How and What to Grow in a Kitchen Garden of One Acre

Front matter

How

and

WHAT to GROW

Editor's Preface

EDITOR’S PREFACE.

In Burpee’s Farm Annual for 1887 we offered cash prizes for the two best essays, to be sent us by October, 1887, upon the subject, “How and What to Grow in a Kitchen Garden of One Acre.” In its original form E. D. Darlington’s essay covered more fully than any other the operations and best methods to pursue in the management of the garden, and was awarded the first prize. Being desirous, however, of making this work not only practical but thoroughly complete in all departments, and from personal acquaintance with Mr. Darlington and his gardening operations, together with the fact that for some years he had tested numerous varieties of vegetables for us, we arranged with him to entirely revise and enlarge his essay. In compliance with our request he has entered more into detail in the directions for culture, and has added impartial descriptions of the varieties that he has found best adapted both to the Kitchen Garden and the table. To make the treatise more complete, he prepared a diagram of his own kitchen garden, which is one acre in size, as laid out for a year’s work. Some varieties grown are not marked in the diagram, as they are worked in as parts of other rows, but this is all fully explained in the body of his treatise.

To add to the value of the book as a plain and practical guide for the novice in gardening, we have had illustrations engraved showing the two plans of hotbeds, the methods of storing roots for winter use, etc. We have also inserted engravings, mostly drawn from nature, of the leading varieties of vegetables described in the text, that the gardener may have an accurate idea of the form of the different varieties and may be able to tell whether his products are of the right type.

We take pleasure, also, in publishing the essay of Miss L. M. Moll, of Illinois, which was awarded the second prize. We are glad to note that she has been explicit in describing the culture of some of the less generally grown varieties of salads and herbs which are valuable adjuncts to the table, and upon which Mr. Darlington has failed to treat. Some of the methods described in this essay are, however, unnecessarily laborious. For instance, the wide bed of perennials, as described, would require considerable hand labor to keep the soil loose and free from weeds; while, if planted in long rows, horse cultivation would lessen this tedious work and would also loosen the ground to a greater depth. The varieties recommended by Miss Moll, while generally good, have in some cases been surpassed by improved varieties of more recent introduction.

As presented in the following pages, the two essays will, we believe, make this book, for general use, the most complete and practical treatise on gardening published. Such has been our earnest endeavor, and we are confident that it will be recognized as a thoroughly trustworthy guide. With careful study of its teachings, the novice should be able to plant and successfully manage a Kitchen Garden, be it one acre, more or less, while we trust that experienced gardeners will find much to commend and will be able to gain some new ideas.

W. Atlee Burpee.

Philadelphia, December 16th, 1887.

How and What to Grow in a Kitchen Garden of One Acre

HOW AND WHAT TO GROW

IN A KITCHEN GARDEN

OF ONE ACRE.

BY E. D. DARLINGTON.

In order to treat this subject in detail, I shall first write on what the kitchen garden should be, where it should be, and how to keep it in the best order to produce the desired results, then take up “What to grow” and “How to grow it.”

Situation of the Garden

SITUATION OF THE GARDEN.

The garden should be situated conveniently near the farm buildings, as it should be visited frequently; a variety of tools are needed in its care, and each should be put away as soon as done with, that it may be preserved in the best order for use. It is often necessary to carry water to help along young trans- planted stock that has been overtaken by a dry spell. Where the distance has to be traversed so frequently, it naturally follows that the shorter it is the greater will be the saving in time and the less likely is the garden to be neglected.

The garden should be as nearly level as possible, or, if sloping, not so much so as to be in danger of being washed by heavy rains. If sloping, the slope should lie to the south, or as nearly south as possible. A plantation or hedge of evergreens on the north side of the garden will be found a wonderful aid to the earliness of the garden truck and to the hardiness of the small fruit plants and roots which remain in the ground all winter; if a woods or high hill be directly on the north and northwest of your garden, it will answer nearly as well as the hedge of evergreens. The garden should be so situated as to have good surface drainage; without this or expensive underdraining, it will hardly be possible to raise early or fine vegetables at any profit. These I consider the most essential points in selecting the plot for the garden; of course, a good, rich soil is to be desired, but the gardener can, by the liberal use of manure and thorough cultivation, remedy a deficiency of this kind in a couple of years, while he cannot make a favorable location for early vegetables on a north slope if he should try a lifetime. By a careful study of the varieties in cultivation, and by trials of their merits in your garden and on your table, experience will be gained which will enable you to grow as fine vegetables and fruits on heavy soil as on light, sandy loam, and vice versa.

