Planning the Garden 95 
from the paths, for all parts of the bed are within easy 
reach. Walking in the beds among the plants is thus 
avoided; therefore the soil is not compacted by tram- 
pling and it remains much more uniformly loose. When 
the seeds are planted, one should use a board to walk on. 
At planting time the beds should be level with the 
paths or only slightly rounded above. Walking in the 
paths soon makes them lower than the beds, and then 
water will run through them. If the garden is poorly 
drained, the paths may be arranged to lead to a shallow 
ditch, dug along one side of the garden so as to lead to 
lower levels. Excess water is thus carried away after 
each rain. The garden shown in Figure 55 was laid out 
in beds chiefly because it needed the drainage that the 
paths gave. 
Special points to plan for. In planning a vegetable 
garden, one should have especially the three following 
aims in mind: 
(x) To grow different sorts of vegetables which give 
pleasing variety and a continued and adequate supply 
of vegetables for the table. 
(2) To avoid overplanting of any one crop at one time. 
(3) To keep the soil fully occupied and busy in pro- 
ducing crops. 
What is meant by these three aims and how the 
gardener may plan for them will now be discussed briefly. 
Planting for variety. The home gardener grows at 
least several kinds of vegetables. Such standard vege- 
tables as corn, beans, cabbage, and tomatoes are all 
quite different in the food products that they yield, 
in their appeal to the taste, in their uses, and in the time 
