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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



January, 1914 



Though more will be said in a subse- 

 quent article about the necessity of having 

 good and proper tools, let me advise right 

 here never to start with a poor spade or 

 digging fork. 



HOW TO DIG 



Get a good, stout spade, which will prove 

 preferable for all purposes. Push it firmly 

 into the soil to its full length, which usually 

 is twelve inches; use the spade handle as a 

 lever, and lift and turn over the soil so that 

 the soil from the bottom comes to lie on the 

 top. Dig a row fifteen to twenty feet 

 long in that fashion, then come back and 

 place the second row of soil right on top of 

 the first. You now have a trench nearly 

 ten inches wide. 



Fill this with well-rotted manure, tightly 

 tramp down the manure and then repeat 

 the same operation, turning over on the man- 

 ure about two rows. Whenever there is an 

 empty furrow, fill it with manure ; and when 

 a bed of fifteen to twenty feet long is dug 

 to a width of ten feet, stop the digging long 

 enough to rake that bed level and get the 

 lumps off the surface into the furrow. After 

 that, proceed in the same way until enough 

 soil is dug to begin raking and planting. 



The question of manure should not prove 

 a stumbling block in the way of a luxuriant 

 garden. Most livery stables in the suburbs 

 are glad to let gardeners have the manure if 

 they will pay for the hauling, while in many 

 large cities the city refuse department will 

 usually be in a position to supply tons of 

 this plant food for a small consideration. 



Use manure in preference to commercial 

 fertilizers. Manure will make a per- 

 manent storage house of utility in your 

 garden, while fertilizers will help to make 

 available what fertility may be in the soil, 

 without preserving a single plant growing 

 element for the future. 



One more thought about digging: Do not 

 dig too soon! Enthusiasm drives many 

 people into the garden 

 when the first few warm 

 days proclaim the near- 

 ness of spring. This is 

 usually long before the 

 ground is in a fit condition 

 for digging. 



To test the soil, push 

 the spade deeply into the 

 ground in several places 

 in the garden and turn 

 the soil. Pick up a hand- 

 ful of it and, if it crumb- 

 les up in mellow shape, 

 go ahead and dig, but if 

 a slight pressure of your 

 hand will transform the 

 soil into a mud-ball 

 wait ! 



In connection with soil 

 preparation lay down the 

 firm rule never to dig any 

 more on any one day than 

 can comfortably be raked 

 .and planted that same A happy solutlon 

 day. Suppose you dug 



Raking the turned surface is essential for making 

 a proper seed bed. The surface layer of soil must 

 be level and finely pulverized 



all day (if you could) and at night rain 

 came. It would be a very difficult job to 

 get that piece of ground in proper gardening 

 condition the following day. Chances are 

 it would have to be dug all over again, 

 whereas, if it had been raked and presented 

 a smooth surface to the rain, it need only be 

 raked again. 



To rake properly is, perhaps, even more 

 difficult than to dig. Anybody can dig, 

 but it is almost a fine art to rake a piece of 

 soil perfectly level. Deep digging is de- 

 sirable, but fine raking is necessary, for it is 

 the real preparation of the seed bed. The 

 surface nurses the tender germs of the 



of the "odd corner" . Make it into an emergency bed with manure and 

 soil. And don't forget to water in summer. 



plants, the roots of which afterward may 

 forage for life in the under-soil. 



The best way to rake is to do the job in 

 two parts. First go over the dug ground 

 and try to level it roughly, taking the lumps 

 along as you go and burying them in the 

 furrow. Then go back over the same piece 

 of ground, step by step, and rake carefully, 

 pushing the teeth of the rake into the soil 

 to their full length. Push and pull back 

 and forth, until every lump is dug up, every 

 hill is smoothed out and every hollow is 

 filled. A depression of two inches means a 

 hollow in a seed bed in which water will 

 stand after a heavy rain and drown the 

 seedlings. 



It is good business to spend from half to 

 three-quarters of an hour on raking a piece 

 of clay ground 20 x 20 ft. The more 

 thoroughly the raking is done, the easier 

 will be subsequent cultivation and the more 

 chance will the seedlings have of coming 

 through. Proper digging and thorough 

 raking having put the garden into prime 

 condition, the next important step is the 

 sowing of the seeds. 



Sowing the seeds seems so easy — I have 

 often heard people, who never did it, say 

 "Oh! that's a cinch." As a matter of fact 

 it takes a good deal of practice to sow a row 

 of radishes evenly, thinly and quickly. 



Here is one good way in which sowing 

 seeds may be done: Tear open the flap of , 

 the paper bag where it is sealed. Fold a 

 groove along the front of the bag so the 

 groove extends clear along the bag and 

 across the flap. Take the bag between the 

 thumb and middle finger of your hand and 

 tap the bag gently with the pointing finger, 

 as you pass your hand along the row to be 

 sown. All fine seeds may be sown in that 

 fashion and one season's practice should 

 make you efficient. With coarse seeds, the 

 method may, of course, be changed to drop- 

 ping each individual seed as far apart in 

 the row as experience tells us is correct. 



EMERGENCY GARDENS 

 BUILT ON TOP OF GROUND 



After digging hard for 

 several weeks, after plan- 

 ning and raking and 

 planting, there is usually 

 a small piece of ground 

 left in some corner, that 

 "seems just too hard to 

 dig." I heartily agree 

 with the reader — it has 

 been my experience in 

 every garden I have ever 

 worked! As a rule, it is 

 away in some corner that 

 is already overgrown with 

 weeds by the time you get 

 to it, and you don't feel 

 a bit like digging that un- 

 promising piece. At the 

 same time, to let it remain 

 as it is spells a regular 

 breeding place for weed 

 seeds, besides looking most 

 unsightly all the time. 