The Soil of the Garden

THE SOIL OF THE GARDEN.

Ground that has been worked in some cultivated farm crop, such as corn or potatoes, is more desirable for starting a garden than fresh sod land, as it is more easily brought into fine condition in the early spring; while grass is one of the hardest weeds to exterminate, especially among small hoed crops, such as strawberries, onions, beets, etc. Sod land is also often full of grubs, which work havoc among the strawberry plants and young melon and squash vines. In either new ground or in the old established garden, it will be of great advantage to put the long, coarse manure on the ground in the fall, and plow it well under as soon as the ground can be cleared of the summer crops. The soil should be left just as it is plowed, without harrowing, leaving the lumps and ridges to the action of the frost. This will be found of especial benefit to heavy soils that are late in drying in the spring; it also adds a great deal to the appearance and cleanliness of the garden, as the weeds, old stalks, etc., are all cut off and burnt before plowing, instead of being left to scatter their seeds with every winter wind.

The gases arising from the decaying of the coarse manure in the soil tend to lighten it, instead of being wasted in the air, as is the case when the manure is in heaps or in the barnyard. By plowing-time in the spring the manure will have assimilated with the soil and will be thoroughly worked through the cultivated surface, thus affording food for the crops in all stages. If such manure is applied in the spring, it will make dry or thin soil still drier, and unless plowed well under, where it would take the roots a long time to reach it, will burn the young plants up if the season should happen to be a dry one. The great value of compost in starting young plants is that it affords rich food in proper form for the tender young rootlets, enabling the young plants to make a quick, tender growth, which is very essential if vegetables of fine quality are desired. By fall manuring and plowing the whole garden is composted, while the action of the frost on the lumps and ridges pulverizes them, leaving the soil in a fine, friable condition.

Laying out the Garden

LAYING OUT THE GARDEN.

It is most convenient to have the garden as nearly square as possible, which in our garden of one acre will be 208 x 208 feet. This makes the length of the rows a very good measure of the quantity to be grown, and affords as many rows to the ground as can be profitably worked, for it is desirable that the rows should be as nearly east and west as possible, and they should be the long way of the plot (if not a square), as it will result in great saving of time in planting and cultivating. Moving the line and drawing the cultivators out of one row and turning into the next, takes nearly as much time as the working of the short row.

In plowing, a good, wide headland should be left at each end of the garden; it should be wide enough to allow the horse and cultivator to come clear out from between the rows and to turn into the next

row, without damaging the plants at the ends of the rows by trampling and dragging the cultivator over them.

In winter, while there is plenty of time before the spring opens, the summer campaign should be planned—what vegetables are to be raised and what quantity of each will be needed, in what part of the garden it will be best to plant each variety so that the pollen from different members of the same family, such as cucumbers and cantaloupes, will not mix and spoil each other’s fine flavor. If the soil is of different quality in different parts of the garden, it should be planned so that the heavy and the lighter portions shall be occupied by such crops as will succeed best in the respective soils.

Ease of cultivation and the rotation or succession of crops should also be considered. The small-growing plants which require hand hoeing should be together, and likewise those which are to be worked with the horse cultivator. Where the ground is to bear two crops—one planted after the other has matured and been taken off—it will be of advantage to have such crops together, thus making larger plots for the replowing and a consequent saving of time and work.

Beside these conditions in laying out a new garden, when it comes to the second or succeeding seasons, the crop or crops raised in the plot the year before must be taken into account. The situation of the crop of each particular vegetable should be moved to another part, as each draws certain proportions of the food elements from the soil, and those of a different character should occupy the ground in rotation, that the soil may be kept in the richest state. Thus the quality or size of the crop will not be lessened by being planted in a situation that it has depleted, to some extent, of its own particular food the year before. Reference should also be had to the kind of food which the plant requires, as in the case of strawberries and potatoes, which should not succeed each other without special manures, as they both exhaust, to a great extent, the potash in the soil, so that the soil, haying borne a heavy crop of one, would of necessity make but a poor return of the other if planted in direct succession. If this cannot be overcome by a change of location, the gardener will know that the proper food elements have been depleted by the previous crop, and must try to supply them with special manure or commercial fertilizers.

