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A COMPLETE AND PRACTICAL GUID TO THE PLANTING AND CARE OF VEGETABLES, FRUITS AND BERRIES A COMPLETE AND PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE PLANTING AND CARE OF VEGETABLES, FRUITS AND BERRIES PREFACE With some, the home vegetable garden is a hobby; with others, especially in these days of high prices, a great help. There are many in both classes whose experience in gardening has been restricted within very narrow bounds, and whose present spare time for gardening is limited. It is as "first aid" to such persons, who want to do practical, efficient gardening, and do it with the least possible fuss and loss of time, that this book is written. In his own experience the author has found that garden books, while seldom lacking in information, often do not present it in the clearest possible way. It has been his aim to make the present volume first of all practical, and in addition to that, though comprehensive, yet simple and concise. If it helps to make the way of the home gardener more clear and definite, its purpose will have been accomplished. 2 CONTENTS PART ONE I INTRODUCTION II WHY YOU SHOULD GARDEN III REQUISITES OF THE HOME VEGETABLE GARDEN IV THE PLANTING PLAN V IMPLEMENTS AND THEIR USES VI MANURES, FERTILIZERS AND MULCHING VII THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION PART TWO--VEGETABLES VIII STARTING THE PLANTS IX SOWING AND PLANTING X THE CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES XI THE VEGETABLES AND THEIR SPECIAL NEEDS XII BEST VARIETIES OF THE GARDEN VEGETABLES XIII INSECTS AND DISEASE, AND METHODS OF FIGHTING THEM XIV HARVESTING AND STORING PART THREE--FRUITS XV THE VARIETIES OF POME AND STONE FRUITS XVI PLANTING; CULTIVATION; FILLER CROPS XVII PRUNING, SPRAYING, HARVESTING XVIII BERRIES AND SMALL FRUITS XIX A CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS XX CONCLUSION 3 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Formerly it was the custom for gardeners to invest their labors and achievements with a mystery and secrecy which might well have discouraged any amateur from trespassing upon such difficult ground. "Trade secrets" in either flower or vegetable growing were acquired by the apprentice only through practice and observation, and in turn jealously guarded by him until passed on to some younger brother in the profession. Every garden operation was made to seem a wonderful and difficult undertaking. Now, all that has changed. In fact the pendulum has swung, as it usually does, to the other extreme. Often, if you are a beginner, you have been flatteringly told in print that you could from the beginning do just as well as the experienced gardener. My garden friend, it cannot, as a usual thing, be done. Of course, it may happen and sometimes does. You might, being a trusting lamb, go down into Wall Street with $10,000 and make a fortune. You know that you would not be likely to; the chances are very much against you. This garden business is a matter of common sense; and the man, or the woman, who has learned by experience how to do something, whether it is cornering the market or growing cabbages, naturally does it better than the one who has not. Do not expect the impossible. No, if you are going to take up gardening, you will have to work, and you will have a great many disappointments. All that I, or anyone else, could put between the two covers of a book will not make a gardener of you. It must be learned through the fingers, and back, too, as well as from the printed page. But, after all, the greatest reward for your efforts will be the work itself; and unless you love the work, or have a feeling that you will love it, probably the best way for you, is to stick to the grocery for your vegetables. Most things, in the course of development, change from the simple to the complex. The art of gardening has in many ways been an exception to the rule. The methods of culture used for many crops are more simple than those in vogue a generation ago. The last fifty years has seen also a tremendous advance in the varieties of vegetables, and the strange thing is that in many instances the new and better sorts are more easily and quickly grown than those they have replaced. The new lima beans are an instance of what is meant. While limas have always been appreciated as one of the most delicious of vegetables, in many sections they could never be successfully grown, because of their aversion to dampness and cold, and of the long season required to mature them. The newer sorts are not only larger and better, but hardier and earlier; and the bush forms have made them still more generally available. Knowledge on the subject of gardening is also more widely diffused than ever before, and the science of photography has helped wonderfully in telling the newcomer how to do things. 4 It has also lent an impetus and furnished an inspiration which words alone could never have done. If one were to attempt to read all the gardening instructions and suggestions being published, he would have no time left to practice gardening at all. Why then, the reader may ask at this point, another garden book? It is a pertinent question, and it is right that an answer be expected in advance. The reason, then, is this: while there are garden books in plenty, most of them pay more attention to the "content" than to the form in which it is laid before the prospective gardener. The material is often presented as an accumulation of detail, instead of by a systematic and constructive plan which will take the reader step by step through the work to be done, and make clear constantly both the principles and the practice of garden making and management, and at the same time avoid every digression unnecessary from the practical point of view. Other books again, are either so elementary as to be of little use where gardening is done without gloves, or too elaborate, however accurate and worthy in other respects, for an every-day working manual. The author feels, therefore, that there is a distinct field for the present book. And, while I still have the reader by the "introduction" buttonhole, I want to make a suggestion or two about using a book like this. Do not, on the one hand, read it through and then put it away with the dictionary and the family Bible, and trust to memory for the instruction it may give; do not, on the other hand, wait until you think it is time to plant something, and then go and look it up. For instance, do not, about the middle of May, begin investigating how many onion seeds to put in a hill; you will find out that they should have been put in, in drills, six weeks before. Read the whole book through carefully at your first opportunity, make a list of the things you should do for your own vegetable garden, and put opposite them the proper dates for your own vicinity. Keep this available, as a working guide, and refer to special matters as you get to them. Do not feel discouraged that you cannot be promised immediate success at the start. I know from personal experience and from the experience of others that "book-gardening" is a practical thing. If you do your work carefully and thoroughly, you may be confident that a very great measure of success will reward the efforts of your first garden season. And I know too, that you will find it the most entrancing game you ever played. Good luck to you! 5 CHAPTER II WHY YOU SHOULD GARDEN There are more reasons to-day than ever before why the owner of a small place should have his, or her, own vegetable garden. The days of home weaving, home cheese-making, home meat-packing, are gone. With a thousand and one other things that used to be made or done at home, they have left the fireside and followed the factory chimney. These things could be turned over to machinery. The growing of vegetables cannot be so disposed of. Garden tools have been improved, but they are still the same old one-man affairs--doing one thing, one row at a time. Labor is still the big factor--and that, taken in combination with the cost of transporting and handling such perishable stuff as garden produce, explains why the home gardener can grow his own vegetables at less expense than he can buy them. That is a good fact to remember. 6 But after all, I doubt if most of us will look at the matter only after consulting the household budget. The big thing, the salient feature of home gardening is not that we may get our vegetables ten per cent cheaper, but that we can have them one hundred per cent better. Even the long-keeping sorts, like squash, potatoes and onions, are very perceptibly more delicious right from the home garden, fresh from the vines or the ground; but when it comes to peas, and corn, and lettuce,--well, there is absolutely nothing to compare with the home garden ones, gathered fresh, in the early slanting sunlight, still gemmed with dew, still crisp and tender and juicy, ready to carry every atom of savory quality, without loss, to the dining table. Stale, flat and unprofitable indeed, after these have once been tasted, seem the limp, travel-weary, dusty things that are jounced around to us in the back of a truck . It is not in price alone that makes home gardening pay. There is another point: the market gardener has to grow the things that give the biggest yield. He has to sacrifice quality to quantity. You do not. One cannot buy Golden Bantam corn, or Mignonette lettuce, or Gradus peas in most markets. They are top quality, but they do not fill the market crate enough times to the row to pay the commercial grower. If you cannot afford to keep a professional gardener there is only one way to have the best vegetables--grow your own! And this brings us to the third, and what may be the most important reason why you should garden. It is the cheapest, healthiest, keenest pleasure there is. Give me a sunny garden patch in the golden springtime, when the trees are picking out their new gowns, in all the various selfcolored delicate grays and greens--strange how beautiful they are, in the same old unchanging styles, isn't it?