The busy woman's garden book

Front matter

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THE BUSY WOMAN'S

-IDAD.BENNET-

Contents

CHAPTEK PAGE

I Planning the Garden 1

II Hotbeds, Cold Frames and Flats ... 12

Chapter I

THE favorable location of the garden is the initial step in its planning. The kitchen garden — always an important auxiliary of the kitchen — is now, in these days, something more; it is becoming more and more a part of the domestic routine; it is a woman's garden, to be planned for and cared for by the women of the family, and in that relation must be considered from all its points of view. Location, then, becomes of first importance. It must be accessible, that its care may demand as little extra work as possible, and that little be given to the actual cultivation and care and not to going back and forth. If one can run out and cultivate a row of lettuce or train up a row of peas while waiting for the irons to heat or the kettle to boil, then one will find the sum total of the garden work far less onerous than where one must calculate on going over the entire plat, or a stated portion of it, at one operation.

A location close to the house, more or less secluded, that one may work free from interruption and espionage and where the vegetables may bask in the sun from early morning till late afternoon, is desirable, and this is best achieved in a southern exposure with the garden rows running north and south.

If the garden plot is protected by buildings or a high fence, or a wind-break of evergreen on the north it will afford a favorable position for the necessary hotbeds and cold frames and the close relationship of the two will work for efficiency in handling.

A warm, mellow, sandy loam is the ideal soil for the vegetable garden, but even a poor soil may be so built up and redeemed by proper cultivation and fertilising as to make the quality of the soil of secondary consideration, but if one can have both at once then one is happy indeed. Tenacious, clayey soil or newly broken sod ground should not, however, be undertaken by a woman, such ground is a man's job.

But it is the warm, sunny location that is vital to the successful cultivation of the garden. All the early vegetables — peas, lettuce, endive and the like — call for abundant sunshine in the cool days of early spring, and, as the season advances and the fall chill is in the air at nightfall, then the warm sunshine will hasten the maturity of such late comers as tomatoes, winter squash, citron and any late-sown vegetables that are used to succeed the earlier growths. Again in the late days of winter or early spring those vegetables that were left in the ground for early use — the parsnips, and salsify, will be available much earlier if given a warm location where the ground thaws readily, rather than a cold exposure that holds frost late in the season.

A piece of ground adjoining other cultivated areas is far preferable to an isolated plot as it may be ploughed in conjunction with the larger piece and so kept in a better grade and condition. An isolated garden plot, which must be prepared separately necessitating a dead furrow in the center, becomes, in the course of a few years a dish shaped area very disagreeable to cultivate; an open area, on two sides at least, obviates this in a measure and renders the ground more level and easily prepared.

Any garden spot, however, should always be ploughed rather than spaded and as deep ploughing as possible should be the rule. If the soil is good go as close to the bottom of it as possible, the shallow ploughing so universal — seldom more than six inches in depth, does not give a mellow bed for any but shallow rooted vegetables. Carrots, salsify, parsnips and similar long-rooted things must fairly drill their way into the hard ground below the shallow cultivation, this resulting in deformed, stunted or many twigged roots, unsalable and of little value for the home table. The long, smooth, beautiful bottoms are only produced by deep cultivation to start with and, of course, the subsequent cultivation must efficiently supplement this. A very excellent method of preparing the gi'ound would be to turn a deep furrow with the plough and follow this with the subsoil plough, stirring up the subsoil, but not mixing it with the top soil; this would give several inches of loose soil beneath the first furrows that the roots could readily penetrate. So many consider that all the fertility in a soil is contained in the few top inches of soil, and in a measure this is true — the available fertility is right there — but there is a wealth of unused fertility in the lower strata, but lack of cultivation, lack of moisture and most of all, lack of the humus which makes the soil retentive of moisture, render it unavailable, but if it is broken up and gradually mixed with the humus of the upper soil it becomes available and the soil is increasing in fertility instead of growing thinner and poorer year by year.

Following the ploughing comes the smoothing and leveling of the ground by dragging with a spiked or spring tooth harrow; this part of the work should be very thoroughly done; too fine a seed bed can never be produced, whatever the means employed and the use of drags and harrows by no means spells the whole operation of fitting a garden for planting. After the dragging the garden rake is in order and the ground must be raked over and over until thoroughly fine and free from roughage of sticks, stones, clods and the like. If any weeds have been drawn to the surface in dragging they must be pulled out and thrown aside. If there is a dead furrow in the middle of the plot then the raking should be towards that from both directions so as to fill it in as much as possible and so restore the level of the ground.

