ABC of Vegetable Gardening

The amateur gardener will almost invariably be in too great a hurry to begin gardening operations in the spring. But a few warm days are not sufficient to put the ground in proper condition for seeding, or even for plowing and spading. The frost must be allowed to get out of it, and after that an opportunity must be given for surplus water from melting snows and spring rains to drain away before work can be done to any advantage. As a general thing not much can be done in gardening at the North before the first of May.

It is an old saying that "haste makes waste," and the gardener who is in too great a hurry often learns the truth which underlies the saying by the failure to germinate of the seed he puts into the ground very early in the season.

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

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

The first thing to do in making a garden is to plow or spade it. Plowing is not admissible on small grounds, but where there is room enough to allow a team and plow to operate I would advise it in preference to spading, because it will save a good deal of hard work, and greatly expedite matters. Before plowing some system of manuring should be decided on, as whatever fertilizer is used should be worked well into the soil, and this the plow can do most effectively. Barn-yard manure, if old and well rotted, is better than anything else I have any knowledge of for all kinds of vegetables, but unfortunately it is seldom obtainable by those who do not live in the country. There are many commercial fertilizers on the market, but not all kinds of them are adapted to all kinds of soil. In order to secure the best results it is advisable that the amateur gardener should consult some dealer in these fertilizers in his immediate vicinity, or some one who has had personal experience in their use, with a view to making sure that he is getting just the kind best adapted to the soil in his garden. It is absolutely necessary that he should do this, in fact, for if he buys at random he runs the risk of getting something that will fail to answer his purpose.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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There will be little "laying out" to do in the small garden. Here the chief aim will be to make use of every available bit of soil; the beds will be narrow, and the paths between them will be just wide enough to walk in, and these will be the only portions of the ground in which something is not grown. Not much chance for planning, you see.

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

If a garden-cultivator is used-and this should be done whenever possible-plan for rows that will enable you to run it the entire length of the garden without turning. Beds are no longer in favor with gardeners who aim to reduce the work to be done to the minimum, for in them the cultivator cannot be used to advantage, and weeding cannot be done with the facility which characterizes row-planting, nor can the hoe be used as effectively. There is really no argument that can be advanced in favor of the old bedding system for gardens in which we propose to use labor-saving implements.

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

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

If the garden-cultivator is to be used, leave a space about eighteen inches wide between the rows to work in. This implement can be adjusted to fit any width desired. Its teeth can be set to throw the soil toward a plant or away from it. It can be made to do deep or shallow work, as the case may require. As a general thing, after a plant has attained some size we throw the soil toward it. If the teeth are set to do this we go down one side of the row and back on the other, thus throwing the soil about the plant alike on both sides.

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

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

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

But most of the seed of garden vegetables is not fine enough to admit of this method of planting. If a seed-sower is not used, little furrows should be made by drawing a stick through the soil, into which the seed should be dropped as evenly as possible. It should then be covered lightly and the soil should be pressed down with the hoe to make it comparatively firm. The probabilities are that many more plants will come up than it is advisable to let grow. These surplus seedlings should be removed from the rows as soon as the plants get a good start.

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

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

Among almost all vegetables there are early, medium, and late varieties. Some of each of these should be planted in all gardens of a size to warrant so doing. In the small garden I would advise the choice of the later varieties, as these are almost without exception superior in flavor to the earlier kinds, which are grown more on account of earliness than quality.

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