

Vegetables for a Family of Seven - By M. T. Richardson, r 



A COMPLETE PLANTING TABLE FOR THE HOME GARDEN, 

 SHOWING WHAT CAN BE DONE ON A PLOT 52x86 FEET 



\^7HEN we moved to the suburbs we 

 * * boldly determined to have a garden. 

 City born and bred, we knew absolutely 

 nothing about the ways of growing things; 

 but this did not deter us. We engaged an 

 old German, who recommended himself 

 highly, to plant and cultivate, at Si. 50 

 a day. The first year Fritz managed 

 the garden entirely, and the results were 

 disappointing — or would have been to 

 any but ultra-urbanites used to dried-up, 

 grocery-store vegetables! Even we saw 

 its shortcomings, but we forgave much for 

 the taste we got of tender peas and un- 

 thinkably sweet corn. It was just a taste, 

 for Fritz believed in planting once and for 

 all. His idea was to plant seeds in the 

 spring and let them grow, hoeing out the 

 worst of the weeds when absolutely nec- 

 essary. Any interference with such natural 

 forces as bugs or blight was ridiculous. 

 When the squash vines suddenly wilted, 

 and I demanded the reason. 



"Bucs," was the laconic reply. 



"But can't we do something?" I urged. 



Fritz shook his head. "It would be 

 no juse," he declared. "The wetter is= 

 too dry. The wines grow goot, comes 

 bucs und dry wetter, und they die. An- 

 udder year we might couldt get squashes." 



A GOOD DETERMINATION 



We determined that another year we 

 would get squashes, if we had to care for 

 the garden ourselves. And that is just 

 what we did do, perforce, as even old 

 Fritz was not available. Meanwhile w r e 

 fell to studying catalogues, books, maga- 

 zines — everything we could get on the 

 subject of garden. 



By the time fall came we had learned 

 our a-b-c's, and in October we started our 



next year's garden by clearing our 52 x 86 

 foot plot and burning all refuse. Then we 

 had a good layer of manure spread on the 

 ground and ploughed in. Through the 

 winter we planned the garden, drawing 

 a plan to scale. It takes careful planning 

 to make less than one eighth of an acre 

 supply vegetables for a family of seven, 

 but it is quite possible. We succeeded in 

 raising a bountiful supply for ourselves, 

 with plenty left over to give to our friends 

 and neighbors. Of course, we discrimin- 

 ated in planting vegetables, omitting those 

 we do not care for. We did not plant 

 potatoes, which can be bought as good as 

 they can be raised; we did not raise egg- 

 plant, cabbage or brussels sprouts. But we 

 planted strawberries and an asparagus bed, 

 and of peas, beans, corn, tomatoes, beets, 

 carrots, melons, squashes, cucumbers, let- 

 tuce, parsley, onions, okra we had more 

 than we could use. As we have neither 

 hotbed nor coldframe, we bought tomato 

 and cauliflower plants, but all the other 

 vegetables were started from seed in the 

 open ground. We made several plantings 

 of most vegetables, a little seed at a time. 

 That lesson, too, Fritz taught us. He had 

 put in six rows of string beans, with the 

 result that by July not only we, but our 

 neighbors on every side, paled at the sight 

 of a bean! This time we planted one or 

 two rows at a time, and had plenty of 

 tender, young, stringless beans all summer. 



THE FIRST PLANTING 



We began planting on April 1st. As the 

 ground had been all ploughed in the fall, 

 we had only to rake it and make our rows 

 with a wheel hoe. We put in radishes, 

 spinach, peas, lettuce, carrots. After the 

 planting was done, an hour a day kept 



border of herbaceous plants and roses at one end of trie vegetable patch gives flowers for the house 



86 



the garden in good condition, though two 

 hours would have been better, if we could 

 have spared the time. The wheel hoe 

 proved a great time saver. 



AXD A LESSON 



The mild weather lured us into planting 

 some things too early. We put in corn the 

 tenth of April, and it did not germinate. 

 We found that peas, lettuce and spinach 

 can hardly be planted too early, but noth- 

 ing is gained by trying to hurry in corn, 

 melons, squashes or lima beans. Our 

 own mistakes, as well as Fritz's, taught 

 us much. Another year we will not plant 

 so many of the little "first early" peas, 

 which are not nearly so sweet as the 

 larger ones. We will make only one plant- 

 ing of Early of Earlies, and thereafter use 

 Gradus, Telephone or Champion of Eng- 

 land. 



SUCCESS WITH PEAS 



An old farmer of our acquaintance told 

 us his method with peas, and it was such 

 a success that I give it here. Make a 

 trench about four inches deep with the 

 wheel-hoe and scatter in it a thin layer of 

 well-rotted manure. Sow the peas, rather 

 thickly, directly on the manure and cover 

 with soil. This sounds dangerous, but 

 produced bumper crops for us. We did 

 not use the manure for plantings later than 

 June 1 st. Be generous in sowing peas, if 

 the vines are thick they seem to do better; 

 while corn must be planted thinly, or else the 

 young plants must be thinned to one or one 

 and one half feet apart in the row. 



The last of April or the first of May is 

 time enough for the early varieties of corn, 

 of which Golden Bantam is (to us) the most 

 delicious. Stowell's Evergreen for a main 

 crop is sweeter and tenderer than Country 

 Gentleman. 



Spinach can be planted early, and it is 

 well to have several rows, four at least, as 

 it takes a good deal to make a "mess." 

 We cut ours three times, then took it up 

 to make room for another crop. For 

 later planting of spinach use the New 

 Zealand, which will stand the hot weather. 



BEATING THE CUTWORMS 



The tomatoes taught us another lesson. 

 Two dozen plants, set out the last of April, 

 died. The cold weather in early May 

 discouraged some, while the rest were 

 neatly cut off just above the ground by the 

 cutworms. On May 15th we set out 

 more plants, and around each one we put 

 a circle of pasteboard, lapping the ends, 

 and pressing it into the ground about an 

 inch, leaving an inch above the ground. 

 As the cutworms work on or near the 

 surface, this simple device saved our 

 tomatoes. When the plants were two 

 feet high we trained them to a single stalk, 



