86 AW Jel 13 
GARDEN MAGAZI 
N E Marcu, 1916 
that a few minutes should suffice, but 
when it is known that in 1915 I sowed 
or planted something like eighty varie- 
ties of vegetables besides some flowers 
for cutting on this space it may be real- 
ized that the time I took is none too 
much to do the matter justice. 
The first point of note is that the plan 
carefully drawn up in January, 1915, 
worked out admirably as a whole, but 
that I can improve upon it for 1916, as 
will be shown below. The unit distance 
of 15 inches between rows, except in a 
few cases arranged for beforehand, was 
ample, because each alternate row was 
a short term crop; that is, it required 
only a few weeks to reach maturity and 
be removed, thus leaving the space it 
occupied to crops that require a longer 
term. 
This “companion cropping” system, 
as it is called by market gardeners, is 
one of the best methods of securing 
maximum quantity from minimum space 
in a short time. The crops I have found 
best for this purpose are transplanted 
lettuce alternating with early cabbage, 
using transplanted plants because the 
lettuce may be gathered before the cab- 
bage needs the entire space. I did not 
follow this practice in 1915 because I 
had no means of growing the plants 
under glass, but will in 1916. A trucker 
friend of mine plants tomatoes between 
strawberries in newly set beds with 
good results. In my garden I have 
found bush beans do fully as well also 
with strawberries the first year. I have 
even tried small growing varieties of 
sweet corn between the strawberry 
plants with good results, but the berry 
plants were placed two feet apart, and 
the corn plants were cut when the ears 
were pulled for the table. 
Succession cropping, which I also em- 
ployed, instead of having the crops 
grow simultaneously and side by side as 
in the companion method, arranges for 
the complete clearance of the ground as 
soon as an early crop has been gathered 
and refills that area with a crop that re- 
quires the balance or sometimes only 
part of the balance of the season in 
which to mature. In my experience, the 
early crops best suited to this method 
are spinach, mustard, early turnips, set 
onions, and dwarf varieties of garden 
peas; and the ones to succeed them, 
bush beans, celery, late cabbage, cauli- 
flower, Brussels sprouts, quick maturing 
sweet corn and late turnips. 
There is yet another not so widely 
employed method which did better for 
me in 1915 than ever before, namely, 
“marker cropping,” if I may coin such a 
term. By this I mean simultaneously 
sowing two different kinds of crops in 
the same row, one a vegetable whose 
seed sprout very quickly and which ma- 
tures so rapidly it may be removed be- 
fore the other, a slower germinating, 
slower maturing crop, needs the space. 
Best of all the vegetables which have 
served this purpose for me are those 
early varieties of radish that reach edi- 
ble size in three or four weeks from 
seed sowing. The one great mistake to 
avoid in this plan is thick sowing. 
Never should the radish seeds be closer 
together than one inch (better two 
inches) in the rows of carrots, parsnips, 
CHART PLAN TO SECURE LARGEST VARIETY AND YIELD FROM A GIVEN AREA 
FIRST 
SECOND 
MARKER CROP COMPANION SueGSSnEN amccnesnas PARTNER FULL SEASON 
Spinach ...... G. Bantam Corn}Winter Squash.|.............. 
Karly Turnip: i) i. <sdne veccerd| ie eee ee eet Pere eee eee Am. Artichoke. 
Mustard ...... G. Bantam Corn|Summer Squasb]............. 0 
Ol sity e(-e Mne Seemeeten Inning conc Ga|lsonotaccedbod céllocesm@nccsane so Salsify 
Onion Sets...../Carrot........ G. Bantam Corn|Cucumber .....]............. 6 
Onion Setssc..y|o-cge ose © are release ae el | ene nae | eee Parsnips 
ethuiceselanitsm serene tee Cannot ee seee TPOmato. ...o06 2 cll So. ates de 2 |e eee 
ARE) en nnn (erm tro oe edly cca vo a6-oclloteanoconadtaos Scorzonera 
Lettuce Plants.|.............. Beet) occ Pomator wie. il eecedues ect mh a el te || ee eee 
GGtIGUS®. .-25 85.0l]] sodden ey emer ael| Peer se erence eeenees Celery 
Radish... 32 sacr| lect Orr eer Beet oo. hsegoal|tb-ecenatened eee ara erel |p renee eee ieee 
1:72 (s i) een Ore comes orate ho oer ned molipacmoocec cyc.ccllecnocooocassus Chicory 
Harly Péa...... 5) 00 sfoce s2ete Gere Ge em oue oe eee eee 
Lettuce Plamts¢}) ct: sas 6 n.: sal deroneeree oe eel Oe eee Cardoon 
Marly Cabbage 5.6.2 a2 wate geal since sends oe) ts nollie ns eeler= 2 | eee eee 30 
Rarly Pea. oc... ans ves ae sc/s all eniere de eee oe || Arle eee 
(GandenB eamsha| peer Late Corn..... Cantaloupes:-.2|-4- >=. eee 
2d Early: Peas... coi. 2cs0o2 a0 o4 lence oe See eee 
Late Corn..... Cantaloupes ...].............- 
Wates@albbacen. | Sern ieee 
late Cabbage s/c. se elem 
Kohl Rabi..... 
Cos) Lettuceen|=o eee eos 
Cosi -Dettuces.c |p. eee 
Beets) oss cece: 
Spinach ...... 
