Summer Care of the Home Vegetable Garden 



1989 



In order to obtain the best results, cultivation should be^in just as soon 

 as the seeds arc sown or the plants transplanted. Since practically all 

 vegetables are shallow rooted, they should be cultivated from one-half to 

 one inch deep. Some gardeners cultivate deeply at first, from two to 

 three inches, and, as the crop grows, gradually decrease the depth. Other 

 gardeners cultivate deeply, at first the entire width between rows, but 

 gradually limit the area of deep cultivation to the center of the space 



WATER TABLE 



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WATER TABLE 



Fig. 158. — Level culture is preferred nowadays 



between rows as the plants increase in size. As a n,dc, deep cultivation 

 is to be discouraged ; it is nothing more than tilling poorly prepared land. 

 The soil should be properly prepared before the garden is planted; then 

 there will be no excuse for deep cultivation. 



Conservation of moisture is easier and more efficient where level cultiva- 

 tion is practiced because the exposed surface of the soil is not so great 

 as when the jjlants are hilled (Fig. 158). To make hills requires more 

 labor, which in turn costs more in money or effort. There is also a loss 

 caused by severing the roots of the plant. The last j^oint is of great 

 importance if the gardener has not plowed the soil deeper than from four 

 t*) five inches, because hilling will rob the roots of their feeding ground. 



TOOLS for cultivation 



There is a great variety of tools adaptable to the work of cultivating 

 gardens. Efficiency depends in a larger measure on the character of the 

 tools selected and on -the skill of the operator in managing them. A gar- 