--give me seeds to watch as they find the light, plants to tend as they take hold in the fine, loose, rich soil, and you may have the other sports. And when you have grown tired of their monotony, come back in summer to even the smallest garden, and you will find in it, every day, a new problem to be solved, a new campaign to be carried out, a new victory to win. Better food, better health, better living--all these the home garden offers you in abundance. And the price is only the price of every worth-while thing--honest, cheerful patient work. But enough for now of the dream garden. Put down your book. Put on your old clothes , and let's go outdoors and look the place over, and pick out the best spot for that garden-patch of yours. 7 CHAPTER III REQUISITES OF THE HOME VEGETABLE GARDEN In deciding upon the site for the home vegetable garden it is well to dispose once and for all of the old idea that the garden "patch" must be an ugly spot in the home surroundings. If thoughtfully planned, carefully planted and thoroughly cared for, it may be made a beautiful and harmonious feature of the general scheme, lending a touch of a comfortable home that no shrubs, borders, or flower beds can ever produce. With this fact in mind we will not feel restricted to any part of the premises merely because it is out of sight behind the barn or garage. In the average moderate-sized place there will not be much choice as to land. It will be necessary to take what is to be had and then do the very best that can be done with it. But there will probably be a good deal of choice as to, first, exposure, and second, convenience. Other things being equal, select a spot near at hand, easy to access. It may seem that a difference of only a few hundred yards will mean nothing, but if one is depending largely upon spare moments for working in and for watching the garden--and in the growing of many 8 vegetables the latter is almost as important as the former--this matter of convenient access will be of much greater importance than is likely to be at first recognized. Not until you have had to make a dozen time-wasting trips for forgotten seeds or tools, or gotten your feet soaking wet by going out through the dew-drenched grass, will you realize fully what this may mean. EXPOSURE But the thing of first importance to consider in picking out the spot that is to yield you happiness and delicious vegetables all summer, or even for many years, is the exposure. Pick out the "earliest" spot you can find--a plot sloping a little to the south or east, that seems to catch sunshine early and hold it late, and that seems to be out of the direct path of the chilling north and northeast winds. If a building, or even an old fence, protects it from this direction, your garden will be helped along wonderfully, for an early start is a great big factor toward success. If it is not already protected, a board fence, or a hedge of some low-growing shrubs or young evergreens, will add very greatly to its usefulness. The importance of having such a protection or shelter is altogether underestimated by the amateur. THE SOIL The chances are that you will not find a spot of ideal garden soil ready for use anywhere upon your place. But all except the very worst of soils can be brought up to a very high degree of productiveness--especially such small areas as home vegetable gardens require. Large tracts of soil that are almost pure sand, and others so heavy and mucky that for centuries they lay uncultivated, have frequently been brought, in the course of only a few years, to where they yield annually tremendous crops on a commercial basis. So do not be discouraged about your soil. Proper treatment of it is much more important, and a gardenpatch of average run-down,--or "never-brought-up" soil--will produce much more for the energetic and careful gardener than the richest spot will grow under average methods of cultivation. The ideal garden soil is a "rich, sandy loam." And the fact cannot be overemphasized that such soils usually are made, not found. Let us analyze that description a bit, for right here we come to the first of the four all-important factors of gardening--food. The others are cultivation, moisture and temperature. "Rich" in the gardener's vocabulary means full of plant food; more than that--and this is a point of vital importance--it means full of plant food ready to be used at once, all prepared and spread out on the garden table, or rather where growing things can at once make use of it; or what we term, in one word, "available" plant food. Practically no soils in longinhabited communities remain naturally rich enough to produce big crops. They are made rich, or kept rich, in two ways; first, by cultivation, which helps to change the raw plant food stored in the soil into available forms; and second, by fertilizing or adding plant food to the soil from outside sources. 9 "Sandy" in the sense here used, means a soil containing enough particles of sand so that water will pass through it without leaving it pasty and sticky a few days after a rain; "light" enough, as it is called, so that a handful, under ordinary conditions, will crumble and fall apart readily after being pressed in the hand. It is not necessary that the soil be sandy in appearance, but it should be friable. "Loam: a rich, friable soil," says Webster. That hardly covers it, but it does describe it. It is soil in which the sand and clay are in proper proportions, so that neither greatly predominate, and usually dark in color, from cultivation and enrichment. Such a soil, even to the untrained eye, just naturally looks as if it would grow things. It is remarkable how quickly the whole physical appearance of a piece of well cultivated ground will change. One instance came about last fall in one of my gardens, where a strip had contained onions for two years, and a little piece jutting off from the middle of this had been prepared for them for just one season. The rest had not received any extra fertilizing or cultivation. When the garden was plowed up in the fall, all three sections were as distinctly noticeable as though they were separated by a fence. And I know that next springs crop of carrots, before it is plowed under, will show the lines of demarcation just as plainly. This, then, will give you an idea of a good garden soil. Perhaps in yours there will be too much sand, or too much clay. That will be a disadvantage, but one which energy and perseverance will soon overcome to a great extent--by the methods you will be learning inChapter VIII. DRAINAGE There is, however, one other thing you must look out for in selecting your garden site, and that is drainage. Dig down eight or twelve inches after you have picked out a favorable spot, and examine the sub-soil. This is the second strata, usually of different texture and color from the rich surface soil, and harder than it. If you find a sandy or gravelly bed, no matter how yellow and poor it looks, you have chosen the right spot. But if it is a stiff, heavy clay, especially a blue clay, you will have to either drain it or be content with a very late garden--that is, unless you are at the top of a knoll or on a slope. Chapter VII contains further suggestions in regard to this problem. SOIL ANTECEDENTS There was a further reason for mentioning that strip of onion ground. It is a very practical illustration of what last year's handling of the soil means to this year's garden. If you can pick out a spot, even if it is not the most desirable in other ways, that has been well enriched or cultivated for a year or two previous, take that for this year's garden. And in the meantime have the spot on which you intend to make your permanent vegetable garden thoroughly "fitted," and grow there this year a crop of potatoes or sweet corn, as suggested in Chapter IX. Then next year you will have conditions just right to give your vegetables a great start. 10 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS There are other things of minor importance but worth considering, such as the shape of your garden plot, for instance. The more nearly rectangular, the more convenient it will be to work and the more easily kept clean and neat. Have it large enough, or at least open on two ends, so that a rototiller can be used in plowing and tilling. And if by any means you can have it within reach of an adequate supply of water, that will be a tremendous help in seasons of protracted drought. Then again, if you have ground enough, lay off two plots so that you can take advantage of the practice of rotation, alternating grass, potatoes or corn with the vegetable garden. Of course it is possible to practice crop rotation to some extent within the limits of even the small vegetable garden, but it will be much better, if possible, to rotate the entire gardenpatch. All these things, then, one has to keep in mind in picking the spot best suited for the home vegetable garden. It should be, if possible, of convenient access; it should have a warm exposure and be well enriched, well worked-up soil, not too light nor too heavy, and by all means well drained. If it has been thoroughly cultivated for a year or two previous, so much the better. If it is near a supply of water, so situated that it can be at least plowed and tilled with a rototiller, and large enough to allow the garden to be shifted every other yearor two, still more the better. Fill all of these requirements that you can, and then by taking full advantage of the advantages you have, you can discount the disadvantages. After all it is careful, persistent work, more than natural advantages, that will tell the story; and a good garden does not grow--it is made. 11 GARDENING PLANS BLUEPRINT CHAPTER IV THE PLANTING PLAN