Making the Vegetable Garden Live Up To Plan 



Some of the Problems in Obtaining What You Really Want Just When You Need It. Really a Matter of Taking a Little Forethought 



THE best garden plan is merely a plan 

 so long as it remains on paper. The 

 real test of the gardener comes in trans- 

 ferring the garden from the plan to the 

 soil. That may seem to the beginner a very 

 simple process but the results of his first season's 

 work will show him that there are a great many 

 opportunities for the proverbial "slip 'twixt the 

 cup and the lip" — or, between the plan and the 

 planting. 



The first problem which arises, of course, is 

 when to plant. The gardener may supply himself 

 with any number of dates from authoritative 

 sources for planting, but when all is said and done 

 planting dates are not satisfactory. You simply 

 cannot run a garden by the calendar. Specific 

 dates are, in the first place, too general. There 

 are so many local factors entering into the matter 

 that they do not hold even over limited areas. 

 They vary from season to season, and even in the 

 same locality and the same season vary with the 

 soil. 



One of the most important things to con- 

 sider is drainage. Land that is thoroughly 

 drained can be planted from a few days to two 

 or three weeks earlier than land that remains wet 

 and soggy after the spring rains. Another im- 

 portant point is the amount of shelter from north 

 and northwest winds which the 'garden may en- 

 joy. This in itself may make a difference of a 

 week or so in the time when it is best to plant. 



When to Plant 



*TPHE plants and seeds required to make a 

 ■*■ complete garden may be considered in four 

 groups. Extra Hardy, Hardy, Tender, and Very 

 Tender. 



The Extra Hardy group includes onion sets, 

 horseradish and rhubarb roots, smooth peas, 

 sweet peas, kohlrabi, radish, spinach, and turnip. 

 All of these may be planted or sown just as early 

 as the ground can be got ready for them — that 

 is, as soon as it is dried out enough to be forked 

 up and raked without remaining sticky and 

 lumpy. 



The Hardy group includes seeds of beets; car- 

 rots; celery (to be transplanted later); chard; let- 

 tuce; onion seed; smooth peas; mustard; salsify, 

 parsley; parsnips and potatoes. Also plants (if 

 thoroughly hardened off) of cabbage, lettuce, 

 beets, onions, kohlrabi, swiss chard, and (pre- 

 ferably a few days later) cauliflower. These 

 should be planted about a week later than the 

 first group, when freezing is over and the peach, 

 pear, and wild shad are coming into bloom. 



The Tender group includes beans; sweet corn; 

 cucumbers; okra; melons; pumpkins and squash. 

 These should not be planted until danger of hard 

 frosts is practically over; usually some three 

 weeks after the hardy group, or when apple trees 

 are in bloom. For the small garden it will usually 

 be worth while to take a chance on an extra early 

 planting of beans and corn as the cost of each 

 planting is not great compared to the advantages 

 obtained if the crop happens to come through 

 all right. 



The Very Tender group includes lima beans; 

 tomato, pepper, and eggplant plants. These 

 should not be put out until all danger of late 

 frost is past. Unlike the vegetables in the pre- 

 ceding group it does not pay to take a chance 

 with these as, even if they live, the growth until 

 warm weather arrives will be very unsatisfactory, 

 and the plants once dwarfed or stunted by un- 

 seasonable weather will not recover. I have 

 frequently seen lima beans, eggplants and even 

 tomatoes which outgrew and matured earlier than 

 plants of the same varieties which had been sown 

 or set out ten days or more earlier. 



It is taken for granted that the gardener will 

 use every care to properly prepare and fertilize 

 the soil. A word may be said, how ever, in regard 



to the great advantage of preparing the soil early 

 — of spading up and raking over the whole garden 

 area as soon as the ground is fit to work. In this 

 way the surface of the soil is warmed up and ger- 

 mination will be very much better than where 

 seeds are planted in the freshly turned-up soil. 

 Poor germination is very frequently due to the 

 fact that the ground is so wet and cold that the 

 seeds rot after sprouting, especially if there are a 

 few wet cold days just after planting. Danger 

 of loss from this source can be very greatly min- 

 imized by pre-sprouting such seeds as peas, beets, 

 celery, chard, beans, sweet corn, cucumber, 

 melons, and lima beans before planting. This 

 can be done easily by keeping the seeds in a warm 

 place partly covered with water for twenty-four 

 to forty-eight hours. They should be watched 

 carefully and planted as soon as germination 

 begins to show. For convenience for planting 

 they can be rolled in dry sifted soil, or in the case 

 of the larger seeds such as peas, beans and corn, 

 mixed in sifted leaf-mould or with humus. The 

 result of this treatment is that the germination 

 takes place at once on planting and the chances 

 of the seed rotting in the soil before having an 

 opportunity to grow are very greatly lessened. 



A NOTHER precaution which may be taken 

 ■^■^ to help assure the success of extra early- 

 sown seeds is shallow planting. It is not the 

 depth of planting, but the conditions of moisture 

 and of warmth that determine germination. 

 Very early in the spring, when the ground is still 

 saturated with moisture, and has just begun to 

 warm up where it is exposed to the sun during 

 the day, the proper conditions for effecting quick 

 strong germination are found very near the sur- 

 face. Keep that fact in mind when making your 

 first plantings. Make the furrows or marks for 

 the seed shallower than usual; sow the seed 

 thicker, to allow for some loss; but firm what soil 

 is put on down around the seed thoroughly, un- 

 less you have a heavy clay soil that will tend to 

 pack itself. When the soil is merely scraped in 

 loosely over the seed, and the seed germinates, 

 a single bright windy day may dry the loose soil 

 to dust and kill the unprotected little germ before 

 it has a chance to strike roots down into the moist 

 soil below. 