It is not necessary to rake the entire garden at once if time and strength are at a premium. One may rake a space sufficient for the first planting and when that is done rake another space and so equalize the labor, but it is easier to rake soon after the preliminary fitting is done than to leave it until a rain has packed the earth and made it heavy to move. A good rain, however, should always precede the planting, if possible, as newly worked ground is not sufficiently settled for sowing seed and not so desirable for setting out of plants.

The arrangement of the vegetables in the garden has much to do with the convenience of caring for it. It is always a good arrangement to plant the early vegetables, such as lettuce, radishes, beets, endive and onions at the end of the garden nearest the house where they are most easily available as one has occasion to use them in preparing a meal. Then, too, all these small things are planted a standard distance apart — usually twelve or fifteen inches, — twelve if the gardener is addicted to trowsers, fifteen if skirts are in evidence, for it is difficult to work in a narrower space, especially among the tender tops of seedling onions, in petticoats. So, with the rows running north and south, that the vegetables may receive the greatest possible amount of sunshine, and the vegetables planted in consecutive rows of increasing distances apart, one has a planting schedule economical of space and labor. This order of planting shxDuld also be made to include height as well as distance apart of the rows of vegetables. Low growing things should always occupy the front rows of space and not be overshaded by tall growths. For this reason the planting of sweet corn in the garden plot is not desirable; it is best to give this a space by itself — preferably on the north side of the garden. Vine vegetables, too, have little place in the garden proper — a place for them on the south side of the garden should be reserved if possible, for with the best of management they will break bounds and encroach on other plants. I recall a planting of English marrows which were placed in the garden next to a row of red peppers. They were bought for bush marrows but proved to be the vine variety and in a month's time had practically taken possession of that end of the garden ; peppers and tomatoes were smothered under a luxuriant growth of squash vines whose luxuriance was only equalled by the astonishing amount of fruit they bore. In desperate effort to check their encroachments great lengths of vines, bearing half grown marrows, were ruthlessly removed with no more apparent result than to encourage a still more luxuriant growth and to increase the gardener's knowledge of the amount of pruning a really ambitions, vigorous vine will stand.

The bush varieties of many vegetables are a great boon to the small home gardener as most of them are prolific bearers and require no more room than a hill of potatoes or an egg plant. Squash, melons, lima beans — all have dwarf forms that are preferable to the usual vine varieties.

The home garden should not be too large — a plot forty by eighty feet will grow all the summer and winter vegetables a small family can make use of and a considerable surplus for sale, especially is this the case where the com and vines are planted outside the garden proper. Potatoes, too, are excluded from this estimate, though a few rows of early potatoes may find room available.

The accompanying planting table, while intended to be merely suggestive will be of use as indicating the amount of room required for the several varieties of plants and a convenient arrangement. The amount to be grown of anyone variety however, must be decided by the individual gardener and it will be time well spent to make a diagram for one's self, based on the amount of various vegetables that experience shows to be needed. To those vegetables to which the family are most addicted should always be added a few that are grown with the occasional guest in mind and the few things that one likes to try from season to season, and that add zest to gardening but should never be allowed to occupy space needed for more standard sorts.

PLANTING-TABLE FOR A SMALL GARDEN APPROXI- MATELY FORTY BY EIGHTY FEET

Lettuce — May King, 1 row. Transplant from hotbed to 9 in. apart. Onions — Transplanted seedlings of Prizetaker, Ailsa Craig

or Silver Skin, 1 in 1 oz.

Parsley — Dwarf Perfection. Transplant to 9 in. apart. ... 1 Pkt. Endive — One row, Giant Fringed. Transplant to 9 in.

apart 1 Pkt.

Beets — Two rows, Crosby's Egyptian. Thin to 3 in 2 oz.

Carrots — Two rows, Danvers Half Long. Thin to 3 in. . . 1 oz. Parsnips — Large Sugar or Hollow Crown. Two rows.

Thin to 3 in Va oz.

Salsify — Two rows, smooth. Mammoth Sandwich Island.

Thin to 3 in 1 oz.

Spinach — One row, All Season. Thin to 8 in -^ oz.

Lima Beans — Fordhook Bush. Thin to 6 in 2 lb.

String Beans — WardweU's Kidney Wax, or Navy Beans.

Two rows 2 lb.

Peas — Double rows. Senator, Gradus, Telephone. On wire

netting 2 lb.

Peppers — One row, Ruby Giant, Bull Nose, or Pimento.

12 in. apart 1 Pkt.