Having selected the garden spot, the next consideration, naturally, is what will be planted in it. The old way was to pick out some seeds from your local supermarket or garden center, pick out a list of the vegetables most enthusiastically recommended by the garden center clerk, and then, when the time came, to put them in at one or two plantings, sowing each kind as far as the seed would go. There is a better way--a way to make the garden produce more, to yield things when you want them, and in the proper proportions. All these advantages, you may suppose, must mean more work. On the contrary, however, the new way makes very much less work and makes results a hundred per cent more certain. It 12 is not necessary even that more thought be put upon the garden, but forethought there must be. Forethought, however, is much more satisfactory than hind-thought. In the new way of gardening there are four great helps, four things that will be of great assistance to the experienced gardener, and that are indispensable to the success of the beginner. They are the Planting Plan, the Planting Table, the Check List and the Garden Record. Do not become discouraged at the formidable sound of that paragraph and decide that after all you do not want to fuss so much over your garden; that you are doing it for the fun of the thing anyway, and such intricate systems will not be worth bothering with. The purpose of those four garden helps is simply to make your work less and your returns more. You might just as well refuse to use a rototiller because the trowel was good enough for your grandmother's garden, as to refuse to take advantage of the modern garden methods described in this chapter. Without using them to some extent, or in some modified form, you can never know just what you are doing with your garden or what improvements to make next year. Of course, each of the plans or lists suggested here is only one of many possible combinations. You should be able to find, or better still to construct, similar ones better suited to your individual taste, need and opportunity. That, however, does not lessen the necessity of using some such system. It is just as necessary an aid to the maximum efficiency in gardening as are modern tools. Do not fear that you will waste time on the planting plan. Master it and use it, for only then can you make your garden time count the most in producing results. In the average small garden there is a very largepercentage of waste--for two weeks, more string beans than can be eaten or given away; and then, for a month, none at all, for instance. You should determine ahead as nearly as possible how much of each vegetable your table will require and then try to grow enough of each for a continuous supply, and no more. It is just this that the planting plan enables you to do. I will describe, as briefly as possible, forms of the planting plan, planting table, check list and record, which I have found it convenient to use. To make the Planting Plan take a sheet of white paper and a ruler and mark off a space the shape of your garden--which should be rectangular if possible--using a scale of one-quarter or one-eighth inch to the foot. Rows fifty feet long will be found a convenient length for the average home garden. In a garden where many varieties of things are grown it will be best to run the rows the short way of the piece. We will take a fifty-foot row for the purpose of illustration, though of course it can readily be changed in proportion where rows of that length can not conveniently be made. In a very small garden it will be better to make the row, say, twenty-five feet long, the aim being always to keep the row a unit and have as few broken ones as possible, and still not to have to plant more of any one thing than will be needed. In assigning space for the various vegetables several things should be kept in mind in order to facilitate planting, replanting and cultivating the garden. These can most quickly be realized by a glance at the plan illustrated herein. You will notice that crops that remain several years-rhubarb and asparagus--are kept at one end. Next come those that will remain a whole season- 13 -parsnips, carrots, onions and the like. And finally those that will be used for a succession of crops--peas, lettuce, spinach. Moreover, tall-growing crops, like pole beans, are kept to the north of lower ones. In the plan illustrated the space given to each variety is allotted according to the proportion in which they are ordinarily used. If it happens that you have a special weakness for peas, or your mother-inlaw an aversion to peppers, keep these tastes and similar ones in mind when laying out your planting plan. Do not leave the planning of your garden until you are ready to put the seeds in the ground and then do it all in a rush. Do it in January, as soon as you have received the new year's catalogs and when you have time to study over them and look up your record of the previous year. Every hour spent on the plan will mean several hours saved in the garden. The Planting Table is the next important system in the business of gardening, especially for the beginner. In it one can see at a glance all the details of the particular treatment each vegetable requires-- when to sow, how deep, how far apart the rows should be, etc. I remember how many trips from garden to house to hunt through catalogs for just such information I made in my first two seasons' gardening. How much time, just at the very busiest season of the whole year, such a table would have saved! The Planting Table prepared for one's own use should show, besides the information given, the varieties of each vegetable which experience has proved best adapted to one's own needs. The table shown herein gives such a list; varieties which are for the most part standard favorites and all of which, with me, have proven reliable, productive and of good quality. Other good sorts will be found described in Part Two. Such a table should be mounted on cardboard and kept where it may readily be referred to at planting time. The Check List is the counterpart of the planting table, so arranged that its use will prevent anything from being overlooked or left until too late. Prepare it ahead, some time in January, when you have time to think of everything. Make it up from your planting table and from the previous year's record. From this list it will be well to put down on a sheet of paper the things to be done each month (or week) and cross them off as they are attended to. Without some such system it is almost a certainty that you will overlook some important things. The Garden Record is no less important. It may be kept in the simplest sort of way, but be sure to keep it. A large piece of paper ruled as follows, for instance, will require only a few minutes' attention each week and yet will prove of the greatest assistance in planning the garden. 14 A typical Planting Plan: The scale measurement at the left nd top indicate the length and distance apart of rows 15 VEGETABLE GARDEN RECORD The above shows how such a record should be kept. Of course, only the first column is written in ahead. I want to emphasize in passing, however, the importance of putting down your data on the day you plant, or harvest, or notice anything worth recording. If you let it go until tomorrow it is very apt to be lacking next year. Try these four short-cuts to success, even if you have had a garden before. They will make a big difference in your garden; less work and greater results. CHECK LIST Jan. 1st--Send for catalogs. Make planting plan and table. Order seeds. Feb. 1st--Inside: cabbage, cauliflower, first sowing. Onions for plants. Feb. 15th--Inside: lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, beets. March 1st--Inside: lettuce, celery, tomato (early). March 15th--Inside: lettuce, tomato (main), eggplant, pepper, lima beans, cucumber, squash; sprout potatoes in sand. April 1st--Inside: cauliflower (on sods), muskmelon, watermelon, corn. Outside: (seed-bed) celery, cabbage, lettuce. Onions, carrots, smooth peas, spinach, beets, chard, parsnip, turnip, radish. Lettuce, cabbage (plants). 16 May 1st--Beans, corn, spinach, lettuce, radish. May 15th--Beans, limas, muskmelon, watermelon, summer squash, peas, potatoes, lettuce, radish, tomato (early), corn, limas, melon, cucumber and squash (plants). Pole-lima, beets, corn, kale, winter squash, pumpkin, lettuce, radish. June 1st--Beans, carrots, corn, cucumber, peas, summer spinach, summer lettuce, radish, eggplant, pepper, tomato (main plants). June 15th--Beans, corn, peas, turnip, summer lettuce, radish, late cabbage, and tomato plants. July 1st--Beans, endive, kale, lettuce, radish, winter cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and celery plants. July 15th--Beans, early corn, early peas, lettuce, radish. Aug. 1st--Early peas, lettuce, radish. Aug. 15th--Early peas, lettuce, radish in seed-bed, forcing lettuce for fall in frames. Sept. 1st--Lettuce, radish, spinach and onions for wintering over. NOTE.--This list is for planting only (the dates are approximate: see note I at the end of the chapter). Spraying and other garden operations may also be included in such a list. See "Calendar of Operations" at end of book. PLANTING TABLE VEGETABLE PLANT[1] DEPTH TO SOW--INs. -DISTANCE APARTVEGETABLE SEEDS[2] ROWS I. CROPS REMAINING ENTIRE SEASON Asparagus, seed Asparagus, plants Bean, pole Bean, lima Beet, late Carrot, late Corn, late Cucumber Egg-plant, plants Leek Melon, musk April-May April May 15-June 10 May 20-June 10 April-August May-July May 20-July 10 May 10-July 15 June 1-20 April May 15-June 15 1 4 2 2 2 1/2-1 2 1 .. .. 