children's home gardens. 233 



My Home Garden at Hamilton. 



BY ARTHUR F. RICHARDSON, NINTH GRADE, COBBETT SCHOOL, LYNN. 



Second Prize, 1905. 



Last spring, on April 19, my father bought a cottage in the country. 



The first thing I did was to try to rid the long narrow strip we were to 

 use as a garden of witch grass and stones. After hiring a man to plough, 

 harrow, and furrow, I took the tufts that had been thrown one side, 

 shook all the soil out, buried some deep and some I carried to another 

 part of the grounds, leaving them upturned to rot. My father bought 

 me a quarter of a cord of old stable manure which I put in each row or 

 hill just before planting. Over this put a little soil, the seeds, more 

 soil, and almost at the top, a little dry fertilizer. 



About half way, I dug a trench taking out all the loam and gravel 

 about three feet down, filled up the trench with the verj- numerous stones 

 I took out, sifted ashes in between, and brought several wheelbarrow 

 loads of gravel from a pit near by; making a fine solid walk through the 

 centre of the garden. 



May 1 I planted one row of low growing Excelsior peas that had been 

 soaked an hour, using a line with a stick at either end so that the row 

 would be straight. The following Saturday some were up, but not 

 finding them thick enough to suit me I pushed down some more peas- 

 in the same row. Also planted lettuce, cucumbers. Black Wax, and 

 Six Weeks beans. 



I enriched and raked a long bed for the school flower seeds, beets, and 

 lettuce. This bed I made very fine, working in the manure and fertilizer 

 with my hands. Planted the seeds in short rows the width of a board 

 apart. The board I also used to make my rows straight. Directly in 

 front of the pump I planted sweet peas so that they might catch all the 

 waste water. Several times during the summer I dug in wood ashes about 

 the roots, producing a great quantity of flowers. 



The beets, kohlrabi, and four kinds of tomato plants were given me. 

 I was careful to dip their roots in water before transplanting using only 

 the drj^ fertilizer for the tomatoes which I set about a foot and a half apart. 

 I did not support them except with a hay mulch after the fruit began to 

 turn. Some one suggested planting squashes in the center of each hill in 

 the first row of corn, as there was a large empty field for them to run in. 

 This proved wise, for we matured and ripened nineteen handsome squashes 

 as well as had the usual amount of corn in that row. 



I continued planting and hoeing for several Saturdays. It being my 

 first garden I was determined no weeds should hurt the looks or take the 