Bush Muskmelons — Three ft. apart 1 Pkt.

Okra — Perkins' Long Pod. Half row, thin to 1 foot % lb.

Egg-Plant— Black Beauty. 18 in. 1 Pkt.

Early Potatoes — Dreer's Perfection, Early Ohio. Fifteen

inches apart 1 Pk.

Cauliflower — Early Snowball. Twenty in. apart 1 Pkt.

Cauliflower — Dry Weather. Twenty in. apart 1 Pkt.

Cabbage— Late Flat Dutch. 2 ft. apart 1 Pkt.

Squash — Delicious, Burbank's Hubbard. 6 ft. apart each

way 1 oz.

Chapter II

O important is the preparatory work performed by a well started and conducted hotbed that its use cannot be too insistently recommended. The smallest, least ambitious home garden is dependent upon the use of artificial heat in the starting of such plants as cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes and the like, either in hotbeds on the home grounds, flats in the windows or plants grown in commercial greenhouses; these, owing to the long season required to bring them into bearing, cannot be started in the open gi'ound; especially is this true of such heat loving things as peppers and tomatoes.

Owing to the quite general practice of buying these plants of the commercial gardeners or florists a much smaller area of ground is devoted to their growth than would be the case were the plants grown in one's own hotbeds where the initial cost would have been that of a few packets of seeds. Purchased plants are by no means immune from late frosts or the assaults of cut worms and not infrequently demand successive replantings before a satisfactory stand is secured. With a well stocked hotbed this does not spell so great a disaster, as only the labor of resetting is demanded and this is not of much moment as the lines and points of setting are already laid down and the hills of tomatoes, egg plants and peppers already supplied with their spade full of manure. In a generous sized garden where perhaps a hundred plants of a kind are grown the saving in the cost of plants will cover the construction 'and maintenance oif an ordinary hotbed and the cost of a bed of the best concrete construction, which will last almost a lifetime, will be covered in a reasonably short time. There is nothing about the construction or care of a hotbed that offers any obstacles to its possession and I have about come to the conclusion that the only reason more gardeners do not have them is because they cannot borrow them ; they are the only thing about a garden that some one can't and doesn't borrow and if some one would invent a portable one it would undoubtedly become popular.

The requirements are simple: — A sunny location, protected from prevailing winds — usually from the west, and on the north by a wall, building or fence. Being started in the early days of spring — from February, in the vicinity of the Ohio river, to late March or early April in the vicinity of the Great Lakes; they require a background that will hold the heat of the sun instead of allowing it to escape.

A well-drained position should be chosen and it should be as handy to the house and garden as practicable, especially the former as, once it is planted and plants up and growing, it will require frequent supervision in the changeable weather of early spring. Under a bright sun the temperature rises very rapidly in a glass-covered hotbed and it is necessaiy to see that it does not rise high enough to injure the plants; equally the temperature falls rapidly in an open bed when the sun goes under a cloud, and the sash must be adjusted to meet these deviations of temperature ; often a moment's work in raising or lowering the sash will spell success or failure in the conduct of the bed.

A pit or excavation in the ground for holding a supply of fermenting manure to furnish heat for the bed is the first step in the construction of the hotbed; the size and depth of this will depend somewhat upon the number of plants it is desired to produce and upon the rigors of the climate and the prevalence of late springs and frosts. As a general thing, for the ordinary home garden a bed three feet by twelve is sufficient, but the added expense of a few additional feet is so slight and the use of a bed so appeals to one once one realizes its convenience, that it is seldom a mistake to make it too large as, aside from the sowing of seed, it may be used for starting roots of bedding plants, cannas, dahlias, begonias, tuberoses, caladiums; the striking of cuttings and many garden operations that have formerly been done in a bungling, cumbersome way in the house or with the costly assistance of the florists.

The depth of the pit should not be less than three feet and four, from the top of the frame, is better, as it is upon the depth of the manure that the length or duration of the heat depends. A shallow pit will give a quick heat which soon gives out, usually when most needed, during a sudden cold wave, and as the expense of a foot more or less counts for little it is best to be on the safe side and have sufficient heat.

If economy must be observed or the bed is for temporary use, a rough frame of boards will answer every purpose; it need not even extend below the surface of the ground, but merely rest upon it, but such construction is not to be recommended except for temporary structures or where it is desired to remove the frame as soon at it has served its purpose in supplying plants for spring planting; but a well built, permanent hotbed has by no means served its mission with the passing of the spring months, it may be profitably kept in commission the year around.

