

Winter Gardening 



SOME children will laugh when they 

 look at this title. Winter garden- 

 ing! Yes, indeed, there is such a thing 

 as winter gardening. And if you are a 

 true gardener and not a "make-believe" 

 one, you will do gardening not only from 

 April to October but all the year through. 



The winter is the time to lay out plans 

 for the early spring garden. Not all 

 these plans can be held in your heads, 

 so they should be put on paper. Sup- 

 pose you have never had a garden before; 

 then first decide on the size of your future 

 garden. Perhaps your father says that 

 you may have the entire back yard. If it 

 is a large yard, do not accept this whole 

 offer, but only a portion of the offer and of 

 the yard space. It is wise to start modestly. 

 But if you have had a garden before, why 

 not either increase its size now or increase 

 its present efficiency? 



To increase the efficiency of a garden plot 

 simply means to make the soil work harder 

 and to have no waste places. Make a 

 plan for your garden that provides for 

 the use of every inch of space all the time. 

 Doesn't that sound like power? 



Now as to the plan! You have the 

 dimensions for the garden plot; the next 

 step is to decide on the scale to use when 

 the plan is to be put on paper. For surely 

 you cannot have a "life-sized" drawing 

 of the garden. So decide on what fraction 

 of an inch shall stand for a foot. Let us 

 pretend that one ejghth of an inch is to 

 represent each foot of space. If the 

 garden plot is sixty-four feet long, an 



The beginning of a successful girl's garden — April 



8-inch line will represent the sixty-four 

 feet of length. If it is forty feet wide, 

 then the line on paper to represent the 

 width will be five inches or one eighth of 

 forty. So the paper plan will be eight 

 inches by five inches. This will make a 

 pretty small drawing. Make a plan large 

 enough to be of some help. 



If there is a building, or large rocks anp 

 trees on your garden spot indicate these 

 on the plan. Such obstructions take space 

 and interfere with the placing of rows and 

 drills, so some account must be taken of 

 them on the plan. 



After the mere outline of the plan is 

 drawn (and by the way use India ink or 

 some good drawing ink for this work), the 

 rows must be indicated. As far as possible 

 run rows and drills north and south. 

 It is far easier for a beginner to lay out 

 his garden in rows. Indicate the rows on 

 the plan by means of dotted lines; in- 

 dicate bushes and trees by means of 

 circles. Letter or number the rows. If 

 you print nicely you might letter in the 

 names of the vegetables and plants along 

 the dotted lines in the plan. 



Be sure to indicate the points of the 

 compass on the plan and also mark the 

 scale you are using. When one looks at a 

 garden plan one should be able to interpret 

 it without a verbal explanation. 



You may make out one plan in January 

 and decide you have made a good, efficient, 

 economical one, and then make it all 

 over again when February comes. The 

 time put on the first plan is not wasted. 

 It has helped you to work out another 

 far better arrangement of your garden. 



Allow no space for the planting of let- 

 tuce, radish and parsley. These may be 

 sowed in between other crops. Sometimes 

 radish and parsley are planted together 

 in a drill. Suppose you have decided on a 

 given space set aside for the raising of 

 early peas. Then you must also plan 

 to put something else into this space later 

 after the peas have gone by. A crop sown 

 like this to succeed another and earlier 

 crop is called a "succession" crop. 



Another piece of winter work is to choose 

 and order your seed. After the garden 

 plan is made you know just what kind 

 of seed you are to plant. By looking at 

 the clotted lines on the plan you see just 



how many feet of each kind of seed you 

 are to sow. Let us say that on your plan 

 is a line representing a length of ioo feet 

 and the word peas is printed along this 

 line. The question now arises as to the 

 amount of peas to buy in order to plant 

 ioo feet of this seed. 



In picking out and planning for suc- 

 cession crops, or in estimating the quanti- 

 ties of seed necessary to buy, and in figuring 

 on distances apart to make rows on your 

 plan, use the following table: 



NAME 



SEED TO SOW 



DISTANCE BE- 





IOO FEET 



TWEEN ROWS 



Beans (bush) 



i qt. 



2 ft. 



Beet . . 



2 oz. 



I ft. 



Carrots 



I oz. 



I ft. 



Corn 



1 gill 



3 ft. 



Lettuce 



j oz. 



i ft. 



Peas 



1 qt. 



2 ft. 



Radish . . 



1 oz. 



I ft. 



Squash (winter) 2 oz. 



8 ft. 



Tomatoes . 



2 OZ. 



3 ft. 



Turnips (early 



"2 OZ. 



1 ft. 



Order your seeds early. Put them in tin 

 boxes so that mice will not have a feast. 

 Be all ready on planting day. 



There are a few other things to plan for. 

 Are your tools ready? For a small garden 

 you will need a spading fork, hoe, rake, 

 transplanting trowel, and hand cultivator. 

 Are your labels, stakes and garden reel 

 made? These are pieces of work for the 

 manual training shop at school or for 

 spare time work at home. 



This month be sure to make that garden 

 plan. This story of a season in one girl's 

 garden is worth reading. Follow her 



In June there are flowers for cutting 