1 2-4 in. 1 ft. 3 ft. 3 ft. 3-4 in. 2-3 in. 3 ft. 4 ft. 2 ft. 2-4 in. 4 ft. 15 in. 3 ft. 3 ft. 3 ft. 15 in. 15 in. 4 ft. 4 ft. 30 in. 15 in. 4 ft. 17 Melon, water Onion Okra Parsley[4] Parsnip Pepper, seed Pepper, plants Potatoes, main Pumpkins Rhubarb, plants Salsify Squash, summer Squash, winter Tomato, seed Tomato, plants May 15-June 15 April May 15-June 15 April-May April June June 1-20 April 15-June 20 May 1-June 20 April April-May May 15-July May 15-June 20 June May 15-July 20 1 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2 1/2-1 1st 1/2 .. 4-6 1-2 .. 1 1 1-2 1/2 .. 6-8 ft. 2-4 in. 2 ft. 4-6 in. 3-5 in. 3-6 in. 2 ft. 13 in. 6-8 ft. 2-3 ft. 3-6 in. 1-2 4 ft. 6-8 ft. 3-4 in. 3 ft. 6-8 ft. 15 in. 3 ft. 1 ft. 18 in. 15 in. 30 in. 30 in. 6-8 ft. 3 ft. 18 in. 4 ft. 6-8 ft. 15 in. 3 ft. NOTE.--The index reference numbers refer to notes at end of chapter. VEGETABLE SEED FOR 50 FT. ROW Asparagus, seed 1 oz. Asparagus, plants 1 oz. Bean, pole 1/2 pt. Bean, lima 1/2 pt. Beet, late Carrot, late Corn, late 1 oz. 1/2 oz. 1/2 pt. Cucumber 1/2 oz. Egg-plant, plants Leek Melon, musk 25 1/2 oz. 1/2 oz. 18 VARIETIES Palmetto, Giant Argenteuil, Barr’s Mammoth Palmetto, Giant Argenteuil, Barr’s Mammoth Kentucky Wonder, Golden, Cluster, Burger’s Stringless Early Leviathan, Giant Podded, Burpee Improved Crimson Globe Danver’s Half-long, Ox-heart, Chantenay Seymour’s Sweet Orange, White Evergreen, Country Gentleman Early White Spine, Fordhook Famous, Davis Perfect Black Beauty, N.Y. Purple American Flag Netted Gem, Emerald Gem, Hoodoo Melon, water Onion 1/4 oz. 1/2 oz. Okra Parsley Parsnip Pepper, seed Pepper, plants Potatoes, main 1/2 oz. 1/2 oz. 1/4 oz. 1/2 oz. 25 1/2 pk. Pumpkins Rhubarb, plants Salsify Squash, summer 1/4 oz. 25 3/4 oz. 1/4 oz. Squash, winter Tomato, seed Tomato, plants 1/4 oz. 1/2 oz. 20 Cole’s Early Sweetheart, Halbert Honey Prizetaker, Danver’s Globe, Ailsa Craig, Southport Red Globe, Mammoth Silverskin (white) Perfected Perkins, White Velvet Emerald Hollow Crowned (Improved) Ruby King, Chinese Giant Ruby King, Chinese Giant Irish Cobbler, Green Mountain, Uncle Sam (Norton Beauty, Norwood, early) Large Cheese, Quaker Pie Myatt’s Victoria Mammoth Sandwich White Bush, Delicata, Fordhook, Vegetable Marrow Hubbard, Delicious Earliana, Chalk’s Jewel, Matchless, Dwarf Giant Earliana, Chalk’s Jewel, Matchless, Dwarf Giant PLANTING TABLE VEGETABLE PLANT[1] DEPTH TO SOW--INs. -DISTANCE APARTVEGETABLE SEEDS[2] ROWS II. CROPS FOR SUCCESSION PLANTINGS Bean, dwarf Kohlrabi[4] Lettuce[4] Peas, smooth Peas, wrinkled Radish Spinach Turnip May 5-Aug 15 April-July April-August April 1-Aug 1 April 10-July 15 April 1-Sept 1 April-Sept 15 April-Sept 2 1/2- 1 1/2 2-3 2-3 1/2 1 1/2-1 2-4 in. 6-12 in. 1 ft. 2-4 in. 2-4 in. 2-3 in. 3-5 in. 4-6 in. 1-1/2-2 ft. 1-1/2-2 ft. 1-1-1/2 ft. 3 ft. 3-4 ft. 1 ft. 18 in. 15 in. 19 VEGETABLE PLANT[1] DEPTH TO SOW--INs. -DISTANCE APART VEGETABLE SEEDS[2] ROWS III. CROPS TO BE FOLLOWED BY OTHERS Beet, early Broccoli, early[4] Borecole[4] Brussels sprouts[4] Cabbage, early[4] Carrot Cauliflower[4] Com, early Onion sets Peas Crops in Sec. II. VEGETABLE April-June April April April April April April May 10-20 April-May 15 April 1-May 1 PLANT[1] 2 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2-1 2 1-2 2 DEPTH TO SOW--INs. 3-4 in. 1-1/2 ft. 2 ft. 1-1/2 ft. 1-1/2 ft. 2-3 in. 1-1/2 ft. 3 ft. 2-4 in. 2-4 in. 15 in. 2 ft. 2-1/2 ft. 2 ft. 2 ft. 15 in. 2 ft. 3-4 ft. 15 in. 3 ft. -DISTANCE APART VEGETABLE SEEDS[2] ROWS IV. CROPS THAT MAY FOLLOW OTHERS Beet, late Borecole Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage late Cauliflower Celery, seed Celery, plant Endive[4] Peas, late Crops in Sec. II. 20 July-August May-June[2] May-June[2] May-June[2] May-June[2] May-June[2] April July 1-Aug 1 April-August May 15-Aug 1 2 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2-1 1/2 .. 1/2 2-3 3-4 in. 2 ft. 2 ft. 1-1/2 ft. 2-1/2 ft. 2 ft. 1-2 in. 6 in. 1 ft. 2-4 in. 15 in. 2-1/2 ft. 2-1/2 ft. 2-1/2 ft. 2-1/2 ft. 2-1/2 ft. 1 ft. 3-4 ft. 1 ft. 4 ft. II. CROPS FOR SUCCESSION PLANTINGS VEGETABLE Bean, dwarf SEED FOR 50 FT. ROW 1 pt. Kohlrabi Lettuce 1/4 oz 50 Peas, smooth Peas, wrinkled Radish Spinach Turnip 1 pt 1 pt 1/2 oz. 1/2 oz. 1/3 oz. VARIETIES Red Valentine Burpee’s Greenpod, Improved Refugee, Brittle Wax, Rust-proof White Wax White Vienna Mignonette, Grand Rapids, May King, Big Boston, New York, Deacon, Cos, Paris White American Wonder Gradus, Boston Unrivaled, Quite Content Rapid Red, Crimson Globe, Chinese Swiss Chard Beet, Long Season, Victoria White Milan, Petrowski, Golden Ball III. CROPS TO BE FOLLOWED BY OTHERS VEGETABLE SEED FOR 50 FT. ROW Beet, early Broccoli, early Borecole Brussels sprouts Cabbage, early 1 oz. 35 25 35 35 Carrot Cauliflower Corn, early Onion sets Peas Crops in Sec. II. 1/2 oz. 35 1/3 pt. 2 pt. 1 pt. VARIETIES Edmund's Early, Early Model Early White French Dwarf Scotch Curled Dalkeith, Danish Prize Wakefield, Glory of Enkhuisen, Early Summer, Succession, Savoy Golden Ball, Early Scarlet Horn Burpee's Best Early, Snowball, Sea-foam Dry Weather Golden Bantam, Peep o’ Day, Cory 21 IV. CROPS THAT MAY FOLLOW OTHERS VEGETABLE Beet, late Borecole Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage, late Cauliflower Celery, seed Celery, plant Endive Peas, late Crops in Sec. II. SEED FOR 50 FT. ROW 1 oz. 25 25 35 25 25 1 oz. 100 1/2 oz. 1 pt. VARIETIES Crimson Globe Dwarf Scotch Curled Early White French Dalkeith, Danish Prize Succession, Danish Ballhead Drumhead As above [Savoy, Mammoth Rock (red)] White Plume, Golden Self-blanching, Winter Queen White Plume, Golden Self-blanching, Queen Broad-Leaved Batavian, Giant Fringed Gradus REFERENCE NOTES FROM THE TABLES 1. In the vicinity of New York City. Each 100 miles north or south will make a difference of 5 to 7 days later or earlier. 2. This is for sowing the seed. It will take three to six weeks before plants are ready. Hence the advantage of using the seed-bed. For instance, you can start your late cabbage about June 15th, to follow the first crop of peas, which should be cleared off by the 10th of July. 3. Distances given are those at which the growing plants should stand, after thinning. Seed in drills should be sown several times as thick. 4. Best started in seed-bed, and afterward transplanted; but may be sown when wanted and afterward thinned to the best plants. 22 CHAPTER V IMPLEMENTS AND THEIR USES It may seem to the reader that it is all very well to make a garden with a pencil, but that the work of transferring it to the soil must be quite another problem and one entailing so much work that he will leave it to the professional market gardener. He possibly pictures to himself some bent-kneed and stoop-shouldered man with the hoe, and decides that after all there is too much work in the garden game. What a revelation would be in store for him if he could witness one day's operations in a modern market garden! Very likely indeed not a hoe would be seen during the entire visit. Modern implements, within less than a generation, have revolutionized gardening. This is true of the small garden as certainly as of the large one: in fact, in proportion I am not sure but that it is more so--because of the second wonderful thing about modern garden tools, 23 that is, the low prices at which they can be bought, considering the enormous percentage of labor saved in accomplishing results. There is nothing in the way of expense to prevent even the most modest gardener acquiring, during a few years, by the judicious expenditure of but a few dollars annually, a very complete outfit of tools that will handsomely repay their cost. While some garden tools have been improved and developed out of all resemblance to their original forms, others have changed little in generations, and in probability will remain ever with us. There is a thing or two to say about even the simplest of them, however,-- especially to anyone not familiar with their uses. There are tools for use in every phase of horticultural operations; for preparing the ground, for planting the seed, for cultivation, for protecting crops from insects and disease, and for harvesting. First of all comes the ancient and honorable spade, which, for small garden plots, borders, beds, etc., must still be relied upon for the initial operation in gardening--breaking up the soil. There are several types, but any will answer the purpose. In buying a spade look out for two things: see that it is well strapped up the handle in front and back, and that it hangs well. In spading up ground, especially soil that is turfy or hard, the work may be made easier by taking a strip not quite twice as wide as the spade, and making diagonal cuts so that one vertical edge of the spade at each thrust cuts clean out to where the soil has already been dug. The wide-tined spading-fork is frequently used instead of the spade, as it is lighter and can be more advantageously used to break up lumps and level off surfaces. In most soils it will do this work as well, if not better, than the spade and has the further good quality of being serviceable as a fork too, thus combining two tools in one. It should be more generally known and used. With the ordinary fork, used for handling manure and gathering up trash, weeds, etc., every gardener is familiar. The type with oval, slightly up-curved tines, five or six in number, and a D handle, is the most convenient and comfortable for garden use. For areas large enough for a large rototiller, it will be your best purchase. There are many good makes. The requirements are that it should turn a clean, deep furrow. In deep soil that has long been cultivated, plowing should, with few exceptions, be down at least to the subsoil; and if the soil is shallow it will be advisable to turn up a little of the subsoil, at each plowing--not more than an inch--in order that the soil may gradually be deepened. TOOLS FOR PREPARING THE SEED-BED The spade or spading-fork or rototiller will be followed by the hoe, or hook, and the iron rake. The best type of hoe for use after the spade is the wide, deep-bladed type. In most soils, however, this work may be done more expeditiously with the hook or prong-hoe. With