2d Karly Peas../Gladiolus ..... ee a... 
Late Corn..... Watermelons...|........... seyeze 
adHanly, Peaiss-| Glaldi olay = ee| |e ieee certo | ene 
Late Corn..... Watermelons...||..........5- rae 
3d Harly Peas. .sc oes ce es oo eel ees okt od oe |e 
N..Z. Spinach, .ie: Wee dew ieel| es aes d Gee oon 
Culinary: Herbs.) secede) to0 es a ass re See all 
Balye Bushy Ben's | Weamiber (valdit sins) ieee eens |e 
Karly ‘Cabbage. (Okra. .:5...% . [52 ci dose ot] Meee 
Kgeplant .. 0 ..\s0 28 eb ase ee lee 
Bly BusheBmis)|Rutay Baas sae sees aa | eso 
Peppers, Weeks...) os aie a 7] coe eee 
Cauliflower 
Pole. Beams «2 |) 1-200, ¢06.000 oaact |e eee 
Bris/ls: Sprouts'\||.. 550. 202.04.<||\ee eee 
Pole Limas::: «5|)- 50.5. 5..2) 5 |e 
Ein dines coe.2 Sis eee eee 
Straw berniesis se llllwen yctsce us eter eee eee ee ee 
EXPLANATION.—Marker Crops (Col. 1) are planted simply to indicate the positions of rows of slower 
sprouting crops sown at the same time and in the same rows. The distances between individual “marker” 
plants should be two or three times as great as when the same crops are planted by themselves. 
Companion Crops (Col. 2) are planted in the intervals between plants of their companions which tempo- 
rarily do not need all the space. Early turnips, onion sets, lettuce and early cabbage companions are all sown 
at the opening of the season; late cabbage plants are placed between the corn hills before midsummer, but 
occupy the soil after the corn and melons are gone; the cos lettuce plants are set 15 inches apart in May or 
June, each alternate one early removed for use and a cauliflower or a Brussels sprouts plant put in its place in 
July, the balance used later. 
First Succession Crops (Col 3), except New Zealand spinach and bush beans, are planted when the season 
opens; these are sown two or three weeks later than the first plantings, at a venture to escape a late frost 
either by protection, spraying or otherwise or in the hope that no late frost will occur. 
Second Succession Crops (Col. 4) are mostly sown or transplanted between May 15th and June ist. Gladi- 
olus bulbs are planted beside the peas on the side toward the corn rows, partly when the peas are sown and 
partly one to four weeks later, being kept cold and dry until planted. Winter radish should not be sown before 
August Ist or it may run to seed or become woody and useless as a vegetable. Okra and eggplant may be 
placed between the maturing early cabbage between the last of May and the middle of June. Ruta baga will 
follow the early beans and will not need the space occupied by the okras and eggplants until after these have 
been killed by frost. Pepper plants may be set in late May and early June in spaces left by the kohl rabi. The 
pole and Lima bean seeds are sown at two-foot intervals among the carrots and beets the latter half of May. 
They don’t need the space until after the root crops are harvested. These climbers are trained to cords hung 
from a wire stretched between posts from end to end of garden about seven feet above the rows. Endive 
plants are set in the rows left vacant by harvesting the early spinach. 
Partner Crops (Col. 5)—squash, cucumbers, melons, cantaloupes—are planted like pumpkins among the 
corn after the season has become fairly settled. 
Full Season Crops (Col. 6) are all sown when the season opens and left till it closes because they all need 
the full time in which to mature. 
parsley, beets, onions, fennel or other 
crops with which they may be success- 
fully sown. 
Last year I used radish with all the 
crops just named; in fact, I sowed no 
spring radishes by themselves, always 
with some other crop. To be sure we 
had radishes to burn, or rather give 
away, but the main objects of sowing 
them in this way were gained. The 
radishes being quick to sprout and hav- 
ing comparatively large “seed leaves” 
can be seen in three or four days or cer- 
tainly within a week of sowing, so culti- 
vation may start at once, a very impor- 
tant point for the well being of the 
slower crops. 
Combinations of all these plans have 
worked well with me. For instance, I 
have had carrots with marker radish 
followed by sweet corn; onion sets fol- 
lowed by bush beans and these by late 
turnips; beets with marker radishes, 
followed by tomatoes and these by rad- 
ishes and lettuce scattered broadcast 
during late summer; early cabbage and 
lettuce plants in the same rows and fol- 
lowed by late sown bush beans and 
these by lettuce and radishes! 
Indeed, I have done even better than 
this; for earliest peas were sown during 
April in two rows 12 inches apart. 
When in blossom early corn and climb- 
ing beans were sown as partners in a 
drill between these rows, the seeds be- 
ing dropped 15 inches apart, and a row 
of gladiolus bulbs planted about four 
inches on the outer side of one of the 
rows of peas. Cucumber seeds were 
sown in every fourth corn hill! 
As soon as the peas were gathered the 
vines were removed and the ground 
hoed and top dressed with commercial 
fertilizer, thus leaving the corn in pos- 
session. As this grew the beans were 
provided with living “poles.” The corn 
also protected the Gladiolus from the 
west (prevailing) wind so that not one 
of the 100 flower stalks needed staking, 
whereas all the Gladiolus planted with- 
out such shelter either broke down or 
had to be tied. When the corn was 
