APRIL 15, 1914 



MIGM^P 



OUR FLORIDA GARDEN, ETC., MARCH 2, 1914, 



1 am glad to give you some glimpses of 

 the best garden we have ever had in Florida, 

 and, in some respects, the best garden we 

 ever had anywhere; and I have always had 

 a garden of some kind since my good moth- 

 er (bless her memory) taught me to love 

 gardens seventy years ago. I have only 

 recently learned that here in sandy Florida 

 we need not only tile drains but surface 

 drains also ; and in pictures 1 and 2 yon 

 will notice between every four or five rows 

 of stuff there are deep wide paths that not 

 only serve as walks, but that carry off the 

 water when it rains so there is a surplus 

 Now, tliis isn't all. At the lower right-hand 

 corner of No. 2 you see a bed of potatoes. 

 Well, Wesley has been gradually " learning' 

 the trade" of turning under large amounts 

 of green stuff"; and Avhen the bed was made, 

 there was a swamp of gallberry, grapevines, 

 hlackbeny, Bermuda grass, etc., about as 

 high as one's head; and when I asked if he 

 could get it all under he replied : 



"Yes, sir; if you say so, under it goes;'' 

 and in due time it was all out of sight, and 



315 



AKDENING 



the mellow soil raked over smooth, rounding 

 up higher in the middle of the bed. Perhaps 

 1 should add this " thicket " had been a 

 favorite spot for the chickens for several 

 years, especially when the sun was hot, as 

 it was cool and shady, and no hawk could 

 follow them into this shady retreat. I con- 

 fess that when the potatoes were planted it 

 was with some misgivings ; but when they 

 came up so promptly and were "knee high," 

 in about four weeks it was one of my 

 " happy surprises." On the left uj^per cor- 

 ner of cut No. 3 you will see some potatoes 

 at about six weeks from planting. They 

 are the Red Triumphs, and there are al- 

 ready potatoes as big as a goose egg, burst- 

 ing up under those gi'eat perfect leaves as 

 large as one's hand. This winter, the fact 

 we have had all the rain one could ask for. 

 is perhaps one reason why burying so much 

 green trash has been such a success.* 



Let me digress right here to announce 

 another of my " big discoveries." We get 



* After Ernest took the three hills of potatoes, I 

 dug one of the best hills and got 16 fair-sized pota- 

 toes, some quite large, and the hill was green and 

 still growing. 



Fig. 2. — A glimpse of our Florida garden taken from the east. A. I. R. was anxious to get this picture 

 looking toward the west because it shows his dasheen and his potato-vines a little better. He is seen with 

 the hoe among his dasheen on the left. The potatoes are shown on the right. Speaking about the "hoe," 

 A. I, would rather "play" with that than any gun, camera, fishing-rod, or ball-bat or any thing else in the 

 world. He is never happier than when in his garden " playing " with his plants. — E. R. R. 



