The book of the home garden

Preface

The following pages were originally written for small children; as such they appeared in the Country Gentleman under the title "The Child's Garden." Gardening is such a big problem I was anxious to make it understandable to the beginner's mind.

Since our entrance into the World's War the knowledge of the vital importance of food production has led rne to put these chapters into book form for "children older grown." The fact that flowers occupy some of the space may help to cheer us as we work at the big task of increasing the world's food supply.

The wonderful work the Boy Scouts of America are doing to help increase this supply, has, more than any other cause, led me to rewrite these chapters. Under the wonderful leadership of my life partner, the Chief Grub Scout, I am sure they will achieve yet greater results.

vii

PREFACE

To the Scouts — both Boy and Girl — and to all Americans who are so earnestly and self-sacrificingly working in the garden and on the farm to win "Peace on Earth" I extend my hand in a clasp of comradeship.

EDITH LORING FULLERTON.

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Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. SOILS AND How THEY WORK .... 1

II. SIZE AND PLAN OF GARDEN 9

Chapter I Soils And How They Work

I EXPECT you think it queer of me to say soils, and suppose all earth is alike, but indeed no. Those of you who live on the prairie have one kind of soil, and those of you who live along New England's stern and rock-bound coast have another, and those who live in valleys where rocks are soft have another, and we Long Islanders have another. They all grow good crops and beautiful flowers but we must understand them so as to help and not hinder Mother Nature.

Let us find out what soil is, and how the Great Mother made it. Have you seen a big rock with a curious kind of gray green moss hanging to it? Well, that moss is called lichen and can live on just the rock and the rains and dews that fall. Every year some of it falls into a crack of the rock and decays, and then we call it humus. In this humus

Mother Nature started 3, tiny fern, and every year, for years and years, the leaves die in the fall of the year, and drop down to the ground, making more humus, and the rains wash little particles from the rock and they fall into the humus, and make soil, and a larger fern grows ; as more humus accumulates, a tree grows and so all soils are made, humus and powdered . rock. This, of course, was started so many years ago we cannot think how many, and now we have all the soil we need; some have lots of humus and others have lots of rock. The prairie has so much humus from the ages and ages of dead prairie grass that the soil is black, and we call it "black waxy." Those of you who live where there is much soft, splintering rock have a "shale" soil without so much humus, and those who live on islands and peninsulas have some humus, some clay and some sand, and we call that "sandy loam." But always and always wise nature has given us plenty of the powdered rock, and always and always as long as there were forests and prairie grass to drop their leaves in the fall, there was enough humus ; but when the forests were cut down, and the prairie plowed up, Nature could not give her land humus any more. So that is what gardeners and farmers must do for her.

DIGGING INTO A PILE OP HUMUS. NOTICE HOW LARGE THE WEEDS HAVE

GROWN !

Remember, humus is some plant, or part of a plant, that has rotted, and it holds moisture like a sponge. If you will walk into the woods and dig down, you will see just what I mean; the soil is always moist, and it is dark with decayed vegetation. Plants like this better than anything else, because it is the food Nature made for them. So get humus into your garden if you can.

There is another thing about soils that we must know, and that is whether they are sour or not. Most plants do not like sour soil. It is very easy to find this out. Go to the drug store and ask for one cent's worth of blue litmus paper. It comes in a little narrow strip. Take some moist soil from your garden in your hand, or put it in a cup, bury the piece of paper in it and leave fifteen minutes. If, when you take it out of the soil, it has turned pink your garden soil is sour, and you must spread on it some lime or wood ashes, and rake them in. A bushel of either on a garden 50 feet square is sufficient. After a few days, test your soil again, and if the litmus paper stays blue your soil is sweet. Be sure and use air slaked, "hydrated" or agricultural lime (all words of the same meaning) ; quick lime would burn things, and the wood ashes should be unleached. It is queer how many things we do not

SOILS AND HOW THEY WORK

know about the soil, but we do know that lime or wood ashes and humus mixed with the soil always makes a good garden.

If you live on prairie land that is new you may not need much of anything in your garden the first year, but I would test it just the same.

If you live on "shale" land, you will need plenty of humus, and probably no lime. If you live on "sandy loam," you will need both lime and humus.

