The Garden Magazine 



Vol. V— No. 3 



Published Monthly 



APRIL, 1907 



One Dollar a Year 



Fifteen Cents a Copy 



Double Numbers, Twenty-five Cents 



[For the purpose of reckoning dates, New York is 

 generally taken as a standard. Allow six days' difference 

 for every hundred miles of latitude.] 



How to Have a Perfect Garden 



IF YOU will faithfully follow the direc- 

 tions on this page, you will surely have 

 this year the best garden you ever had. And 

 if you will adopt Mr. Kayan's "Vest Pocket 

 System of Garden Records," you will have 

 an ideal garden in three years. 



There is only one way to make a garden 

 better, and incidentally avoid the spring rush, 

 and that is, make a plan on paper just as you 

 would for a house. After you have done this 

 once, you will never be satisfied to make a 

 garden in any other way, and you will look 

 forward with the keenest pleasure to the 

 yearly session with the drawing board. 



THE TEN PROGRESSIVE STEPS 



i. Measure accurately the space available 

 for a kitchen garden and draw the outlines 

 to scale on a sheet about n x 20 in. 



2. If possible, make the vegetable garden 

 longer than it is wide, in order to save time 

 in turning at the ends of the rows. 



3. Provide for a windbreak against the 

 prevailing winter wind, in order to have 

 vegetables a fortnight earlier in spring, and 

 from two or six weeks later in the fall. A 

 hemlock hedge is best and April is a good 

 time to plant it. 



4. Run the rows north and south if pos- 

 sible, so as to give the plants the most sun- 

 light. Never run any rows at right angles 

 to others. 



5. Place your permanent crops (i.e., small 

 fruits, asparagus, rhubarb) on the margins, 

 or group them at one end, so as to leave a 

 large, clear space for plowing and cultivating. 



6. Put your tall crops (corn and pole 

 beans) at the north end of the garden, so that 

 they will not shade the smaller vegetables. 



7. Indicate roughly, in pencil, how much 

 space to give the three or four vegetables 

 you use the most. Then apportion the 

 remaining space to the less important crops, 

 grouping them as follows: 



(a) Group the root crops (beet, carrot, 

 parsnip, turnip), because all are subject to 

 potato scab. Put them in deep soil so that 

 the roots will be long and well-shaped. If 

 possible, place the winter varieties where they 

 will not interfere with fall plowing. 



(b) Put all the "vines" together (i.e., 

 cucumbers, muskmelons, pumpkins, squashes 

 and watermelons), so that you can fight the 

 squash bug and wilt disease better. Next 

 year, put them on the space occupied this 

 year by the tomato family. 



(c) Group the tomato family (tomatoes, 

 egg-plants, peppers) in a sunny place, be- 

 cause they are tropical plants started in 

 hotbeds and put out at the same time. Next 

 year, put them where the vines are this year. 

 Some soils will not bear three crops of these 

 vegetables in succession. 



(d) Group the cabbage family (cabbage, 

 cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts and kohl- 

 rabi), so that you can lime the soil if club root 

 appears and so that you can ridge the soil 

 in autumn to kill the maggot. 



(e) Save your richest and finest soil for 

 onions. 



(f) Put potatoes on newly turned sod 

 where you want to have strawberries next 

 year, because the hoeing of a crop kills the 

 white grubs. (Omit potatoes from a garden 

 50 x 50 ft. or less. The least room for 

 them is 25 x 25 ft.) 



(g) Use radishes, lettuce and spinach as 

 "fillers;" i.e., plant them between the wide 

 rows of late-maturing crops, e.g., tomatoes 

 and late corn. Sow radishes in the same row 

 with parsley seed to mark the row by its 

 quicker germination. 



(h) Peas and beans, though related, cannot 

 be grouped, peas being a cool, short-season 

 crop and beans a hot, long-season crop, but 

 next year put root crops where the legumes 

 are this year. Put the string beans in the 

 warmest and poorest soil in the garden. 



8. Adopt a unit width between rows, and 

 use multiples of this between the larger 

 vegetables in order to save readjusting the 

 wheel hoe. This plan also enables you to 

 put lettuce and other fillers between wide 

 rows without readjusting the cultivator. 

 For example, take one foot as the unit. 

 Make the rows one foot apart for radishes, 

 lettuce, onions, root crops; one and one- 

 half feet for kohlrabi, spinach; three feet for 

 celery; two to four feet for potatoes; three 

 feet for the tomato family; six feet for 

 vines. 



For distances between vegetables in the 

 row, see Mr. Brown's Planting Tables in this 

 number. 



For quantities, see Vol. 2, page 265. 



0. Mark in your succession crops. Pro- 

 vide at least for corn until frost and have 



peas in September. The most important 

 succession crop is celery, which is not planted 

 until midsummer, after the early crops (e.g., 

 peas, early beans, early corn). Put celery in 

 deep, rich, moist soil. 



10. Ink in your plan when it seems satis- 

 factory, and stick to it. Adopt the "Vest 

 Pocket System of Garden Records," which 

 is described in February, 1907, on page 21, 

 and you will be sure to improve from year to 

 year. There is no one ideal plan for every 

 garden, but every garden can realize its ideal 

 approximately in three years by following 

 these ten rules. 



AN INVALUABLE " CHECK-LIST" 



Last April, we showed that the making 

 of a garden comprises about fifty items of 

 the first importance. These items were 

 numbered so that you may turn back to 

 Vol. 3, page 129, cross out the items that do 

 not concern you, and check off the others as 

 fast as you can get them done. Moreover 

 almost every item contains a reference 

 to some article where you can get full infor- 

 mation on that point if you need it. 



We believe it is the best memorandum you 

 can get to guide you through the busiest 

 month of the year. We urged our readers 

 to try it and tell us of any omissions or im- 

 provements. It has stood the test so well 

 that only five additions have been made (see 

 below), and one subscriber writes: "It is 

 the best scheme for avoiding the spring rush 

 I know." 



We believe that the ten rules given above 

 represent a still greater improvement. At 

 any rate, we do not know of any rules for 

 planning a garden that are so comprehensive, 

 progressive and specific. Try this method, 

 and any improvement you can make will be 

 gratefully receh'ed. 



What suggestion can you make to organize 

 and simplify the work of gardening, and 

 increase the pleasure and profit, without 

 sacrificing the spontaneity and "fun"? 



FIVE SUGGESTIONS FROM READERS 



As soon as the weather is settled, transplant 

 daisies, forget-me-nots and pansies from 

 coldframes to spring flower beds. 



Set outdoors, when danger of frosts has 

 passed, the Easter bulbs and plants, e.g., daf- 

 fodils, tulips, lilies and Crimson Ramblers. 



Sow oriental poppies in an outdoor seedbed. 

 The foliage will die in July and August, but 

 in September growth will begin again. Then 

 move the young plants to their permanent 

 quarters. 



Start tuberous begonias in small pots or 

 in boxes of sphagnum moss in the house. 



Bind your Garden Magazines and con- 

 sult the index when planning. 



