A-B-C of vegetable gardening

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

Foreword 1

I. Getting the Garden Ready 8

Foreword

NOT everybody has a garden. Some deny themselves the pleasure and the profit of one because they have never had any experience in gardening, and have somehow got the impression that special training is necessary to make a success of the undertaking. Here is where they make a mistake. There is no special ^ ^ knack about it. Any one who owns a bit of land, and has some time that can be given to garden-work, and an inclination to do so, can make a gardener of himself in a season — and a successful one, too — if he allows himself to be governed by the advice of some one who has had some experience along this line. After the first season he will not be likely to ask or need advice, for the practical knowledge which comes with one season's work among vegetables will not only be sufficient to enable him to go on with his gardening operations on his own responsibility, but it will have made him so enthusiastic over them that he will be eager to enlarge his knowledge of ^'the green things growing/' and in doing this he will find a pleasure that will make him wonder how he ever came to consider gardening something to dread.

Others, who have but a small piece of land, may think it not worth w^hile to attempt to grow vegetables on it. They labor under the impression that a garden, in order to prove a success, requires more land than is at their disposal. Here is where they make a mistake. Of course one cannot grow a large quantity of vegetables on a small piece of ground, but the one who undertakes to make the most of a small piece will be surprised at the amount that can be grown on it. In a garden that is not more than twenty-five feet square a friend of mine grows all the summer vegetables required by his family of four persons. This calls for what the scientific people call ^ intensive gardening,'' and makes it necessary to plant and plan for a succession of

FOREWORD vegetables: but that twenty-five feet square of ground enables him to get a good share of the summer living of his family.

xAjQother notion is, that in order to have a good garden a large am^ount of time and labor must be expended on it. Not so. A very small amount of systematized labor will be demanded by even a good-sized garden, if it is plamied in such a manner that labor-saving tools can be used in its cultivation. If we look back to the gardening days of fifty or even twenty-five years ago, when everything was done at the hardest and the hand had to do a good share of the work that we now do with helpful implements, it is not to be wondered at that the old-time care of a garden discourages many from undertaking to have one. Happily those daj^s are over, and with the gardening facilities of the present it is an easy matter to accomplish more in an hour than could be done then in a day. There is really no drudgery in gardening as it is done to-day. On the contrary, there is positive pleasure in the operation of the machinery which inventive genius has furnished for the up-to-date gardener^s use.

Those who have never had a garden of their own, but have bought vegetables in the ordinary market, are not in a position to understand the wide difference between the article we buy and the one which is taken directly from the ground and eaten at once. \\niile it is possible to keep most vegetables looking fresh for a considerable time by the use of water and ice, it is not possible to make them retain that dehcacy of flavor known only to those whose vegetables go straight from the garden to the kitchen. If you want any vegetable at its best you must grovv^ it in your own garden.

The general impression seems to be that gardening is essentially man's work, and that women and children are not equal to it. This is another mistake that will rapidly be done away with, for the woman of to-day is no longer a housed-up woman. She is rapidly learning the value of fresh air, and the tonic of outdoor life is fast taking the place of the doctor's prescriptions. The writer knov\'s of many women who have found work in the garden not only a healthful occupation, but one so delightful that they look forward to spring with most pleasurable anticipations, and long for the time to come vvhen they can get to work out of doors. ^\Tien we have tried both we learn that work in the vegetable-garden is no harder than that in the

flower-garden, and that neither demands

FOREWORD more strength or time than the average woman is able to give it if she makes use of labor-saving tools. What is true of the woman is equally true of the children. A child ten years of age can do a good deal of the work that a good-sized garden calls for.