You see, humus holds moisture like a sponge, so the more we have in our gardens the better they will be in times of dry weather. If you cannot get leaf -mold from the woods, get some well rotted manure, and work it into the ground when spring comes.

Let us suppose a garden is on a steep hillside, and that is the only place you can have one. Then you will have more work to do than the rest of us, for you will have to make a shelf called a "terrace" for your garden.

Here is a hill, and here is your terrace garden. You see, you will have to dig a regular step in the hillside and plant your crops on the flat surface you make. I hope many of us will not have to do it, for it is a good deal of work, but you have this advantage : all the rainfall from the hill above your garden will run into it, but on the other hand, a very heavy rainfall is apt to wash your garden away.

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A "TERRACED" GARDEN

If you have a chance to make your garden at the foot of a hill or near a brook, or creek, you are very fortunate, for these soils are rich in humus because the leaves and rich soil from the hill are continually

A "RAISED" GARDEN

being washed down. Do not get your garden in a spot too damp, for plants do not like wet feet all the time, any better than we do, and they get sick and die. If your garden has to be at the foot of a hill and the soil is very moist, then raise your garden six inches above the rest of the land, so that

SOILS AND HOW THEY WORK

the moisture can run away from the top part, but it will always be cool and moist down deep.

If you plan to have a garden in a city backyard, you are pretty sure to find it well filled with bricks

THE BEGINNING OF A CITY BACKYARD GARDEN

and cement and rubbish, and you are pretty sure to find the soil sour, too. If you cannot get lime (but I am sure you can get a few pounds from the cement and plaster dealers) and cannot get wood ashes, then take the fine coal-ash siftings and work them into the soil. It is hard, I know, to get well rotted manure in the city, and very hard to get it to your gardens if you could find it. There are men who are digging humus out of beautiful valleys and selling it to people who cannot get manure. It is also called Swamp Muck, and is as black as can be because it is really leaves and grasses which have been decaying for hundreds and hundreds of years. This can be easily handled and has no odor.

Chapter II Size And Plan Of Garden

FIRST of all make up your mind that you are not going to have your garden too large. That is a mistake many gardeners make; they are so full of joy when spring comes and they have looked over catalogues so much they think they can plant the whole world. But we must never forget that a garden must be cared for all summer long; it is not just a, matter of digging it up in the spring and sowing the seeds; it is constant care that makes a good garden. So once again, I say, choose a small garden unless you are an "old" gardener and know just what you are about.

Let's talk about the donts first. Don't have a round garden unless it is very small, because if you do you will have a very hard time keeping the weeds out of the center of it, and when you are reaching into the center, you are pretty sure to break the plants around the edge. There is one kind of a round garden you can have and that is a "radial" garden, made this way: Each ray can have a different kind of flower or vegetable, with one good sized plant in the center. It leaves plenty of room to cultivate between the rays, except at the

N s

A <{RADIAL" GARDEN

middle, and there you would have to be very careful. The way to make this garden is to drive a stick with a flat top into the center of the plot you are to use, then cut eight pieces of string all the same length (just as long as you are to have each ray) ; tack one

SIZE AND PLAN OF GARDEN

end of all the strings to the stick and if you have it or can borrow it, place a compass on the stick. Now draw one string out straight north, the next south, then east, then west, and the other four between the points, and you have a garden true to the compass* This is a very delightful garden. I had one once, and enjoyed it very much, but I would not advise you to use it if this is to be your first garden, or you want to raise much in a small space.

If your garden is to be a border, do not have it too wide unless you can reach it from both sides; for again you will break the outside plants. If it is to be along the fence line, do not have it more than two feet wide, and not that wide if your arms are short ; in fact, I would reach across to the fence and see just how wide I should make it, if I were you. Do not have your garden too near trees, for the trees take all the moisture out of the soil and give too much shade. You may think in the early spring before the leaves are out that it would be all right, but you would be sorry before the summer was half over. A little shade, especially in the afternoon, is very good for a garden, but always have the morning sun if you can get it.