this the soil can be thoroughly pulverized to a depth of several inches. In using either, be careful not to pull up manure or trash turned under by the spade, as all such material if left covered will quickly rot away in the soil and furnish the best sort of plant food. The rototiller and likewise the prong-hoe, will have to be followed by the iron rake when preparing the ground for small-seeded garden vegetables. Get the sort with what is termed 24 the "bow" head instead of one in which the head is fastened directly to the end of the handle. It is less likely to get broken, and easier to use. There is quite a knack in manipulating even a garden rake, which will come only with practice. Do not rake as though you were gathering up leaves or grass. The secret in using the garden rake is not to gather things up. Small stones, lumps of earth and such things, you of course wish to remove. Keep these raked off ahead of where you are leveling the soil, which is accomplished with a backward-and-forward movement of the rake. The tool-house of every garden of any size should contain a seed-drill. Labor which is otherwise tedious and difficult is by it rendered mere play--as well as being better done. The operations of marking the row, opening the furrow, dropping the seed at the proper depth and distance, covering immediately with fresh earth, and firming the soil, are all done at one fell swoop and as fast as you can walk. It will even drop seeds in hills. But that is not all: it may be had as part of a combination machine, which, after your seeds are planted--with each row neatly rolled on top, and plainly visible--may be at once transformed into a wheel hoe that will save you as much time in caring for your plants as the seed-drill did in planting your seed. Hoeing drudgery becomes a thing of the past. There are so many, and so varied in usefulness, that it would require an entire chapter to detail their special advantages and methods of use. The catalogs describing them will give you many valuable suggestions; and other ways of utilizing them will discover themselves to you in your work. Valuable as the wheel hoe is, however, and varied in its scope of work, the time-tried hoe cannot be entirely dispensed with. It is essential in work such as loosening soil and cutting out weeds. The heart-shaped hoe is especially valuable in opening and covering drills for seed, such as beans, peas or corn. The scuffle-hoe, or scarifier, is used between narrow rows for shallow work, such as cutting off small weeds and breaking up the crust. It has been rendered less frequently needed by the advent of the wheel hoe, but when crops are too large to admit of the use of the latter, the scuffle-hoe is still an indispensable time-saver. There remains one task connected with gardening that is dreaded by everyone. That is hand-weeding. To get down on one's hands and knees, in the blistering hot dusty soil, with the perspiration trickling down into one's eyes, and pick small weedlets from among tender plantlets, is not a pleasant occupation. There are, however, several sorts of small weeders which lessen the work considerably. One or another of the common types will seem preferable, according to different conditions of soil and methods of work. Personally, I prefer the Cape Cod style weeding tool. You skim the blade underneath the surface and cut the weeds off at the root. It is a fast efficient way of keeping your beds free of weeds. There are two things to be kept in mind about hand-weeding which will reduce this work to the minimum. First, never let the weeds get a start; for even if they do not increase in number, if they once smother the ground or crop, you will wish you had never heard of a garden. Second, do your hand-weeding while the surface soil is soft, when the weeds come out easily. A hardcrusted soil will double and triple the amount of labor required. It would seem that it should be needless, when garden tools are such savers of labor, to 25 suggest that they should be carefully kept, always bright and clean and sharp, and in repair. But such advice is needed, to judge by most of the tools one sees. Always have a piece of cloth or old bag on hand where the garden tools are kept, and never put them away soiled and wet. Keep the cutting edges sharp. There is as much pleasure in trying to run a dull lawnmower as in working with a rusty, battered hoe. Have an extra handle in stock in case of accident; they are not expensive. In selecting hand tools, always pick out those with handles in which the grain does not run out at the point where there will be much strain in using the tool. In rakes, hoes, etc., get the types with ferrule and shank one continuous piece, so as not to be annoyed with loose heads. Spend a few cents to send for some implement catalogs. They will be a great source of information, even if you do not order this year. The Internet is also an excellent source for finding the best garden tools. A few dollars spent in getting the best will save you much more in the future. FOR FIGHTING PLANT ENEMIES The devices and implements used for fighting plant enemies are of two sorts:--(1) those used to afford mechanical protection to the plants; (2) those used to apply insecticides and fungicides. Of the first the most useful is the covered frame. It consists usually of a wooden box, some eighteen inches to two feet square and about eight high, covered with glass, protecting cloth, mosquito netting or mosquito wire. The first two coverings have, of course, the additional advantage of retaining heat and protecting from cold, making it possible by their use to plant earlier than is otherwise safe. They are used extensively in getting an extra early and safe start with cucumbers, melons and the other vine vegetables. Simpler devices for protecting newly-set plants, such as tomatoes or cabbage, from the cutworm, are stiff aluminum, cardboard or tar paper collars, which are made several inches high and large enough to be put around the stem and penetrate an inch or so into the soil. For applying poison powders the home gardener should supply himself with a an EPA approved powder gun. If one must be restricted to a single implement, however, it will be best to get one of the EPA approved hand power, compressed air sprayers. These are used for applying wet sprays, and should be supplied with one of the several forms of mist-making nozzles, the non-cloggable automatic type being the best. Extension rods for use in spraying trees and vines may be obtained for your sprayer. For operations on a very small scale a good hand-syringe may be used, but in general, it will be best to invest a few dollars more and get a small tank sprayer, as this throws a continuous stream or spray and holds a much larger amount of the spraying solution. Whatever type is procured, get a brass machine--it will out-wear three or four of those made of cheaper metal or plastic, which succumbs very quickly to the, corroding action of the strong poisons and chemicals used in them. 26 Of implements for harvesting, beside the spade, prong-hoe and spading- fork already mentioned, very few are used in the small garden, as most of them need not only long rows to be economically used, but tractors also. Running the hand-plow close on either side of carrots, parsnips and other deep-growing vegetables will aid materially in getting them out. For fruit picking, with tall trees, the wire-fingered fruit-picker, secured to the end of a long handle, will be of great assistance, but with the modern method of using low-headed trees it will not be needed. Another class of garden implements are those used in pruning--but where this is attended to properly from the start, a good sharp jack-knife and a pair of pruning shears will easily handle all the work of the kind necessary. Still another sort of garden device is that used for supporting the plants; such as stakes, trellises, wires, etc. Altogether too little attention usually is given these, as with proper care in storing over winter they will not only last for years, but add greatly to the convenience of cultivation and to the neat appearance of the garden. Various contrivances are illustrated in the seed catalogs, and many may be home-made--such as a stake-trellis for supporting beans. As a final word to the intending purchaser of garden tools, I would say: first thoroughly investigate the different sorts available, and when buying, do not forget that a good tool or a well-made machine will be giving you satisfactory use long, long after the price is forgotten, while a poor one is a constant source of discomfort. Get good tools, and take good care of them. And let me repeat that a few dollars a year, judiciously spent, for tools afterward well cared for, will soon give you a very complete set, and add to your garden profit and pleasure. 