I would not be understood as advocating the giving up of garden-work to women and children. I would not deny man the pleasure of sharing in it. But I would urge the importance of interesting women and children in it, and of encouraging them to take part in it from the viewpoint of health. Benefit in other respects will become so apparent, after a little, that further encouragement w^ill not be necessary. Most women who have some leisure — especially if they are of the housewife class — will be so pleased with the results of gardening that they will be glad to supplement the labors of the man of the family by what they can accomplish in it, if he is employed in work that will not allow him to devote much time to the garden. And they will find that the boys of the family — and the girls as well — can be made to take an active part in the good work with but little encouragement from their elders. It is natural for both boys and girls to dig in the

soil, and it is well to encourage them to dig to some purpose. It is natural work, and healthy work, and work that will do more to keep the average child out of mischief than any other influence that can be brought to bear on it. But I would not allow the child to get the impression that I gave it gardenw^ork to do as a mischief -preventative. That would spoil everything. Aim to interest the boys and girls in the mysterious processes of nature. Encourage them to plan and execute as much of the work as can safely be trusted to them. In a short time you will find that most of them are equal to all the requirements of the ordinary garden.

I have often been told by those who have had years of experience in garden-work that at least half one's living for half the year can be obtained from the garden, even if it happens to be a small one, and my own experience bears out the truth of this statement. If we grow our own vegetables we are quite sure to have a greater variety to add to the daily bill of fare than would be the case if we were to buy them. We have them when we want them without making a trip to the market for them, or depending on the uncertainties of telephone orders which grocers so frequently fill by sending

vegetables of a quality that would not satisfy

FOREWORD us if we gave them personal inspection before purchasing. The entire family will be delighted with the frequent changes that can be made in the bill of fare, and no one more so than the housewife who often finds it a difficult matter to plan for a variety of food when the family income does not warrant a liberal outlay.

No owner of a bit of ground that can be made into a garden can afford to let it remain unused. If he does so he does it in disregard of the economy which most of us are obliged to consider and practise in these days of high prices and the increasing cost of daily living.

Have a garden if you can.

I

GETTING THE GARDEN READY HE amateur gardener will almost in-

A variably be in too great a hurry to begin gardening operations in the spring. But a few warm days are not sufficient to put the ground in proper condition for seeding, or even for plowing and spading. The frost must be allowed to get out of it, and after that an opportunity must be given for surplus water from melting snows and spring rains to drain away before work can be done to any advantage. As a general thing not much can be done in gardening at the North before the first of May. It is an old saying that haste makes waste/' and the gardener who is in too great a hurry often learns the truth which underlies the saying by the failure to germinate of the seed he puts into the ground very early in the season.

Another old saying that should be kept in mind is that '^one swallow does not make a

GETTING THE GARDEN READY summer.'^ Read ^'warm day'' for swallow'' and you will get the force of the statement. It is not advisable to do much at gardening until you are reasonably sure that warm weather has come to stay. Even if earlyplanted seed comes up, spells of cold weather, and often of frost, which we are likely to have at the North until about the first of May, will have such a debilitating effect on comparatively hardy plants that those grown from later sowings, when all conditions are favorable, will come to maturity ahead of them. Therefore it will be seen that it is poor policy to be in too great a hurry, and good policy to wait for what the farmer calls growing weather" before doing much work in the garden.

If very early vegetables are wanted it will be necessary to start them in the hotbed. In another chapter I will give some directions for the making and management of this very important adjunct of gardening.

The first thing to do in making a garden is to plow or spade it. Plowing is not admissible on small grounds, but where there is room enough to allow a team and plow to operate I would advise it in preference to spading, because it will save a good deal of

hard work, and greatly expedite matters.

Before plowing some system of manuring should be decided on, as Vviiatever fertilizer is used should be worked well into the soil, and this the plow can do most effectively. Barn-yard manure, if old and well rotted, is better than anything else I have any knowledge of for all kinds of vegetables, but unfortunately it is seldom obtainable hv those who- do not live in the country. There are many commercial fertilizers on the market, but not all kinds of them are adapted to all kinds of soil. In order to secure the best results it is advisable that the amateur gardener should consult some dealer in these fertilizers in his immediate vicinity, or some one who has had personal experience in their use, with a view to making sure that he is getting just the kind best adapted to the soil in his garden. It is absolutely necessarj^ that he should do this, in fact, for if he bu3^s at random he runs the risk of getting something that will fail to answer his purpose.

While it is alwaj^s advisable to apph^ whatever fertilizer is used before plowing, commercial fertilizers can be applied later with good effect; but it will be necessary to apply them in such a manner that they do not come directly into contact with the seed, as many of them are so strong that they kill it.