If, however, the construction must be along economical hnes waste lumber and old window sash may be employed very satisfactorily. Having dug the pit of the required depth and width and length — three feet if old sash are to be used will be the best width and is desirable anyway as it can be easily reached across and can be placed close to a building and so occupy much less ground than where the usual florist sash is used, a frame consisting of four upright posts two by four inches and six feet long for the two rear posts and five feet long for the front, to give the necessary slant to the frame, should be used ; on these the boards for the sides and ends should be nailed, the end boards sawed to a true slant that the sash may rest evenly upon them ; the frame is then lowered into the pit and the soil leveled off around it and made firm so that no cold air finds entrance. To such a frame the sash may be hinged at the back and notched sticks adjusted to hold it at any desired angle.

In the permanent cement hotbed the pit is dug as before, then interlined with boards to form a mould and the space filled in with a good cement mixture, paddling it smooth on the side next to the boards and allowing the boards to remain in place until the cement has hardened/ Before the cement has set, however, a frame of two by four must be fitted on top of the cement to receive the sash. Long spikes should be driven through the timbers at intervals to be pressed into the cement to insure a good joint. It is also an advantage to arrange for partitions through the bed by nailing cleats of wood on the inside of the wooden form at points where the sash will meet. This will form slots in the concrete into which thin boards can be slipped to separate such plants as require much heat from those requiring less heat and much air. The partitions should not extend much, if any below the surface of the soil so the slots need not extend

1 Or a trench as deep as the qompleted pit and as narrow as can be handled may be dug to outline a pit of the required dimensions, and filled with grout, well tamped down; when this has had time to harden sufficiently, the earth may be removed from the center and the cement given a finishing coat, and the wall brought to the required height above ground by the aid of a frame of boards.

below the top foot of wall. These partitions are not really necessary but often come in very handy and are so easily arranged for that their occasional use justifies their presence. Where they are employed the sash can be left open where required far more safely than if they were not in use. Cabbage and cauliflowers do best if given plenty of air and* even a tinge of frost will not injure them, while it would be fatal to such heat loving plants as tomatoes, peppers, egg plants and many tender flowers and bulbous plants.

The double sash is a great protection for hotbeds started very early, but as a rule there is little occasion for starting the beds before the middle of March or early April in the northern states as it is only necessary to give the plants about six weeks' start of open ground operations. Usually we make our out-of-door planting about the twentieth of May at the north and correspondingly later as we go south, but if we count back six weeks from"Corn planting t-ime," the country over we will have reliable data for starting the hotbed. Plants left too long in the bed deteriorate and should be scheduled to be got into the ground as soon as they are fit ; if this is done they will not suffer from over crowding nor will it be necessary to transplant ; though this is always an advantage with certain plants. If to the hotbed is added the convenience of a cold frame to which the cabbage and cauliflower can be transplanted as soon as they show rough leaves it will be a decided advantage and the room thus secured in the hotbed can be used to transplant tomatoes, peppers and the like, thus giving better rooted, stockier plants.

Fresh horse manure is used for heating the bed and must be procured from stables where a number of horses are kept that sufficient may be obtained at one time. It is not necessary for the small hotbed to pile the manure and turn it over two or three times before putting it into the pit ; much time and labor is saved by putting it at once in the pit, tramping it down as filled in until it is within five or six inches of the level of the ground outside. Care must be taken that it is tramped down evenly, especially in the corners, or it will settle unevenly and cause the soil to sink in places. The earth may be placed on at once if the manure is steaming when put in the pit. Good, mellow loam, containing a portion of humus or leaf mould is the best hotbed soil and it should be fine and free from all roughage of sticks and stones and hard lumps of soil. Putting the top inch or two through a sand screen is a good practice as this gives a fine soil suitable for the finer seeds.

Usually the bed will be in condition for sowing in twenty-four hom-s, if the manure is heating well — ^and this can be ascertained by thrusting a fork down into the bed and leaving it a few moments, withdrawing and feeling of the tines, when the temperature can be quite accurately gauged — or a thermometer may be forced down through the soil upon the manure for a test. From four to five inches of soil will be sufficient if the season is late — slightly more if the season is early and the plants likely to remain long in the beds, and it must be leveled off as flat as possible so that in watering the water will not run and wash the seeds out of the ground.

