Marcu, 1908 
The Readers’ Service Department of 
this magazine is glad to examine any reader’s 
own plans for home grounds and gardens and 
rectify obvious mistakes before money is 
spent; to suggest plants for special soils, 
situations, and purposes; sometimes to show 
how badly arranged places can be rearranged 
with better effect and even to give specific sug- 
How to Have a Perfect Vegetable Garden—By J. L. Kayan, "x 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
gestions about flower gardens; but it cannot 
make plans of any sort. All this it will do 
without charge, if furnished with reasonably 
full information, particularly sketches and 
photographs. 
It cannot undertake to satisfy idle curiosity 
about the gardens here illustrated or any 
of the hundred gardens for special purposes 
69 
listed on page 94, but whenever a letter 
shows an earnest desire to study any par- 
ticular example, the address of the owner will 
be revealed, provided visitors are allowed. 
Communications intended for The Readers’ 
Service Department or the Editor should 
enclose a stamped and _ self-addressed 
envelope. 
Pennsyl- 
A CAREFULLY TESTED METHOD OF PLANNING A VEGETABLE GARDEN TO EXACTLY SUIT YOUR 
REQUIREMENTS—NOT A THEORY, BUT A REAL WAY THAT ASSURES SUCCESS TO THE BEGINNER 
a complete success of any vegetable 
garden depends ‘on these four factors: 
A working plan together with a system of 
record-keeping that will enable the gardener 
to properly plant the gardens. A selection of 
the varieties best suited to the location. 
Fertile soil, which promotes rapid growth. 
Good cultivation. 
A good working plan is essential to the 
amateur gardener, so that he may give each 
vegetable the proper space and know where 
and when succession plantings will be located 
that none interferes with any other. Without 
this the average person will find that, when 
the time arrives for planting late crops there 
is no space, or they have to be crowded 
between other rows. 
Until some experience is gained the 
wise gardener will rely upon the time- 
honored varieties of known value, or try 
out two or three that are popular fa- 
vorites, because that means they succeed 
over a wide range. Then, with that as a 
starter, make trials of other and newer 
kinds as they appear until one is found 
that surpasses all others in that special 
location. Each year get the seedsmen’s 
catalogues and purchase, for experimental 
purposes, a few of those varieties that 
seem best—a short row or a few plants 
will do. Beware of bargain-counter seeds; 
buy only the best grades. 
Well rotted stable manure is a mine of 
wealth to the vegetable grower as the soil 
of a heavily cropped garden can hardly be 
made too rich. Moreover, the decaying 
vegetable matter of the manure will make 
heavy soils lighter and more easily worked, 
while sandy soils are made more retentive 
of moisture. Fertilizer, which is more easily 
mixed with the soil and requires less space 
for storage, can be used in the hills or mixed 
with the soil when setting out plants and 
for succession planting. It is best used in 
connection with a good dressing of manure, 
plowed in. 
Cultivation not only destroys weeds but 
the soil mulch thus produced retains moisture 
and aérates the soil. Cultivation is as 
important as fertility. I would not attempt 
to cultivate a garden without a wheel hoe. 
A good one will last for years, but will earn 
its cost the first year by reducing the labor 
of cultivation nine-tenths, the only hand 
work necessary being between the plants 
in the rows. 
These three rules given me long ago have 
helped much, and I pass them on so that 
others may profit by them: 
t. Always sow and plant in freshly stirred 
soil. 
2. Kill weeds before they start. 
3. Crowded plants are cripples. 
By keeping an exact system of records 
over a term of several vears, I have succeeded 
in evolving for my own vegetable garden 
a plan which I submit is as nearly perfect 
as is possible to get it. The garden itself 
measures 68 x 60 ft., and every bit of space 
is used to the utmost at all times of the year. 
In THE GARDEN MacGazinE for February, 
1907, pages 21 and 22, is described my 
system of vest-pocket records which has 
helped me to make the present plan. This 
is not merely an ideal; the plan shows my 
garden asit was last year, 1907, and the tables 
on pages 70 and 71 show ata glance the 
actual results, every vegetable grown, the 
varieties, and the time of harvest, too. 
The plan and the table taken together 
will enable anyone to design a garden which 
should be equally satisfactory and can be 
easily adapted to any other area by merely 
lengthening or shortening the rows, or 
striking out such as may not be needed. 
My object is to produce fresh vegetables 
k— 
GS E22. 
toltai-length-of-two 
sections =SOFtE OS In. 
For convenience this working plan is made; 
complete plan (see next page) being Kept indoors 
the 
of superior quality and in continuous supply, 
and I do it. 
The rows should run north and south so 
as to give the crops the greatest amount of 
benefit from the sunshine, and the spaces 
indicated on the plan are the smallest that 
can be adopted without sacrificing something 
in yield. The detailed plan shows the 
position of everything grown in the garden, 
and is self-explanatory in nearly all itsdetails. 
At one end of the garden is a bed of perma- 
nent crops (rhubarb and asparagus). On 
each side is a 4-foot width planted with berry 
bushes. Inside of this on each side is a 
shallow gutter used as a pathway through 
the garden. It also serves to carry off the 
rain and surplus water, the slope being 
toward the rear of the garden. A narrow 
path twelve inches wide extends across the 
garden between the rows of small vegetables 
to facilitate gathering and cultivation. 
Slightly below the centre of the garden 
and where this pathway crosses it, there is 
a line marked on the plan AB, which divides 
the whole plan into two unequal portions. 
The rotation followed, which is about as 
much as can be obtained in a small garden, 
consists in shifting around these sections 
above and below this line. 
With the facts that I now have before me 
I can so plan my garden as to grow exactly 
the desired quantity of any vegetable, and 
it is an easy matter to compute the length 
of row required from the figures of yield 
given in the tables. The varieties named 
I recommend, because I have tried them 
and found them worthy. The column 
giving similar varieties will enable the 
amateur to substitute without destroying 
the unity of the whole scheme. The dates 
of planting the various crops are given under 
the plan and the time of maturity or harvest 
is found in the third columns of the tables. 
I do not draw a complete planting plan 
each year, but make, for convenience in the 
garden, a smaller working plan which can be 
carried about without any inconvenience. I 
draw it full length to a scale one-quarter inch 
to a foot, but the width is made only suffi- 
cient to give space for writing in the names 
of the various vegetables and the dates of 
planting. The one I actually use is three 
and one-half inches wide. 
Since the garden is divided into two sec- 
tions by the line AB, this working plan is 
also made in two sections which are put 