GETTING THE GARDEN READY

Plow the garden deeply, for by so doing you bring to the surface a stratum of soil in which there is more latent fertility than in that close to the surface.

After plowing, allow the soil to remain as thrown up from the furrow for two or three days. Sunshine and warm air will have a disintegrating effect on it, which will make it easy for you to reduce it under the application of hoe and iron rake to that mellow condition so necessary to the welfare of the plants you propose to grow. It should be worked over and over until not a lump is left in it. You cannot expect to grow good vegetables in a soil that has not been well pulverized before seed is planted. Large grounds, or those of a size that admit of the use of horses, can be speedily mellowed with the harrow, which should be run over the ground from all directions until it is thoroughly pulverized. In the small garden the rake and hoe will have to take the place of the harrow.

Small pieces of ground should be spaded. Let the soil remain as thrown up by the spade for two or thi^ee days before attempting to work it.

I have been told by some amateur gardeners that they did not use much manure because trees and shrubs that grew in close proximity to their gardens were so thrifty without manuring that they felt confident that the soil must be quite rich enough for vegetables without resorting to the use of any fertilizer. These persons lacked the experience which would have enabled them to understand the wide difference between tree and vegetable growth. A tree or a bush sends its roots deeply and widely into the soil, and applies to its uses food that the vegetable cannot send its roots in search of. The roots of most garden plants do not extend far in any direction, nor go very deep; therefore food must be given directly to them if we would secure the best possible result. There are very few gardens in which the natural soil has a sufficient amount of nutriment to produce the effect we aim at without the addition of some kind of plant-food.

A rich soil is absolutely necessary in order to hasten development. Unless a vegetable makes a quick growth it is pretty sure to be lacking in tenderness and flavor. Of course it is possible to apply a greater amount than a plant can make use of, thus forcing an unhealthy growth, but this is not likely to happen if we consult the wise old gardener who knows his garden and the plants he grows in

it as a mechanic knows the machine he uses,

II

LAYING OUT THE GARDEN HERE will be little 'laying oat'' to do will be to make use of every available bit of soil; the beds will be narrow^ and the paths between them will be just wide enough to walk in, and these will be the only portions of the ground in which something is not grown. Not much chance for planning, you see.

In the larger garden it will be not only possible, but advisable, to do considerable planning.

If a garden-cultivator is used — and this should be done whenever possible — plan for rows that will enable you to run it the entire length of the garden without turning. Beds are no longer in favor with gardeners who aim to reduce the work to be done to the minimum, for in them the cultivator cannot be used to advantage, and weeding cannot

Here the chief aim

A-B-C OF VEGETABLE GARDENIXG be done vvith the facility which characterizes row-planting, nor can the hoe be used as effectively. There is really no argument that can be advanced in favor of the old bedding system for gardens in which we propose to use labor-saving implements.

If possible^ have the rows run north and south. This enables the sun to get at the ground lengthwise of the rows, and between thenij which it could not do if they ran east and west, as the plants in them would shade all the ground except that in the first and most southerly row. It is not enough that the sun should get at the tops of the plants. The soil needs its vivifying effect.

Plant with regard to the height and habit of the vegetables you propose to grow. Give corn a place at the side of the garden. Then peas w^hich grow tall enough to require bushing, and then beans, working down tinough potatoes, tomatoes, and beets and other low-growing kinds to onions, radishes, and cucumbers.

If the garden-cultivator is to be used, leave a space about eighteen inches wide between the rows to work in. This implement can be adjusted to fit any width desired. Its teeth can be set to throw the soil toward a plant or awav from it. It can be

LAYING OUT THE GARDEN made to do deep or shallow work, as the case may require. As a general thing, after a plant has attained some size we throw the soil toward it. If the teeth are set to do this we go down one side of the row and back on the other, thus throwing the soil about the plant alike on both sides.

It will probably be necessary to remove some weeds in the row, which cannot be reached by the cultivator. This can be done most effectively by the use of a hoe which is triangular in shape, with the handle-socket in the center of it. One side is a blade like the ordinary hoe. The other comes to a sharp point, with which it is possible to work close to a plant without running any risk of injuring it — something that cannot be done with the ordinary wide-bladed hoe. Weeds that grow up side by side with vegetable seedlings can be picked away from them so easily, and without disturbing them in the least, that no hand-pulling will have to be resorted to in cleaning the rows.

