92 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



April, 191 I 



How to Grow^ Eighty-Tw^o Varieties of Vege- 

 tables on a Small Lot 



George BiUdwin, Toronto 



T 



O begin with, the writer is purely and with very little time on his hands 

 an amateur with four years' ex- for gardening, which has to be done be- 

 perience with city back gardens fore seven a.m., and after six p.m. 



Plan of Garden Twenty-Seven Feet Wide by Eighty-Six Feet Long 



However, the principal thing to do is 

 to go at it with a will. The first thing 

 to do is in the winter when you have 

 more spare time, make a plan of your 

 garden, marking down what you intend 

 to grow (as is shown in the accompany- 

 ing sketch). Then along about Janu- 

 ary or February, get a seed catalogue 

 from the firm you intend to buy from, 

 and I want to say right here that my 

 experience with local seedsmen is that 

 you can rely with safety on any one of 

 them . It is all right once in a while 

 to try .some of the novelties which U.S. 

 seedsmen offer, but patronize local firms 

 for the hulk of your seeds and you will 

 not go far astray. 



After you have procured your seeds, 

 look over your plan again and see which 

 .seeds need to be started in heat, and 

 about the first or second week in March 

 prepare your hotbed or greenhouse, and 

 sow the following seeds : Cabbage — 

 Family, Kohl Rabi, Peppers, Egg- 

 plants, Tomatoes, all varieties. Lettuce, 

 Onions, all varieties, but pickling; 

 Greenhou.se Cucumbers, Celery, Musk 

 Melons, and Citron. 



SOWING THE SEEDS 



If you use a hotbed, sow seeds right 

 in the bed, rows three inches apart ; if 

 in greenhouse, sow in seed pans and 

 keep as close to the glass as possible, 

 to keep the seedlings from getting leg- 

 gy . Put in lots of seed, because it is 

 easy enough to thin out, but do not 

 plant seeds deeply. The writer uses a 

 smooth piece of wood four inches long, 

 three inches wide, and one inch thick. 

 .Sprinkle the seeds in a line or broad- 

 cast, and press them into the soil with 

 the wooden block, and then sprinkle a 

 very thin layer of silver or fine sand 

 over the top, barely covering the seeds ; 

 then pat the sand down lightly with the 

 wooden block, dampen with a very fine 

 spray or rose, cover with paper or glass 

 to keep moist, keeping the glass sup- 

 ported by litle sticks about an inch from 

 the soil. 



Do not let the seeds dry out or be 

 sodden. Watch continually, and as 

 soon as the second or third leaf of the 

 .seedling appears, transplant to berry 

 baskets, about six to a basket, and keep 

 them growing right along, until time 

 to put them out in the garden, keep- 

 ing down weed growth, stirring the 

 soil, watering and airing on warm days, 

 by opening windows in the greenhouse 

 or raising sash of hotbed. 



Along about this time, the frost 

 should be getting out of the ground, 

 enabling you to start your digging. Of 

 course the garden should have been 

 manured and dug roughly in the fall. 

 If this was not done do the next best 

 thing, by getting some rotten manure 

 and digging it in deeply and levelling 

 the surface ready for planting out be- 

 tween the 24th and 31st of May. 