Don't have your garden where the rain from any roof falls into it, for the weight of water would squash your plants and pound the soil into bricks. If you are going to grow flowers I think a border garden along the fence line or the garden walk is the finest kind to have, but if you prefer a regular garden all by itself, it is just as good. If you are going to make this garden into long beds, remember

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A A» <S

PLAN OF A VEGETABLE GARDEN

not to have them too wide, and the path between must be wide enough to do good work, say 18 to 20 inches. I would not skimp on paths. I do not think it pays.

Let us plan a garden 24 feet long and 13 feet wide; we can have our beds three feet wide, because we can reach them from both sides.

Laying out the garden is a very important thing. If it is done well you and your family and neigh-

SIZE AND PLAN OF GARDEN

bors will be glad all the year; if it is done wrong they and you will be equally sorry. Suppose there is a fence, or a line of trees or an arbor near where you plan your garden, and you are careless, it would look like this:

THE "CROOKED" WAY

THE "STRAIGHT" WAY

So as to be sure that it does not look that way, we will go to work right. Take something around the place to measure from, then get the same measurement for both ends of your garden. Drive a stick in at these two points ; they will be sticks A and B. Now decide how wide your garden is to be and measure from these sticks, making lines 3 and 4, and put in two more sticks (never take out a stick for a new place; be sure you have at least four before you start). Now you must be sure that the sticks at corners C and D are just as far apart from right to left as the sticks A and B, and I can tell you that is the hard part, so do not be discouraged. Remember this : A and B sticks are to stay and C and

D sticks can be moved until they match A and B.

Don't try to have a fancy garden like stars, or

hearts, or anchors; just have a plain, sensible, tidy

THREE BEDS, WITH WIDE PATHS, WHICH CAN BE REACHED FROM BOTH SIDES

garden, without hard places to keep free from weeds. We do not like a room so full of furniture and ornaments that it is a nightmare to clean, and we do not like our gardens "fussed up." Mother Nature does not do that, and she is a pretty good person to copy.

Chapter III Seeds And How They Germinate

SEEDS are the queerest babies in the world, for they have been known to sleep for many years, then wake up and grow just as though their plantmother had lived the year before. We want fresh seeds for our gardens, for we are more sure nearly all of them will grow, while stale or old seeds are pretty sure to have a lot of "weak sisters" among them, who either won't germinate at all, or make long, lanky, spindly, good-for-nothing plants.

It is the most interesting thing to see how Mother Nature fashioned her different plant seeds ; some are as round and fat as butter balls, others so thin you would think a plant could never come from them, others are so hard you cannot cut them with a knife, while others are so small they are no larger than grains of pepper; still others have a shell and a skin, while others have wings to fly away to new spots in the world, and still others have tiny downy brushes attached to them.

Every seed contains a root and a sprout, the root to go into the ground and get food and moisture, the sprout to grow above ground to get light and air. Some seeds are really a big storehouse of food for the little plant to use while its root is growing; the pea, the bean, and corn are good examples. Other seeds just seem to be a shell in which the plant lies curled up asleep, and their roots have to go to work right away.

If you want to see one of Mother Nature's cutest babies, just put a lima bean to soak in some warm water. After a while it will open like a door, and where the hinge is you will find a little root and two weenty, teenty leaves. When we put this seed in the ground it opens just as it does in water, then the root pushes into the ground and somehow seems to lift the bean up right out of the ground, and there the bean sits wide open with the little leaves ready to come out. These bean doors are really first leaves and they nourish the plant while the root is growing. Peas and corn also nourish the little plant, but they do not come up above the ground ; they stay hidden in the soil.

Some seeds germinate very quickly and others take "forever and a day." Those that take so very long to start may be soaked in water over night, and of all the seeds we are liable to plant, only the

HOW SEEDS GERMINATE

morning-glory, parsley and celery need it. If we do not soak celery or parsley, it will take 21 days for the seed to germinate.

Every seed is supposed to have in it one plant; beet seed is not really a seed at all, but a fruit, for it contains several plants. Isn't it queer that Mother Nature should have done this with only one family of her vegetable children ! And we cannot separate these seeds the way we can the seeds of an apple or an orange, for they are joined so closely together it is impossible to separate them without injury.