It is of great importance to rapid work and good gardening that all this should be arranged and settled in the gardener’s mind, or better, plotted out on paper, before the first plowing is done in the spring. The plan being kept would be valuable in laying out the garden the succeeding year, as it would show just where each vegetable had been grown and where the different kinds of manure had been applied. If, in addition, the success of the various crops and notes of their growth were marked upon it, it would form a most valuable text-book for the study of improved gardening, each garden being an experimental station and each gardener a student in pursuit of knowledge and advancement in his work, feeding at the same time both physical and intellectual needs.

Diagram of the Garden

DIAGRAM OF THE GARDEN.

The accompanying plan may be of use to the novice in gardening on the scale suggested by our subject, as it is planned to admit of a proportionate quantity of such vegetables and fruits as are grown in the ordinary garden, while directions for planting and cultivating the various vegetables will be found in the special descriptions of the several varieties. (See p. 16.)

Procuring the Seeds and Plants

PROCURING THE SEEDS AND PLANTS.

Having the plan of work all settled, the next thing is to know what is to be grown, the varieties of each that are best adapted to the situation and soil of the garden, and where they can be procured of the best quality. Under this head come the seeds needed for the vegetables and the roots, tips and runners for the plantings of small fruits. This should be done as soon as convenient, as I have found by experience it is a great saving to have the entire supply of seeds on hand a week or two before it is possible to begin planting. This is an important item, as I have sometimes lost my crop from planting inferior seed purchased at the last moment from the commissioned seeds that are sold in the country stores. It does not pay to economize or try to garden with poor seeds; it is a waste of time and labor in planting, and a waste of ground and manure, as the inferior vege

tables raised will hardly cover the original cost of the seed. The gardener who sells his products, unless his crops are of the best, will soon find his trade falling off, and will be compelled to seek new customers each market day. Personally, I have found it more satisfactory and productive of better results to buy each season almost all the seeds needed from some reliable seedsman, rather than to depend on those of my own saving. For instance, such as peas, sweet corn and other vegetables, where the earlier the crop is ready to market the greater the profit; these mature much earlier if the seed is procured from reli- able seedsmen who have their supplies grown in the North. Such northern grown seeds retain their instinct to hurry up and mature in a short season, while in one’s own saving they begin even in the first year to grow more leisurely and to accommodate themselves to the longer season. In the case of peas, those grown in Northern New York and Canada, such as are sold by all our leading seedsmen, will mature from one to two weeks earlier than those saved in our own neighborhood. The northern peas are also generally free from the weevil or striped bug, which bores the large round hole in all the home-saved peas and destroys their germinating power. So it is with almost every known variety of vegetable; each has some special locality in which it reaches a higher degree of perfection than in others less favorably situated. While, of course, these facts are of interest to the gardener, they are only learned after years of experience, and it is the seedsman’s business to know the peculiarities of the different varieties, and to raise or procure his stock from the best strains grown in the most favorable localities. It is for the gardener to purchase from a seedsman whom he knows to be thoroughly reliable, and whose interest it will be to serve him with prompt shipments and carefully-selected strains of the vegetables desired. All this is equally true of the nurseryman or small-fruit grower from whom the supply of roots and plants is to be purchased. On no part of the farm is “Pedigree Stock” of more importance than in the kitchen garden. I will speak further on of the saving of seeds, and refer now only to those which it is necessary to buy. First, it is often a saving of several days to have the seed on hand, as it is sometimes impossible to foretell just when you will need the seed to plant a certain plot, how soon the ground will be fit to work, or how soon will come the opportunity, in the press of other work; if you have the seed at hand that part is always ready, and this is quite an item where the garden frequently has to be attended to in the intervals of farm work. Next, it is a cash saving to order all your seeds at one time. If, as is most frequently the case, you have to send to some large city for your supply, by procuring all that you need at one time, you have but one freight or express charge to pay. In making up your order, stick to the old varieties that you know suit your soil and your market; all the more if your market is your own table, for the greatest pleasure in gardening is in testing the merits of your fruits and vegetables with the appetite engendered by their culture. Also take into consideration the preferences of the household department as to the cooking merits of the different varieties. Do not experiment with your main crop of any vegetable, but do not neglect to try such new varieties as seem to possess merit, for the varieties are being continually improved by good culture and selection, as well as by hybridization or cross-breeding. To have a fine garden, the gardener must know the merits of all new and old varieties, and be as progressive as is the successful man in any other line of business. I know of nothing so interesting as watching the growth and development of some new and improved variety that has been recommended to the gardening public in the most glowing terms, and often in glowing colors on a beautiful colored plate. Although I have been “taken in” fully as often as the average gardener of my experience, I have been many times repaid all trouble and outlay by the numerous successes that I have met with and the great improvement in some of the varieties grown. Sometimes I have made quite a nice little sum out of these novelties, when I have been able to sell the selected seed of the new variety to some other seedsman or to my neighbors. In these new varieties, more than in any others, do you need to order early, or, instead of the seed that you desire and which is to make reputation and money for you, “being something superior to anything ever grown before,” you may get one of those provoking little slips stating that the seedsman “regrets to inform you that, owing to the great demand, the supply is exhausted for this season, and hopes that the substituted kind will do as well.”

