Growing Early Vegetables in the Home Garden 



A. V. Main, 



IT is a great privilege to have a garden 

 and in return we should make the 

 most of it. Whether it be a working 

 man's garden, a private garden or a 

 market garden, earliness in vegetables 

 is appreciated. In this article, we shall 

 discuss the early crops outdoors and not 

 the vegetables produced under glass. 



PEAS 



For early peas, commence the work 

 the last week of March. Select an early 

 variety, such as American Wonder or 

 Steele, Briggs' Best Early Extra. Fill 

 two or three dozen four-inch pots half 

 full with light soil, placing first some • 

 rough leaves in the bottom of the pot. 

 Sow eight or ten seeds in each pot and 

 cover with soil within half an inch of the 

 rim of the pot. Place a label in one of 

 the pots stating the variety and when 

 sown. Give a good watering with a 

 watering-can having a fine rose sprink- 

 ler. If a hotbed is not available, place 

 the pots in a warm sunny window. 



When the plants sprout and commence 

 to grow, keep the soil moist and give 

 them plenty of light and air on favorable 

 days. Keep the little plants stocky and 

 strong. If the weather is good towards 

 the end of April, remove the pots to a 

 sheltered nook outdoors. Several degrees 

 of frost will do no harm. 



When the frost is out of the ground 

 and the soil is dry enough, select a sunny 

 sheltered aspect of the garden for plant- 

 ing. Plant each potful by itself and place 

 them fifteen inches apart in the row. 

 Procure some small branches, preferably 

 dead spruce, and insert them on either 

 side of the peas both for protection and 

 support. With a small quantity of peas, 

 it is a great assistance to support them 

 with branches, or wire netting. Even 

 the small market grower can practise 

 supporting the vines with profit; the 

 peas ripen earlier, they are easier to 

 pick, are much cleaner and yield a bigger 

 ^rop ; it does not involve much labor. 

 Instead of using pots for sowing, 

 ^her substitutes can be employed, such 

 sowing on sods or starting the seeds 

 strawberry boxes or in V-shaped 

 3xes. The latter method is excellent. 

 Jse two long four-inch boards and tie 

 fiem together here and there with binder 

 ifine and drive a nail (only half way) in 

 very three feet of the box. We have 

 sed this method with boxes nine feet 

 'fong. When planting, the boards will 

 asily sever partnership on the removal 

 of the twine and nails and the roots will 

 be left intact. By following this method 

 of culture, I was able to have good filled 

 peas on the loth of June last year. 



POTATOES 



To have early potatoes, choose a relia- 

 ble early sort that does well in your 



Gardener to B. Rosamond, Esq., Almonte, 



locality. About the end of March, look 

 up your seed tubers, for if you want a 

 dish of potatoes on the 15th of June, you 

 must have them moving. First of all, 

 procure shallow boxes. These can be 

 easily made. No amateur gardener 

 should be without several of these boxes, 

 in accordance to his requirements, to 

 raise seeds, tomato plants, asters and all 

 his many other garden favorites. It is a 

 great assistance to forward a host of 

 subjects under cover in spring, to achieve 

 earliness and to get the worth of a gar- 

 den. For instance, we might dig pota- 

 toes while the man in no hurry would 

 only be planting. The boxes in question 

 can be four inches deep, two feet long 

 and fifteen inches wide, a convenient 

 size for gardening purposes. The bottom 

 of the box should have the seams be- 

 tween the boards half an inch in size to 

 allow an outlet for water. 



Fill these boxes with decayed manure 

 or leaves half an inch in depth. Medium- 

 sized potatoes are best without any cut- 

 ting. Pack these into the box, keeping 

 the end with the eyes or buds uppermost. 

 Keep the leaves moist and set the box in 

 a warm room, near the light. Strong 

 heat is not conducive to sturdiness ; a 

 little above freezing point is excellent. 

 As the growths push up, we thin them to 

 two strong shoots on each potato. En- 

 deavor to have short stubby growth by 

 exposing to a cooler position. 



When the conditions outside are allow- 

 able, plant in your warmest corner of the 

 garden. Draw out furrows in rows, 

 about six inches deep and two feet apart. 

 Take out your seed potatoes carefully, 

 with all the leaves and roots attached. 

 Put one tuber only every twelve inches 

 and cover with finely broken soil. A 

 dressing of wood ashes over the tubers 

 is beneficial if at hand. Spruce branches 

 are a splendid protection from frost at 

 night or an inverted flower pot or empty 

 box. When the stems are sufficiently 

 high, draw up the earth to them on either 

 side, not necessarily into hills. In what- 

 ever locality you may be, the adoption of 

 this method will bring potatoes a fort- 

 night or three weeks earlier. Frost may 

 scare you, but one must risk a little to 

 gain anything. 



TOMATOES 



The best early tomato is Earliana. Sow 

 the seed from March loth to 20th in 

 finely sifted soil in small boxes. A hot- 

 bed or a well heated greenhouse is better, 

 but not always available. When trans- 

 fering the seedlings to a larger box for 

 more space, use care in handling them. 

 A maxim in Tomato culture worth rem- 

 embering is "Keep the foliage dry and 

 the roots moist." Prepare a compost 

 of loam, decayed manure and sand, thor- 



S5 



Ontario 



oughly mixed. By May ist the plants 

 should be strong and ready for re-potting 

 into four-inch pots. Pot fairly firmly and 

 shade the plants for three or four days. 

 Good supplies of water will be required 

 by each pot, whether placed under glass 

 or in the window. Do not put the plants 

 outdoors too soon, allow the pots to get 

 full of roots first. I like also to see the 

 first truss of bloom out; May 25th is 

 generally safe. 



It is now that the use of pots gives us 

 a start in the race for early tomatoes. 

 The roots are not broken. We can plant 

 on a sunny day and the plants get no 

 check. Those grown in boxes come out 

 injured and the sun is their torment for 

 some days. 



My method is to plant, two and a half 

 feet apart each way, on light soil, not 

 manured. Procure stout stakes five feet 

 long and drive them in on the north side 

 of each plant and secure the plant to this 

 with soft twine. Only allow the main 

 leader to grow up. Almost every week 

 rub out the shoots that spring from the 

 base of each leaf and when the fruit is 

 swelling, it will do no harm to shorten 

 the leaves with a knife. The air and 

 sun must be admitted in unlimited quan- 

 tities. At this stage, a good mulching 

 of manure is spread all around the 

 plants. Every shower will wash in this 

 surface feeding. Supply the plants with 

 plenty of water. 



By judicious disbudding, tying up the 

 plants, hoeing and surface manuring, one 

 can easily obtain fine fruits by the end of 

 July. The secret lies in growing the 

 plants in pots, firstly, and in training 

 the vines to a single stem. 



While directing attention to the grow- 

 er of a small garden, the application of 

 the methods suggested in the foregoing 

 notes would be profitable also to market 

 growers on a large scale. In subsequent 

 issues of The Canadian Horticulturist 

 other vegetables will be dealt with. 



Mushrooms 



Can a man who is located 200 miles from 

 market make money out of mushrooms in 

 winter.'— N. C, Temiscouata Co., Que. 



If all other conditions are favorable, 

 I do not think that a distance of 200 

 miles from market should trouble a 

 mushroom grower very much. In order 

 to be profitable, the crop should whole- 

 sale in winter for at least 50 cents a 

 pound ; at this price, the express rates 

 would not be proportionately heavy. 

 A more serious problem would be an 

 easily available supply of suitable manure 

 for making the beds. If that is 200 

 miles away the chances of financial 

 success are small. — Thos. Delworth, 

 Weston, Ont. 