When you get your seeds, be sure and open the packages one at a time, and get acquainted with the sleeping babies; look them over carefully and say to yourself — "Yes, I know you, you are a nasturtium, and you have a queer shell like a peanut; you do not need the shell to make you grow, it is just your overcoat. You need to be planted about one inch deep, and you need plenty of sunshine." And so on through all your seeds.

If the seed is large like peas, and beans, it must be planted deep, one to two inches (you know the first joint of your thumb measures about one inch) . Beans should be planted with the eye, which is really the hinge, down, then the root will not have to turn a handspring but can go right down into the ground. Other seeds do not care so much how they are planted.

When you have a long flat seed like dahlia it lies flat on the ground, but there is one very queer seed as round and flat as a 10-cent piece, and it wants to stand on edge like a hoop. It is the seed of a beautiful vine which has purple, trumpet-shaped flowers and is called Coboea Scandens.

Some seeds are so fine we just scatter them on top of the earth, and pat them gently. The poppy has seed as fine as grains of pepper, and, do you know, I always put my poppy seeds in a pepper shaker and sow them that way, just making believe I am dusting pepper on a baked potato.

The old fashioned saying is — "Plant your seed its own depth" — and you can easily see that poppies have no depth at all, and so we put them on top of the ground, while radishes and nasturtiums must be covered with a blanket of dirt as thick as they are.

When you have looked at your seeds carefully and thought of the tiny babies inside, I am sure you will know they deserve a nice soft bed to grow in, and when you get tired working in your garden,

A CABBAGE SEEDLING LARGE ENOUGH TO BE TRANSPLANTED think of them and it will help you to go on with your hard work.

Let us think of the little roots that are going into the ground ; they are after food for the plants and they want moisture and something there is in the ground that the moisture helps make ; they want the soil tucked all around them, but loose enough so the little feeder or hair rootlets can scout around for food.

There is one thing I want you always to remember, that a root does not want a lot of air, for air dries them out and then they die. So while your garden soil is going to be as fine as you can make it, it must not be all puffy with air, but must be firm for the plant rootlets.

There are two kinds of plants that we have in our gardens. I like to call them "stay-at-homes" and "movers." That means some plants must always stay where the seed is sown, and others can be moved when the plants are small. The ones that are "stay-at-homes" send down a long fine tap-root, and cannot bear to be moved, while the "movers" have a bunch of fibrous roots, like a mat of hair, close to the surface and they do not mind much if you move them carefully.

Chapter IV How To Choose Seeds

THERE are so many pretty catalogues and they have such a way of making you think each variety is more splendid than the last one that you really do not know what to order. One day I heard a very big sigh from some one looking over catalogues and she said, "Well, I guess the only way to do is to order one packet of everything here." If she had done so it would have required several acres in which to plant the seed.

"Variety" means different types of the same thing; for instance, there are red onions, white onions, yellow onions. Then there are "Yellow Danvers," "Yellow Dutch," "Golden Globe," "Prizetaker," "Giant Gibraltar," "Southport Red," "Red Wethersfield," "Australian Brown," "Silver King," and so on, but they are all onions. It is because there are so many varieties it makes it very hard to choose.

Some of our seedsmen have seen how hard it is for beginners to select seeds and they have also seen how much seed is wasted when only small gardens are planted, so they have selected a good variety of each one of the ordinary vegetables and a list of flowers which most every one loves and which are not difficult to raise and made small packets of them to sell at small prices.

Let us think a moment what it means to have good seed. First we have a picture in our minds of the beautiful flowers and splendid vegetables we are going to raise; then we have to work hard to make our garden soil mellow ; next, we sow the seed with greatest care, cultivate often, carry water when it is very dry and if the seed is not good we either have very weak plants or none at all, or our vegetables are small or poor in quality. So you see we really need the very best fresh strong seeds of the very best varieties we can get.

We will first consider vegetables and about in the order in which they ripen. You know, I cannot always give you names of varieties because the seedsmen have different names for the same thing in different parts of the country. I hope some day that will all be changed and a "Sparkler Radish" will be a "Sparkler Radish" from Maine to Texas and not a dozen different names in as many states.

Radishes are the first vegetable to mature (that means really "grow up" but we think of it as meaning "become ready to eat").