27 CHAPTER VI MANURES, FERTILIZERS AND MULCHING To a very small extent garden vegetables get their food from the air. The amount obtained in this way however, is so infinitesimal that from the practical standpoint it need not be considered at all. Practically speaking, your vegetables must get all their food from the garden soil. This important garden fact may seem self-evident, but, if one may judge by their practice, amateur gardeners very frequently fail to realize it. The professional gardener must come to realize it for the simple reason that if he does not he will go out of business. Without an abundant supply of suitable food it is just as impossible to grow good vegetables as it would be to train a winning football team on a diet of soda pop and angel cake. Without plenty of plant food, all the care, coddling, coaxing, cultivating, spraying and worrying you may give will avail little. The soil must be rich or the garden will be poor. 28 Plant food is of as many kinds, or, more accurately speaking, in as many forms, as is food for human beings. But the first distinction to make in plant foods is that between available and non- available foods--that is, between foods which it is possible for the plant to use, and those which must undergo a change of some sort before the plant can take them up, assimilate them, and turn them into a healthy growth of foliage, fruit or root. It is just as readily possible for a plant to starve in a soil abounding in plant food, if that food is not available, as it would be for you to go unnourished in the midst of soups and tender meats if the latter were frozen solid. Plants take all their nourishment in the form of soups, and very weak ones at that. Plant food to be available must be soluble to the action of the feeding root tubes; and unless it is available it might, as far as the present benefiting of your garden is concerned, just as well not be there at all. Plants take up their food through innumerable and microscopic feeding rootlets, which possess the power of absorbing moisture, and furnishing it, distributed by the plant juices, or sap, to stem, branch, leaf, flower and fruit. There is one startling fact which may help to fix these things in your memory: it takes from 300 to 500 pounds of water to furnish food for the building of one pound of dry plant matter. You can see why plant food is not of much use unless it is available; and it is not available unless it is soluble. THE THEORY OF MANURING The food of plants consists of chemical elements, or rather, of numerous substances which contain these elements in greater or less degrees. There is not room here to go into the interesting science of this matter. It is evident, however, as we have already seen that the plants must get their food from the soil, that there are but two sources for such food: it must either be in the soil already, or we must put it there. The practice of adding plant food to the soil is what is called manuring. The only three of the chemical elements mentioned which we need consider are: nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potassium. The average soil contains large amounts of all three, but they are for the most part in forms which are not available and, therefore, to that extent, may be at once dismissed from our consideration. (The non-available plant foods already in the soil may be released or made available to some extent by cultivation. See Chapter VII.) In practically every soil that has been cultivated and cropped, in long-settled districts, the amounts of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potassium which are immediately available will be too meager to produce a good crop of vegetables. It becomes absolutely necessary then, if one would have a really successful garden, no matter how small it is, to add plant foods to the soil abundantly. When you realize, (1) that the number of plant foods containing the three essential elements is almost unlimited, (2) that each contains them in different proportions and in differing degrees of availability, (3) that the amount of the available elements already in the soil varies greatly and is practically undeterminable, and (4) that different plants, and even different varieties of the same plant, use these elements in widely differing proportions; then you begin to understand what a complex matter this 29 question of manuring is and why it is so much discussed and so little understood. What a labyrinth it offers for any writer--to say nothing of the reader--to go astray in! I have tried to present this matter clearly. If I have succeeded it may have been only to make the reader hopelessly discouraged of ever getting at anything definite in the question of enriching the soil. In that case my advice would be that, for the time being, he forget all about it. Fortunately, in the question of manuring, a little knowledge is not often a dangerous thing. Fortunately, too, your plants do not insist that you solve the food problem for them. Set a full table and they will help themselves and take the right dishes. The only thing to worry about is that of the three important foods mentioned (nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potassium) there will not be enough: for it has been proved that when any one of these is exhausted the plant practically stops growth; it will not continue to "fill up" on the other two. Of course there is such a thing as going to extremes and wasting plant foods, even if it does not, as a rule, hurt the plants. If, however, the fertilizers and manures described in the following sections are applied as directed, and as mentioned in Chapter VII., good results will be certain, provided the seed, cultivation and season are right. VARIOUS MANURES The terms "manure" and "fertilizer" are used somewhat ambiguously and interchangeably. Using the former term in a broad sense--as meaning any substance containing available plant food applied to the soil, we may say that manure is of two kinds: organic, such as stable manure, or decayed vegetable matter; and inorganic, such as potassium salts, phosphatic rock and commercial mixed fertilizers. In a general way the term "fertilizer" applies to these inorganic manures, and I shall use it in this sense through the following text. Between the organic manures, or "natural" manures as they are often called, and fertilizers there is a very important difference which should never be lost sight of. In theory, and as a chemical fact too, a bag of fertilizer may contain twice the available plant food of a ton of well rotted manure; but out of a hundred practical gardeners ninety- nine--and probably one more-would prefer the manure. There is a reason why--two reasons, even if not one of the hundred gardeners could give them to you. First, natural manures have a decided physical effect upon most soils (altogether aside from the plant food they contain); and second, plants seem to have a preference as to the form in which their food elements are served to them. Fertilizers, on the other hand, are valuable only for the plant food they contain, and sometimes have a bad effect upon the physical condition of the soil. When it comes right down to the practical question of what to put on your garden patch to grow big crops, nothing has yet been discovered that is better than the old reliable standby--well rotted, thoroughly fined stable or barnyard manure. Heed those adjectives! We have already seen that plant food which is not available might as well be, for our immediate purposes, at the North Pole. The plant food in "green" or fresh manure is not available, and does not become so until it is released by the decay of the organic matters therein. Now the time possible for growing a crop of garden vegetables is limited; in many instances it is only sixty to ninety days. The plants want 30 their food ready at once; there is no time to be lost waiting for manure to rot in the soil. That is a slow process--especially so in clayey or heavy soils. So on your garden use only manure that is well rotted and broken up. On the other hand, see that it has not "fire-fanged" or burned out, as horse manure, if piled by itself and left, is very sure to do. If you keep any animals of your own, see that the various sorts of manure --excepting poultry manure, which is so rich that it is a good plan to keep it for special purposes--are mixed together and kept in a compact, built-up square heap, not a loose pyramidal pile. Keep it under cover and where it cannot wash out. The pile should be turned from bottom to top and outside in and rebuilt, treading down firmly in the process, every month or two-applying water, but not soaking, if it has dried out in the meantime. Such manure will be worth two or three times as much, for garden purposes, as that left to burn or remain in frozen lumps. If you have to buy all your manure, get that which has been properly kept; and if you are not familiar with the condition in which it should be, get a disinterested gardener or farmer to select it for you. When possible, it will pay you to procure manure several months before you want to use it and work it over as suggested above. In buying manure keep in mind not what animals made it, but what food was fed--that is the important thing. For instance, the manure from highly-fed livery horses may be, weight for weight, worth three to five times that from cattle wintered over on poor hay, straw and a few roots. There are other organic manures which it is sometimes possible for one to procure, such as refuse brewery hops, fish scraps and sewage, but they are as a rule out of the reach of, or objectionable for, the purposes of the home gardener. There are, however, numerous things constantly going to waste about the small place, which should be converted into manure. Fallen leaves, grass clippings, vegetable tops and roots, green weeds, garbage, house slops, dish water, chip dirt from the wood-pile, shavings--any thing that will rot away, should go into the compost heap. These should be saved, under cover if possible, in a compact heap and kept moist (never soaked) to help decomposition. To start the heap, gather up every available substance and make it into a pile with a few wheelbarrows full, of fresh horse manure, treading the whole down firmly. Fermentation and decomposition will be quickly started. The heap should occasionally be forked over and restacked. Light dressings of lime, mixed in at such times, will aid thorough decomposition. Wood ashes form another valuable manure which should be carefully saved. Beside the plant food contained, they have a most excellent effect upon the mechanical condition of almost every soil. Ashes should not be put in the compost heap, because there are special uses for them, such as dusting on squash or melon vines, or using on the onion bed, which makes it desirable to keep them separate. Wood ashes may frequently be bought for fifty cents a barrel, and at this price a few barrels for the home garden will be a good