and 20 different drought-tolerant perennials.

To keep up this kind of production, meticulous soil preparation and regular care are vital. Here's how Bud Stuckey, who tends the garden, keeps it healthy. Raised beds, rich soil

Before planting, he amends the soil well. He digs beds two spade heads (about 2 feet) deep and works in plenty of rich compost, which he makes regularly from the garden's debris. He mists the soil with a hose-end sprayer, then rakes it into mounds, usually 2 to 3 feet wide, 30 feet long, and 8 to 10 inches high. At planting time, when beds are moist but not muddy, he presses a board against the sides to firm them.

Mulch, always

To deter weeds, conserve moisture, and prevent bottom rot on crops like melons, Bud covers beds before planting with perforated black polyethylene. He uses drip irrigation and fertilizes plants weekly with fish emulsion.

Gentle pest controls

Since food crops make up many of the plantings, Bud uses nontoxic pest controls (it took him three growing seasons, roughly spring through fall, to get pests down to manageable numbers once chemical use was stopped).

He checks plants regularly. When aphids appear, he uses the hose to dislodge them, then applies insecticidal soap or his own mixture of soap and vegetable oil every 3 days over a 10-day period to get adults and their larvae. He handpicks snails; diatomaceous earth serves as a snail and sowbug barrier around lettuce. For cabbage worms and budworms, he uses Bacillus thuringiensis, focusing it carefully on the problem area to avoid harming butterfly larvae. Plants such as fennel grow around the garden's perimeter to attract beneficial insects.