Radishes have three shapes, long and pointed like an icicle, short and flat like a top and round and long like an olive. They also grow in several colors : red, white, and red with a white tip. Summer radishes have the same shapes but are much larger ; they grow red, red and white, white, yellow, brown, and black. If your garden soil is not mellow deep down, I would advise you not to plant the long icicle shaped varieties. It is the root of this plant which we eat.

Lettuce is usually all green leaves, but some varieties have the green leaves tipped with reddish brown. Most people like the varieties that form a hard head, but some there are who prefer a loose leaf variety. It is difficult to grow good lettuce in the middle of the summer unless you live where the nights are cool and there are heavy dews. You know, we eat only the leaves of this plant, never waiting for it to blossom and make seed, and so we want the leaves as tender as possible ; to keep them tender they must grow fast ; hot, dry weather stops their growth and they either get tough or send up a blossom stalk from the middle, then they are not good for food.

Peas are really a vine, but some of them have a very short vine (these we call dwarf), others grow very tall. Some of the seeds are as round and smooth as shot; others are wrinkled. The varieties that mature early and give us peas to eat a short time after the seed is planted are smooth. It is very interesting that Mother Nature should give these seed babies a smooth coat so they would not rot if we plant them early in the spring when the soil is soggy with water. She knew if they were wrinkled the moisture would get into the skin wrinkles and so rot the seed. Unless you have a lot of tree twigs, or brush wood or a fence, do not plant the tall varieties, for they do not do their best unless they have something to climb upon. And I would not advise those who have not done much gardening to try the very early or the very late varieties; better choose a good mid-season one. We eat the seed of this plant.

Beets grow in two shapes, round like a top, and long with a blunt end. They grow dark red all through, red and white striped and yellow and red striped. As a rule it is safer to plant the top-shaped varieties. We eat the root of this plant and sometimes the stems and leaves as well.

Beans grow as a vine, and as a bush. Some of them are eaten pod, bean, and all ; in others we use only the bean. "String Beans" are eaten pod and all — they come in green and yellow and white (wax) skinned varieties. For years and years people have tried to get a variety that does not have a "string" down the side of the pod for strings are very unpleasant to eat. All this work has been successful for we now have "stringless" beans and they are very, very good. Plant the bush varieties for they are as good as the climbers.

Shell Beans are the same as "string beans" only we allow them to grow a little longer to fatten, then take them out of the shell. Lima Beans are quite large and are very different from the string beans. In the olden times they always grew on tall vines, but now we have them on small bushes and they are just as good as the climbers. They are taken out of the shell before cooking. Beans of course are seeds.

Corn is another seed we eat, but people use only the sweet or sugar corn for eating, either fresh or canned. Field corn is ground into corn meal and fed to animals. Some sweet corn is white, some yellow, and some black; some even pinkish; and there are early, medium, and late varieties. If you should plant both medium white and medium black varieties, you would find the ears contained both black and white grains. So if you want two varieties, plant one kind early and the other late, then each variety will be true to the seed you planted. The dwarf yellow varieties like "Golden Bantam" and "Peep o' day" and "Golden Cream" are very sweet. "Black Mexican" is also very sweet, but not as pretty. Pop Corn is allowed to grow until the seed is ripe ; it is not a tall variety and is very interesting to grow as well as to eat when it is popped.

Swiss Chard is a very pretty vegetable ; it is really a beet. The root does not grow large but the leaves do. They are crinkly and the rib 'which runs down the center of the leaf is broad and white. We use the leaves of this vegetable instead of spinach, for it loves the summer's heat, while spinach can only be grown in the early spring and fall in most sections of our country. This is really a "2 in 1" vegetable because the white rib can be cut out of the leaf and cooked like asparagus or celery and the green part of the leaf can be used like spinach. If you can buy a variety called "Lucullus" do so by all means.

Squashes grow in many shapes and colors and some have long vines while others have bushes. The bush varieties are much the better for you to grow because they take up less room in your garden and the great big seed pod (which is the part we eat) is just as good as can be. You can have squashes white, yellow or green; with a crooked neck ; round and scalloped like a patty pan or oval like a small watermelon. One splendid variety is called "Vegetable Marrow." If you did not know it was a squash you would wonder what in the world it could be.