The sowing of the seed is one of the fascinating phases of gardening that every bom gardener enjoys and the watching for the breaking of the soil with the tiny green seed leaves is a joy indeed. Unlike open air planting, there is rarely a failure in seed germination if good seed is used. The ideal conditions of warm soil, mellow, moist soil of just the right consistency; protection from changes of weather all make for a high per cent of plants from the sowing, and the chief difficulty is often an embarrassment of plants — that is they come up too thickly, a trouble that is easily obviated by sowing quite thinly, holding back a portion of the seed for later sowings if needed, or for a later crop.

Each variety of seed must be given a little plot of ground by itself and should be separated from its neighbor by thin strips of wood pressed into the soil; this not only helps in identifying plants of similar appearance, but also prevents the washing together of the seed when too much water is applied. Where two or three different varieties of the same plant — as Early Dutch Cabbage, Danish Roundhead, Early Summer, etc., are sown it will be well to alternate the plots with some other vegetable so as to leave no chance for mistakes in setting out the plants later on. A row of lettuce or radishes may be interposed if desired; at any rate the presence of the strips of wood will aid greatly in keeping them distinct.

Each plot of seeds must be plainly labeled with thin strips of wood marked with the name of the seed and the date of sowing. If seeds of certain plants have been purchased of different seedsmen it will be well to indicate the source on the labels, in this way one can compare the fertility of the two purchases of seed and decide which is the more desirable.

There is a great difference in the germination of different garden seeds, certain varieties appearing in from three to five days — as cabbage, radishes, etc. Others — like peppers, parsley and the like — require from two to three weeks to appear above ground and one should not lose faith in the "Quickness" of the seed until a reasonable time has elapsed, nor will it be desirable to dig them up every day or two to see if they are growing; this will discourage rather than accelerate the process.

If the soil in the hotbed appears dry when sowing the seed it should be carefully watered by means of a fine-nosed watering pot or a whisk broom dipped in water, care being taken that not enough water is used at a time to wash the soil or disturb the planting. If any seed is uncovered it must be recovered. Seed sown under the protection of sash, either in hotbed or cold frame, does not require to be covered as deeply as when in the open ground, often about as much soil as will entirely cover it is sufficient, always so in the case of fine seed which should be sown broadcast in sections and covered by sifting fine soil or clean sand over and pressing all down firmly with a piece of board. Larger seeds may be sown in drills, opened a quarter of an inch deep and the earth drawn over them and pressed down.

Plants that make a rather high growth, even in the hotbed, like tomatoes, should not be planted in front of lower growing things, but should be in the rear or extend entirely across the bed; tomatoes, for instance, are apt to overtop such plants as peppers, which grow quite slowly in the hotbed. Endive, parsley, lettuce and onions, all are plants which do not assert themselves very strongly at first and should not be crowded for room or sunshine.

When all the planting is in and the soil watered, if necessary, newspapers should be spread over the soil and the bed closed and germination awaited. If the sun is very hot it may be necessary to raise the sash before the plants appear, but where this is done care must be taken that the papers are not disturbed by the wind, as if blown about the soil will dry out and check or kill germination.

As soon as a plot of seeds breaks ground the little seedlings will need air and hght and the paper should be removed from this portion and replaced on top of the glass, held in place with pieces of wood or anything that will prevent its blowing about; this will only be necessary until the plants are able to stand full sunlight, which will be as soon as they have grown their first pair of real leaves. As the young plants increase in size more and more air and sunshine should be given them and due attention to watering must be carefully observed. Lath screens to temper the sun will be necessary and will be needed to replace the sash when the plants are large enough to dispense with it during the heat of the day; these, in turn, may be replaced by wire screens if there is any danger of predatory cats, chickens or children, for it is the work of but a few moments for an entire planting to be destroyed by any one of them. Puss likes nothing better than to get into that nice warm hotbed and roll on the soft warm ground and as for Biddy !

It is surprising the number of things that may be started in the hotbed and transplanted into the open ground as soon as the weather permits, thus gaining at least a month's start in the garden. A great many of the vegetables that are always sown in the open ground — beets, string or lima beans, endive, lettuce — ^all may be started in the hotbed and planted out and will give one very tender and succulent vegetables to use while the main crop is maturing from open ground sowing. Once one has acquired the hotbed habit one will never have quite room enough for one will always be wanting to try something more. One of the most satisfactory pushing forward of vegetables is achieved in planting melons and cucumbers and squash on pieces of sod in the hotbed. Of course cucumbers for pickles should always be sown rather late in the open ground but fruit for slicing for the table may very profitably- be started on sod and transferred to the open ground when all danger of frost is passed and so be ready a good month sooner and what is, perhaps, quite as important, escape the ravages of the striped cucumber beetle, that exasperating foe to vine culture.