investment. Coal ashes contain practically no available plant food, but are well worth saving to use on stiff soils, for paths, etc. 31 VALUE OF GREEN MANURING Another source of organic manures, altogether too little appreciated, is what is termed "green manuring"--the plowing under of growing crops to enrich the land. Even in the home garden this system should be taken advantage of whenever possible. In farm practice, clover is the most valuable crop to use for this purpose, but on account of the length of time necessary to grow it, it is useful for the vegetable garden only when there is sufficient room to have clover growing on, say, one halfacre plot, while the garden occupies, for two years, another halfacre; and then changing the two about. This system will give an ideal garden soil, especially where it is necessary to rely for the most part upon chemical fertilizers. There are, however, four crops valuable for green-manuring the garden, even where the same spot must be occupied year after year: rye, field corn, field peas (or cow peas in the south) and crimson clover. After the first of September, sow every foot of garden ground cleared of its last crop, with winter rye. Sow all ground cleared during August with crimson clover and buckwheat, and mulch the clover with rough manure after the buckwheat dies down. Sow field peas or corn on any spots that would otherwise remain unoccupied six weeks or more. All these are sown broadcast, on a freshly raked surface. Such a system will save a very large amount of plant food which otherwise would be lost, will convert unavailable plant food into available forms while you wait for the next crop, and add humus to the soil--concerning the importance of which see Chapter VII. CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS I am half tempted to omit entirely any discussion of chemical fertilizers: to give a list of them, tell how to apply them, and let the why and wherefore go. It is, however, such an important subject, and the home gardener will so frequently have to rely almost entirely upon their use, that probably it will be best to explain the subject as thoroughly as I can do it in very limited space. I shall try to give the theory of scientific chemical manuring in one paragraph. We have already seen that the soil contains within itself some available plant food. We can determine by chemical analysis the exact amounts of the various plant foods--nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potassium, etc.--which a crop of any vegetable will remove from the soil. The idea in scientific chemical manuring is to add to the available plant foods already in the soil just enough more to make the resulting amounts equal to the quantities of the various elements used by the crop grown. In other words: Available plant food elements in the soil, plus available chemical food elements supplied in fertilizers equals amounts of food elements in matured crop. That was the theory--a very pretty and profound one! The discoverers of it imagined that all agriculture would be revolutionized; all farm and garden practice reduced to an exact science; all older theories of husbandry and tillage thrown by the heels together upon the scrap heap of 32 outworn things. Science was to solve at one fell swoop all the age- old problems of agriculture. And the whole thing was all right in every way but one--it didn't work. The unwelcome and obdurate fact remained that a certain number of pounds of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potassium--about thirty-three--in a ton of good manure would grow bigger crops than would the same number of pounds of the same elements in a bag of chemical fertilizer. Nevertheless this theory, while it failed as the basis of an exact agricultural science, has been developed into an invaluable guide for using all manures, and especially concentrated chemical manures. And the above facts, if I have presented them clearly, will assist the home gardener in solving the fertilizer problems which he is sure to encounter. VARIOUS FERTILIZERS What are termed the raw materials from which the universally known "mixed fertilizers" are made up, are organic or inorganic substances which contain nitrogen, phosphoric acid or potassium in fairly definite amounts. Some of these can be used to advantage by themselves. Those practical for use by the home gardener, I mention. The special uses to which they are adapted will be mentioned in Part Two, under the vegetables for which they are valuable. GROUND BONE is rich in phosphate and lasts a long time; what is called "raw bone" is the best "Bone dust" or "bone flour" is finely pulverized; it will produce quick results, but does not last as long as the coarser forms. COTTON-SEED MEAL is one of the best nitrogenous fertilizers for garden crops. It is safer than nitrate of soda in the hands of the inexperienced gardener, and decays very quickly in the soil. NITRATE OF SODA, when properly handled, frequently produces wonderful results in the garden, particularly upon quick-growing crops. It is the richest in nitrogen of any chemical generally used, and a great stimulant to plant growth. When used alone it is safest to mix with an equal bulk of light dirt or some other filler. If applied pure, be sure to observe the following rules or you may burn your plants: (1) Pulverize all lumps; (2) see that none of it lodges upon the foliage; (3) never apply when there is moisture upon the plants; (4) apply in many small doses--say 10 to 20 pounds at a time for 50 x 100 feet of garden. It should be put on so sparingly as to be barely visible; but its presence will soon be denoted by the moist spot, looking like a big rain drop, which each particle of it makes in the dry soil. Nitrate of soda may also be used safely in solution, at the rate of 1 pound to 12 gallons of water. I describe its use thus at length because I consider it the most valuable single chemical which the gardener has at command. MURIATE and SULPHATE OF potassium are also used by themselves as sources of potassium, but as a general thing it will be best to use them in combination with other chemicals as described under "Home Mixing." LIME will be of benefit to most soils. It acts largely as an indirect fertilizer, helping to release other food elements already in the soil, but in non-available 33 forms. It should be applied once in three to five years, at the rate of 75 to 100 bushels per acre, after plowing, and thoroughly tilled in. Apply as long before planting as possible, or in the fall. MIXED FERTILIZERS Mixed fertilizers are of innumerable brands, and for sale everywhere. It is little use to pay attention to the claims made for them. Even where the analysis is guaranteed, the ordinary gardener has no way of knowing that the contents of his few bags are what they are labeled. The best you can do, however, is to buy on the basis of analysis, not of price per ton-usually the more you pay per bag, the cheaper you are really buying your actual plant food. Send to the local Cooperative Extension Service in your State and ask for the last bulletin on fertilizer values. It will give a list of the brands sold throughout the State, the retail price per ton, and the actual value of plant foods contained in a ton. Then buy the brand in which you will apparently get the greatest value. For garden crops the mixed fertilizer you use should contain (about): Nitrogen, 4 per cent. (Basic formula Phosphoric acid, 8 per cent. = for potassium, 10 per cent. Garden crops) If applied alone, use at the rate of 1000 to 1500 pounds per acre. If with manure, less, in proportion to the amount of the latter used. By "basic formula" (see above) is meant one which contains the plant foods in the proportion which all garden crops must have. Particular crops may need additional amounts of one or more of the three elements, in order to attain their maximum growth. Such extra feeding is usually supplied by top dressings, during the season of growth. The extra food beneficial to the different vegetables will be mentioned in the cultural directions in Part Two. HOME MIXING If you look over the local Cooperative Extension Service report mentioned above, you will notice that what are called "home mixtures" almost invariably show a higher value compared to the cost than any regular brand. In some cases the difference is fifty per cent. This means that you can buy the raw chemicals and make up your own mixtures cheaper than you can buy mixed fertilizers. More than that, it means you will have purer mixtures. More than that, it means you will have on hand the materials for giving your crops the special feeding mentioned above. The idea widely prevails, thanks largely to the fertilizer companies, that home mixing cannot be practically done, especially upon a small scale. From both information and personal experience I know the contrary to be the case. With a tight floor or platform, a square-pointed shovel and a coarse wire screen, there is absolutely nothing impractical about it. The important thing is to see that all ingredients are evenly and thoroughly mixed. A scale for weighing will also be a convenience. Further information may be had from the firms which sell raw materials,or from your local Cooperative Extension Service. 