Where the garden-cultivator is used there will be very little work to do with the hoe, as this implement stirs the soil and uproots weeds at the same time. But in the small garden either hoe or weeding-hook will come into daily use. The weeding-hook is a most important tool, though its cost is but ten or fifteen cents. It enables one to do a good deal of weeding in a short time, does its work well, and does away entirely with hand-pulling, which has heretofore been one of the chief arguments that men have advanced against gardening.

Ill

PLANTING THE GARDEN

MOST persons make the serious mistake of covering garden seed too deeply. Very small seed needs hardly any covering. Indeed, it does its best, as a general thing, when simply scattered on the surface and pressed down into the soil by a smooth board. This embeds the seed in the soil, which is made firm enough under the pressure of the board to retain a sufl&cient amount of moisture to assist germination. Very fine seed often fails to sprout if covered too deeply.

But most of the seed of garden vegetables

is not fine enough to admit of this method of

planting. If a seed-sower is not used, little

furrows should be made by drawing a stick

through the soil, into which the seed should

be dropped as evenly as possible. It should

then be covered lightly and the soil should be pressed down with the hoe to make it comparatively firm. The probabihties are that many more plants will come up than it is advisable to let grow. These surplus seedlings should be removed from the rows as soon as the plants get a good start.

Nearly all gardeners make use of the seed-sower. This is an implement that can be adjusted to sow all kinds of seed more evenly than it can be sown by hand, and it can be sown thicklj^ or thinly, as desired, and at any required depth. It cannot be used to much advantage in the very small garden, where only a small quantity of each kind of seed will be made use of, but in large gardens it will be found as much a labor-saver as the garden-cultivator.

It is always advisable to plant for a succession if the garden is large enough to admit of it. By planting at intervals of ten days or two weeks it is possible to have fresh vegetables throughout almost the entire season. Wliere this is done it will not be advisable to plant very much of any one kind.

Among almost all vegetables there are

early, medium, and late varieties. Some of

each of these should be planted in all gardens

of a size to warrant so doing. In the small

PLAXTIXG THE GARDEN garden I would advise the choice of the later varieties, as these are almost without exception superior in flavor to the earlier kinds, which are grown more on account of earliness than quahty.

IV Seeds That Give Best Results

IT is very important that seed of only the best kind should be used, if we would grow vegetables of superior quality. Every gardener of experience will indorse the truth of this statement.

Said one amateur gardener to me when I gave him this advice: ^^Why should one be so particular about the seed? It's the culture that you give the plant that counts. Plant any kind of seed that happens to be handiest and take good care of the plants that grow from it and you'll have good vegetables.'' To some extent what he said w^as true, but he had yet to learn that there is a vast difference between ordinary seed and seed that has bred into it by careful culture the superior qualities which characterize the choicest varieties of all our garden plants. There is such a thing as aristocracy of seed, and no seed that is lacking in this feature can be

SEEDS THAT GIVE BEST RESULTS expected to afford the satisfaction that results from the use of the best. No amount of culture can make a superior vegetable from plants grown from inferior seed. Bear this in mind, and buy only the best seed on the market, be your garden large or small. The smaller it is, the greater the importance of using only the best.

^^But how are we who know very little about such things to know which is the best?'' some one may ask.

The only answer I can make to this question is this: We have in this country many seed firms that have been in existence for years — some of them over half a century — and these have built up for themselves a reputation for handling only seed of the very best varieties of garden vegetables that it is possible to grow. Inferior sorts have been discarded from time to time as those of superior merit have been produced. These firms, proud and jealous of the reputation they have gained, cannot afford to deal in anything that is not up to their standard of ^'the best.'' From these dealers you can be sure of getting seed that can always be depended on to give the highest degree of satisfaction. The seed they sell you may cost fi. little more than some of the newer dealers ask for theirs^ but the certainty of getting what you ivant makes it well worth while to invest some extra money in it. Cheap seed — that which is advertised as being ^^just as good as higher-priced seed for a much smaller amount of monej^'' — is likely to prove as cheap in quality as in price.