Hotbeds and Cold Frames

HOTBEDS AND COLD FRAMES.

With a garden of this size I would have hotbeds, cold frames and rich seed beds of fine light soil; these I would not have in the garden itself unless that be the most convenient place. Where there is time to attend to them, they will be a measure of

economy, it being much cheaper to raise than to buy the plants, if you use more than a few dozens, while, if you have the time and room, quite a business can be done by supplying your neighbors who do not garden on such an extensive scale. It is best to locate the frames on the sunny side of a barnyard wall, or against a building that will shield them from the north wind and make a warm nook for them on sunshiny days. They should be situated conveniently near both to the manure pile and to a good supply of water, where they will constantly be under the eye in passing to and from the farm work and will not suffer neglect from being forgotten or overlooked. It is quite important that there should be good drainage from these beds, as they are most needed at a rainy time of the year; dampness is not only injurious to the young plants, but it also takes up a great deal of the heat which should go toward forwarding the growth of the young plants. The sashes can be bought, ready painted and glazed, at the planing mills in most cities, and this is much the cheapest way to procure them, as they can often be bought for what the bare sash would cost in a small order at a country shop. They come 3¼ feet wide by 6 feet in length, and are 1½ to 2 inches in thickness, and if stored in the dry when not in use, and are treated to an occasional coat of paint, will last a lifetime.

Three or four sash would be amply sufficient for a garden of an acre if used in succession, sowing one lot of seed as the preceding planting is set out in the garden; though, of course, more sash can be handled without any great increase of labor, and the season much advanced by growing radishes, lettuce, beets, etc., to maturity under the glass.

In making the hotbed, dig a trench a few inches short of six feet in width, or as wide as the sashes will cover, about two feet in depth and as long as the combined width of the number of sashes which you wish to use. This is then to be boarded up with rough boards, but they should be neatly joined and plastering laths or building paper tacked over the

Illustration showing the manner of making the hotbed when sunk below the surface of the ground.

cracks, so as not to waste the heat. The back or north side of this frame should be 6 or 8 inches higher than the front, so that the rain may run off the sashes. The sashes held at an angle in this manner will also receive more sunlight for the front part of the bed than if front and back were level. The whole frame of the bed should be banked round with the dirt thrown out, or better with fresh stable manure, which will help to keep it warm and will make a bank to drain away any surface water, which, being very cold in the spring, would, if allowed to penetrate the bed, tend to chill the heat of the fermenting manure, and consequently check the growth of the young and tender plants, even if it did not generate that great enemy of all young plants, fungus or mildew, causing them to rot or “damp off.”

Illustration showing the manner of constructing a hotbed above the surface of the ground.

Or, if there is plenty of fresh stable manure at hand, it can be corded in a pile two feet high and extending a foot wider than the sash frame on all sides; and when the frame has been put in position on the heap, the manure should be carried up on the outside nearly to the top of the boards, making a warm jacket for the plants within. A portable frame of boards is made for the sash to rest on, twelve inches high at the back and eight inches in front. This style of bed does away with any digging and secures good drainage for the bed. It would probably be the most satisfactory way for the gardener, who is also a farmer, as the bed can easily be removed as soon as it has served its purpose for the season, and the manure, which has become well rotted by this time will make an excellent compost for corn, melons, celery, etc. The frame and sash can also be set on a good piece of ground in the fall and filled with young lettuce plants in the early part of October, which will furnish salad throughout the winter.

