86 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN, 



June nothing whatever was purchased in the way of 

 vegetables for many weeks, and had late potatoes 

 been planted, the garden would have carried the 

 house till December. 



The labor spent through the sumrr.er was very 

 light. Spreading the fertilizer, transplanting and 

 raking over the soil to keep down the weeds, made 

 the whole of the work, and none of it took over two 

 hours on any one day. The crops were gathered 

 every day, just before or after breakfast, and took 

 only a few moments, when a little turn in the fresh 

 air was more a pleasure than a task. The system of 

 overlapping crops already described worked perfectly. 

 On a plot 6xio feet I planted Savoy-leaved spinach, 

 and when well up set out very close together between 

 the rows three dozen early Jersey cabbages. Six 

 pecks of spinach were taken off the plot, the two first 

 pickings being "thinnings." The spinach com- 

 pletely covered the ground and yet it was all 

 cleared off before it interfered with the young 

 cabbage plants. The final picking was like a 

 transformation scene, the dark green of the 

 spinach bed being in a few moments changed to the 

 pale green of a cabbage patch. On another part of 

 my grounds I planted spinach in long rows, and as 

 soon as the plants appeared set rows of cauliflowers 

 between the rows. The spinach was gathered as 

 soon as the plants began to touch the cauliflowers. 

 In another place a row of early cabbages was set out 

 and on the same day spinach seed was planted be- 

 tween each plant. The spinach came up and was 

 gathered before it troubled the cabbages. By using 

 the spinach when about half grown I had an excellent 

 crop of early greens on the same ground occupied 

 by other plants. Afterwards, as the cabbages were 

 removed, late sweet corn was planted, so that 



