THE HOME GARDEN PROJECT 307 



no time should be lost. Promptness in planting is an exceedingly 

 important factor in garden making. Because of late plantings, 

 thousands of families do not have vegetables from their own 

 gardens as early as they should. 



13. Ctiltivating. — Clean tillage is one of the secrets of a suc- 

 cessful garden. As previously indicated (W : 68)- it conserves soil 

 moisture besides serving several other very useful purposes. The 

 wheel hoe should be used as often as necessary to keep the surface 

 of the soil fine and loose. 



1. How soon should the garden be cultivated after a heavy rain ? 



2. How deep do you think your garden should be cultivated ? 



3. How long will it take you to cultivate your garden with a wheel 



hoe? With a hand hoe? 



14. Hoeing. — Though the garden is cultivated regularly and 

 thoroughly with a wheel hoe, more or less hand hoeing is usually 

 necessary to destroy weeds in the rows, and also to maintain a 

 fine, loose soil over the entire garden area. It is desirable to have 

 several types of hoes, if possible, such as a hilling hoe with a five- 

 or six-inch blade, a two-pronged hoe with a narrow cutting blade, 

 a hoe with a broad cutting blade and six or eight rake-like teeth, 

 and a scufile hoe. 



15. Weeding. — With small plants, such as onions, beets, 

 radishes, lettuce, parsnips, and parsley, weeds often appear In the 

 rows close to the plants where it is impossible to remove many 

 of them with either the wheel hoe or a hand hoe. In this case we 

 must use a small hand weeder — there are various types of hand 

 weeders — and perhaps pull by hand some of the weeds which are 

 difficult to remove with any tool. However, if the soil has been 

 properly managed and the ground thoroughly cultivated, the labor 

 of weeding will be very slight. 



1. What hand weeders do you think are most useful ? 



