24 GROW YOUR OWN VEGETABLES 



considerations we will devote our attentions to the 

 twenty by seven sections, this being the more prefer- 

 able shape. 



You must now decide what plants you intend growing. 

 Of course you will want some rhubarb and a few herbs. 

 If there is an odd corner to the ground, reserve it for these 

 useful and necessary articles ; if not, cut off a six foot 

 strip from the regular plot and plant them there when 

 the proper time comes. This little patch is decided upon 

 at the outset as it will remain where it is for many 

 seasons and will not enter into the scheme of rotation 

 which is explained below. 



Remembering the potato crisis of the winter of 1916-7 

 you may feel inclined to plant the whole of your remain- 

 ing ground with these useful tubers and so get a really 

 good supply. No doubt you would obtain enough to 

 satisfy your wants at the end of this season but you 

 would not be able to grow a satisfactory crop of them 

 next year or the year after, and all allotment holders 

 must look, at least, two years ahead. Nearly every 

 plant, it may be well to state, takes properties out of the 

 soil peculiar to itself ; if you plant potatoes this year, 

 the special requirements of potatoes have almost dis- 

 appeared from the ground at the end of the first season. 

 The second season, the special requirements are only 

 sufficient to rear a poor crop and in the third year they 

 may be entirely absent, and so you get no crop at all. 

 But the special requirements of other plants are still 

 present in the ground and the soil will be capable of 

 growing good crops of them although it failed you with 

 potatoes. The upshot of all this is that, as a general 