The manure and litter which are to produce the heat for the bed should be thoroughly forked over and heaped together a week or ten days before the beds are to be started. While a large proportion of the material should be fresh horse stable manure, where a large quantity of heating material is needed, it can be mixed with any litter obtainable, such as straw, leaves from the woods, weeds, cut fodder, or anything that will furnish bulk and that will decay rapidly, and, by decaying, produce heat; when the material has all been gathered and heaped solidly together, a good sprinkling with water, hot, if possible, will aid in starting the fermentation. In about a week or two, when the heat of the heap has gone down to 95° or 100°, the manure should be placed in the beds and well trampled down; it should come up to within eight inches of the front of the frame and should be covered with about three and a half or four inches of fine, rich soil. It is a good plan to sift the dirt through a coal sieve, as it then makes a fine bed for the seeds and young plants.

Place the sashes on as soon as this is done; handling the manure and repacking it will produce some fresh heat and it will still be too warm to sow any seed, but the heat will destroy such weed seeds as may be in the soil, and the steam and gases arising from the manure will tend to put the soil in the finest possible condition for forwarding the growth of the young plants. A thermometer should be placed in the soil of the bed every day or two, to see if the temperature has fallen sufficiently to admit of sowing the seeds. As soon as the temperature has fallen to about 75°; or, if no thermometer is at hand, as soon as the top sod is only perceptibly warm to the palm of the hand, the bed should be sprinkled, and as soon as this has dried off a little, rake it up thoroughly and sow the seed. The seed will produce finer and stockier plants if sown in drills about six inches apart, which will admit light and air to the roots of the plants, and will permit a weekly hoeing. In planting seeds, the depth of their covering should be about five times the diameter of the seed, and this covering should be firmly packed around them after planting. The starting and planting of these beds must be calculated, so as to have the plants ready to set out as soon as the garden can be worked. In this vicinity (Philadelphia) the first sowing of cauliflowers, lettuce, beets and early cabbage should be made about February 15th, or even earlier, depending on the forwardness of the season or of your own particular garden. The plants will then be of a suitable size for transplanting by the time the early part of the garden has been plowed. If the sashes are covered with old carpets or straw on cold nights, it will be a great saving of the heating power of the manure and will prevent the young plants from being chilled. The young plants should be treated to fresh air whenever the outside temperature is not too cold, that they may not become “drawn,” or “spindle up” into long, slim stems. As planting-out time approaches, the young plants should be left uncovered as frequently as is safe, that they may become sufficiently hardy not to miss the covering when removed to the open ground.

Tomatoes, peppers and egg plants and a second sowing of early cabbage should be sown in the same manner about the middle of March. If a few extra early plants are wanted, they can be transplanted into the earliest beds when the cabbage and other plants have been set out in the garden, and the sash again put on. If some sweet potatoes are buried about two inches deep in the dirt of one of the cabbage frames, and kept warm, they will produce a fine lot of sprouts, or, as they are called, “sets,” which can be broken off and planted in the garden when the weather has become sufficiently warm. If a number are wanted, or there is danger of their growing too large, they can be taken off and “heeled in” in another sash until planting time, and the potatoes put back again, as they will produce two or three crops of the sets. Or a hill of cucumbers can be planted in the centre of each sash as a second crop, and by the time it would be warm enough to leave them uncovered, these will have filled up the frame with bearing vines, gaining at least a month on those planted in the open ground.

While the cabbage, cauliflower, beets and lettuce may be planted out as soon as all danger of frost is over, the tomatoes, peppers, egg plants, etc., should not be set out until the thermometer stands at over 60° all night, or until the oak leaves are as large as a five-cent piece. In a small hotbed it is best to have a partition between each sash and the one next to it, so that such as are tender varieties may be kept warm and the more hardy cabbage may have plenty of fresh air, for if the latter should become “drawn,” all the advantages of an early start will be lost and the plants may become entirely worthless.