34 APPLYING MANURES The matter of properly applying manure, even on the small garden, is also of importance. An amount of 40-50 whelbarrows full will not be too much; although if fertilizers are used to help out, the manure may be decreased in proportion. If possible, take it from the heap in which it has been rotting, and spread evenly over the soil immediately before plowing. If actively fermenting, it will lose by being exposed to wind and sun. If green, or in cold weather, it may be spread and left until plowing is done. When plowing, it should be completely covered under, or it will give all kinds of trouble in sowing and cultivating. Fertilizers should be applied, where used to supplement manure or in place of it, at from 500 to 1500 pounds per acre, according to grade and other conditions. It is sown on broadcast, after plowing, care being taken to get it evenly distributed. This may be assured by sowing half while going across the piece, and the other half while going lengthwise of it. When used as a starter, or for top dressings--as mentioned in connection with the basic formula--it may be put in the hill or row at time of planting, or applied on the surface and worked in during the growth of the plants. In either case, especially with highly concentrated chemicals, care must be taken to mix them thoroughly with the soil and to avoid burning the tender roots. MULCHING Mulching enriches and protects soil, helping to provide a better growing environment. In your backyard Mulching is one of the simplest and most beneficial practices you can use in the garden. Mulch is simply a protective layer of a material that is spread on top of the soil. Mulches can either be organic--such as grass clippings, straw, bark chips, and similar materials--or inorganic-- such as stones, brick chips, and plastic. Both organic and inorganic mulches have numerous benefits. Mulching benefits include: • • • • • • • • protects the soil from erosion reduces compaction from the impact of heavy rains conserves moisture, reducing the need for frequent waterings maintains a more even soil temperature prevents weed growth keeps fruits and vegetables clean keeps feet clean, allowing access to garden even when damp provides a "finished" look to the garden Organic mulches also improve the condition of the soil. As these mulches slowly decompose, they provide organic matter which helps keep the soil loose. This improves root 35 growth, increases the infiltration of water, and also improves the water-holding capacity of the soil. Organic matter is a source of plant nutrients and provides an ideal environment for earthworms and other beneficial soil organisms. Another great thing about mulch--You can find mulch materials in your own yard! Lawn clippings make excellent mulch. They will work wonderfully in the vegetable garden. The fine texture allows them to be spread easily even around small plants. However, grass clippings are becoming scarce because of the increased popularity of mulching lawnmowers that provide many of the same benefits of mulching to lawns. Newspaper, as a mulch, works especially well to control weeds. Leaves are another readily available material to use as mulch. Leaf mold, or the decomposed remains of leaves, gives the forest floor its absorbent spongy structure. Compost makes a wonderful mulch if you have a large supply. Compost not only improves the soil structure but provides an excellent source of plant nutrients. Bark chips and composted bark mulch are available at garden centers. These make a neat finish to the garden bed and will eventually improve the condition of the soil. These may last for one to three years or more depending on the size of the chips or how well composed the bark mulch is. Smaller chips tend to be easier to spread, especially around small plants. Depending on where you live, numerous other materials make excellent mulches. Hay and straw work well in the vegetable garden, although they may harbor weed seeds. Seaweed mulch, ground corn cobs, and pine needles can also be used. Pine needles tend to increase the acidity of the soil so they work best around acid-loving plants such as blueberries. WHEN TO APPLY MULCH Time of application depends on what you hope to achieve by mulching. Mulches, by providing an insulating barrier between the soil and the air, moderate the soil temperature. This means that a mulched soil in the summer will be cooler than an adjacent unmulched soil; while in the winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply. However, since mulch acts as an insulating layer, mulched soils tend to warm up more slowly in the spring and cool down more slowly in the fall than unmulched soils. If you are using mulches in your vegetable garden , it is best to apply them after the soil has warmed up in the spring. Cool, wet soils tend to slow seed germination and increase the decay of seeds and seedlings. Mulches used to help moderate winter temperatures can be applied late in the fall after the ground has frozen but before the coldest temperatures arrive. Applying mulches before the ground has frozen may attract rodents looking for a warm over-winter site. Delayed applications of mulch should prevent this problem as, hopefully, the creatures would already have found some other place to nest. Mulches used to protect 36 plants over winter should be loose material such as straw, hay, or pine boughs that will help insulate the plants without compacting under the weight of snow and ice. One of the benefits from winter applications of mulch is the reduction in the freezing and thawing of the soil in the late winter and early spring. These repeated cycles of freezing at night and then thawing in the warmth of the sun cause many small or shallow rooted plants to be heaved out of the soil. This leaves their root systems exposed and results in injury or death. Mulching helps prevent rapid fluctuations in soil temperature and reduces the chances of heaving. APPLYING MULCH You should begin by asking yourself the following questions. a. What do I hope to achieve by mulching? Weed control? Moisture retention? Soil improvement? Beautification? b. How large is the area to be mulched? c. How much mulch will I need to cover the area? Mulch is measured in cubic feet. As an example, if you have an area 10 feet by 10 feet and you wish to apply 3 inches of mulch, you would need 25 cubic feet. (10' x 10' x .25' = 25 cu. ft.) Next you need to determine what mulch material to use and purchase or accumulate what you need. Mulch can often be purchased bagged or bulk from garden centers. Bulk may be cheaper if you need large volumes and have a way to haul it. Bagged mulch is often easier to handle, especially for smaller projects. Most bagged mulch comes in 3-cubic feet bags. COMPOST Refer to the section on composting for information on how to make your own compost. LEAVES Collect leaves in the fall. Chop them up with a lawnmower or shredder. Whole leaves tend to compact if wet or blow away if dry. Chopping will reduce the volume and facilitate composting. Compost leaves over winter. Some studies have indicated that freshly chopped leaves may inhibit the growth of certain crops. Therefore, it may be advisable to compost the leaves over winter before spreading them. GRASS CLIPPINGS 37 Spread grass clippings immediately to avoid heating and rotting. Use only newspaper text pages (black ink); color dyes may be harmful to soil microflora and fauna if composted and used. Use 3 or 4 sheets together, anchored with grass clippings or other mulch material to prevent them from blowing away. The amount of mulch to apply will be determined by the mulch material you are using. The general guidelines are: Do not apply mulch directly in contact with plants. Leave an inch or so of space next to plants to help prevent diseases flourishing from excessive humidity. Remove weeds before spreading mulch. Bark mulch and wood chips are sometimes used with landscape fabric or plastic. The fabric or plastic is laid on top of the soil and then covered with a layer of bark chips. One caution to this practice: while the plastic or fabric may initially provide additional protection against weeds, as the mulch breaks down,weeds will start to grow in the mulch itself. The barrier between the soil and the mulch also prevents any improvement in the soil condition and makes planting additional plants more difficult. A great source for mulch may be your local community. They may have wood chips from the removal of street trees that are available free to residents. This chapter is longer than I wanted to make it, but the problem of how best to enrich the soil is the most difficult one in the whole business of gardening, and the degree of your success in growing vegetables will be measured pretty much by the extent to which you master it. You cannot do it at one reading. Re-read this chapter, and when you understand the several subjects mentioned, in the brief way which limited space made necessary, pursue them farther in one of the several comprehensive books on the subject. It will well repay all the time you spend upon it. Because, from necessity, there has been so much of theory mixed up with the practical in this chapter, I shall very briefly recapitulate the directions for just what to do, in order that the subject of manuring may be left upon the same practical basis governing the rest of the book. To make your garden rich enough to grow big crops, buy the most thoroughly worked over and decomposed manure you can find. If it is from grain-fed animals, and if pigs have run on it, it will be better yet. If possible, buy enough to put on at the rate of about twenty cords to the acre; if not, 38 supplement the manure, which should be plowed under, with 500 to 1500 pounds of highgrade mixed fertilizer (analyzing nitrogen four per cent., phosphoric acid eight per cent., potassium ten per cent.)--the quantity in proportion to the amount of manure used, and spread on broadcast after plowing and thoroughly tilled in. In addition to this general enrichment of the soil, suitable quantities of nitrate of soda, for nitrogen; bone dust (or acid phosphate), for phosphoric acid; and sulphate of potassium, for potassium, should be bought for later dressings, as suggested in cultural directions for the various crops. If the instructions in the above paragraph are followed out you may rest assured that your vegetables will not want for plant food and that, if other conditions are favorable, you will have maximum crops. 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142