Don't Delay Replanting 



TT MAKES any gardener happy to see full, even 

 *■ rows. It isn't a question of looks alone, for 

 it is most discouraging and unprofitable business 

 to have to cultivate and hoe and weed gaps and 

 bare spots. And yet in nine out of ten gardens 

 you will find them. 



I doubt if there is any one thing more neglected 

 in the average garden than replanting. If at first 

 you don't succeed — seed, seed again! That's 

 all there is to it; or at least that's the main part 

 of it. It isn't always the fault of the seed when 

 you don't get a good stand. Most vegetable 

 seeds should be showing signs of coming up in ten 

 days to two weeks after sowing. Onions, celery, 

 parsley, and a few other slow starters may take 

 a few days longer than that, under adverse con- 

 ditions. But as soon as a few plants in the row 

 are plainly coming along, if a careful examination 

 does not give promise that the rest are on the way, 

 indicating a satisfactory "stand," why then there 

 are only two things to do: either rip the row out 

 and plant it over again altogether; or go over it, 

 leaving the good spots, and plant again the parts 

 that failed to come the first time. The latter 

 method is usually more trouble, but it has these 

 advantages; the plants already started will ma- 

 ture more quickly than a new sowing, and the 

 double planting will prolong the bearing season 

 of the crop. Simply mark off a new row, as near 

 the first planting as you can get it, and sow again. 

 For most vegetables there is a distinct planting 



124 



season; so every day's delay in replanting lessens 

 your chances of getting a good crop. There is 

 for instance little or no use in planting spinach, 

 or peas, or lettuce, in June. 



To make sure of full rows and fully satisfactory 

 results, do your replanting early! 



Timing Succession Plantings 



r*HE purpose of succession plantings is, of 

 A course, to maintain a constant supply of the 

 crop. That being the case, there is just one log- 

 ical basis on which to figure out when to make the 

 succession sowings; take- the approximate number 

 of days any crop will remain in good condition for 

 table use, and with that as a time-unit, make a new 

 planting at the end of that period; a second when 

 it has elapsed again, etc. If, for instance, you 

 know that the kind of radishes you are planting 

 will have passed their prime in ten days after they 

 are ready for use; dwarf peas in two weeks; and 

 beans in three; then you would need to plant 

 radishes every ten days, peas every two weeks, 

 and beans every three weeks during the season 

 in which they should be planted — which, in the 

 case of the early dwarf beans, would be up to the 

 middle of August. 



But it is possible to cut down the number of 

 succession crops required by planting succession 

 varieties — that is, two or three varieties of the 

 same vegetable, at the same time, which will 

 mature one after the other. In this way you can 

 have, for instance, good radishes for two weeks, 

 tender peas for three or four weeks, and prime 

 beans for four or five weeks, from a single plant- 

 ing- 



The time during which crops of the various 

 vegetables may be counted on to remain in good 

 condition (of course dry weather, soil fertility, 

 and many other factors will cause variations), is 

 approximately as follows: 



Beans, dwarf, three weeks; limas, six weeks; pole, eight weeks; 

 beets, three weeks; cabbage, early, three weeks; cauliflower, three 

 weeks; carrots, four weeks; celery, early, four weeks late, ten 

 weeks; chard, all season; sweet corn, early, two weeks, late three 

 weeks; cucumbers, six weeks; eggplant, until frost; lettuce, two 

 weeks; kohlrabi, ten days; peas, dwarf, two weeks, tall, three 

 weeks; radish; ten days; spinach, two weeks; squash, summer, four 

 weeks; tomatoes; early, six weeks, late, eight weeks, turnips; early 

 two weeks, late, four weeks. 



One of the most important things in keeping 

 vegetables in good table condition, is to pick or 

 gather them all as fast as they are ready, even if 

 they have to be given away. Leaving them to grow 

 and mature discourages further yield and tends 

 to kill the plant. This is especially true of beans, 

 peas, cucumbers, summer squash, and okra. 



Planting for Special Purposes 



[O GARDEN is really wholly successful that 

 does not provide (at least in so far as the 

 space available will allow), for the winter as well 

 as for the summer table. But- the problem here 

 is quite the reverse of that of supplying the sum- 

 mer needs. Instead of wanting a continuous 

 crop, a small quantity at a time; we want the 

 whole crop at one given time, \>ut just in the prime 

 of condition. Certainly seventy-five per cent, 

 of the vegetables ordinarily kept for winter are 

 far from first quality; and merely because they 

 are not "timed" right. 



Vegetables for the home winter supply should 

 be considered in three distinct classes: first, for 

 storing for winter; second, for canning; and third, 

 for drying or dehydrating. The requirements 

 in each case are quite different. 



The most important for storing are beets, car- 

 rots, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, and salsify. 

 Now the truck farmer or market gardener grows 

 these things by the bushel, and to get a big yield, 

 he plants them early. And the garden books and 

 gardening articles, based on information gathered 

 from commercial garden practice, have for years 

 been saying "plant parsnips and salsify in April, 

 and beets and carrots for winter crops in May." 



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