V

EARLY GARDEN WORK

AFTER planting the garden there will be ^ a little interval of leisure while the seed that has been put into the ground is germinating.

Then will come the time of early warfare with the weeds. Here is where the weeding-hook of which I have spoken will come into play in the small garden. This little implement is in the form of a claw, with five or six hngers, each about an inch long, and shaped so that they reach into the ground and take a firm hold of whatever plants they are placed over. It can be so operated that these fingers, working close to plants which it is not desired to uproot, will tear away the weeds without disturbing the other plants, and the soil will be left in light and mellow condition, as if a tiny rake had been drawn through it. With this tool the work can be done with great rapidity. No owner of a 3 23 ^ garden, large or small, can afford to be without it.

It should be used to supplement the work of the cultivator, which can be depended upon to take care of all the weeds between the rows, but which cannot be worked among the plants in the row.

Weeding should be begun as soon as the plants are of a size that makes it possible to tell which is seedling and which is weed. By beginning the work of clearing the garden at this period, and doing it thoroughly, and continuing it at intervals thereafter, it will be a comparatively easy matter to keep weeds under control. But if they are allowed to get a strong start — as they will in an incredibly short time if let alone — it will be a difficult matter to subdue them and keep the upper hand during the rest of the season. It is very important that they should be given to understand, at the outset, that they will not be tolerated in your garden. This will necessitate early work and careful and regular attention thereafter, but it will not be the laborious work that so many persons think it is if it is begun at the right season and always carried on on the offensive. It is when weeds have been allowed to intrench themselves firmly in

EARLY GARDEN WORK the garden that this work becomes disagreeable.

Nor is it work that will require a good deal of one's time. In the cultivation of a garden it is the little attentions, given when needed, that count, rather than the amount of labor and time expended there, as you will find when you come to have a garden of your own.

If there are any vacant places in the beds or rows, fill with plants -taken from places where they stand too thick. In the small garden there should be not one vacant spot. Every bit of soil should be made to do its share of work in the production of some vegetable.

If weeds are kept down during the early part of the season there ought not to be many during the latter part of it. But there will be no time when there will not be some to wage warfare against, and every gardener should make it a rule to destroy every one that gets a start as soon as discovered, for, hy preventing it from developing seed, we can save ourselves a good deal of work next season. One weed will bear seed enough to fill the whole garden with its progeny if allowed to do so.

If the soil was properlj^ fertilized at planting-time it will not be necessary to apply more fertilizer, if any, until the latter part of the season, and then only a small amount will be required — just enough to enable the soil to do its share in ripening off the plants that are growing in it. But if, at any time, the plants seem to lag or come to a standstill enough should be given to stimulate active growth.

Careful watch should be kept of everything in the garden, and prompt advantage should be taken of any tendency toward slow development by making fresh apphcations of whatever fertilizer was used at the beginning of the season. In order to attain the success that the gardener aims at in the cultivation of vegetables it is absolutely necessary to keep them going steadily ahead from start to finish, and this can only be done by supplying them with a generous amount of plant-food. There should be no alternations of liberal feeding and lack of feeding.

VI

VEGETABLE PLANTS IN THE HOUSE iVl vegetableKS. With a view to getting the start of the season'' and, incidentally, of their neighbors, they sow seed in pots and boxes in March and April and attempt to get an early start'' for plants that will form abasis of supply for family use while they are waiting for the development of the general crop from seed sown in the garden after the weather has become sufficiently warm to warrant outdoor gardening. In some instances comparative success has resulted from plants started into growth in the house, but nine times out of ten, it is safe to say, the result has been entire failure. The seedlings grow fairly well at first, but soon become weak and die. If, by chance, a few survive until conditions warrant putting them in the ground, they are so lacking in vitality that the change from indoors to persons would like to grow early outdoors is pretty sure to be the end of them.

I would never advise trying to grow plants from seed, in the house, unless the grower understands beforehand the drawbacks to plant-growth which prevail in the average dwelling, and is willing to do all he can to overcome them. Simply filling boxes or pots with earth, putting seed into them, and supplying water will not insure success.