Simple Talk for the Beginner 



THE TOOLS YOU REALLY NEED AND HOW TO USE THEM— CHAT ON PLANT FOOD 



THE novice who intends having a 

 "war garden" as a patriotic duty, 

 will be well advised to confine his 

 efforts to as few kinds of vegetables 

 as possible. The common mistake with the 

 beginner is too much variety which means 

 greater efFort. In the normal home garden 

 we must have variety, but war garden 

 efforts should be reduced to a severely 

 practical basis. A garden begun with moder- 

 ate ideals and carried to a successful con- 

 clusion is a better contribution to the "win 

 the war" movement than one of greater 

 ambition that does not "land." Now is 

 the time for the big offensive to begin: get 

 the manure hauled into the garden — it im- 

 proves with age, and will pay just as good a 

 dividend as your Liberty Bonds — get brush 

 ready for peas. For remember the dwarf 

 varieties are not just as good as the tall ones, 

 on a basis of production. Bean poles should 

 be made ready, the ends sharpened and 

 tarred or partially burned to help preserve 

 them. Fertilizers should be ordered and got 

 under cover as quickly as possible. Deliveries 

 are slow this spring and don't blame your 

 dealer later on if you don't get your supply 

 on time. 



The beginner will be well advised to order 

 fruit trees, cane fruits, strawberry plants, 

 asparagus and rhubarb roots now while there 

 is some leisure, because it is much easier to 

 determine varieties and quantities now than 

 it will be at planting time in April. 



The Tools You Will Use 



\\ 7HILE good tools do not of necessity 

 * * make good gardens, they are a material 

 help. It is really the muscle behind the 

 tools that gives results. Those actually need- 

 ed in the home garden can almost be listed 

 on the fingers of one hand — spade, or dig- 

 ging fork, hoe, trowel, and sprinkling can — 

 are necessities. There are, however, many . 

 other tools and accessories that are very 

 helpful — manure fork, wheelbarrow, garden 

 line, hand cultivator, spray pump, garden 

 hose, pruning shears, raffia for tying, plant 

 labels for marking seed rows, a measuring 

 stick, asparagus knife, powder bellows, scuffle 

 hoe, warren hoe, wheel cultivator, a' pair 

 of cotton gloves, and a little book in which to 

 keep memoranda. 



The measuring stick you will have to make. 

 Take a piece of I x I soft pine 8 ft. long; 

 mark it off in one foot spaces on all four sides; 

 on one side divide the feet to give a 6 inch 

 spacing and another into 3 inch marks. 

 This will be one of the most useful garden 

 implements. Its constant use when laying 

 out drills makes for general tidiness and 

 neatness. 



How to Use Tools 



COME people manage to make hard work 

 ^ of any simple task, through not knowing 

 how to use tools properly. In gardening a 

 spade is used on new soil where sod or other 

 roots must be cut in the digging; also for 

 making trenches. In old gardens a digging 

 fork may be used, and is preferable wherever 

 possible as it breaks the soil particles better 

 than a spade. For all smoothing operations, 

 covering seed, etc., use the wooden rake; an 

 iron rake is to follow up weeding operations 

 for collecting the rubbish and also for raking 

 stony ground. 



Now as to hoes — they are not all alike: 



For making drills and stirring the soil 

 around individual plants and hilling up, the 

 draw hoe is most useful; but don't use the 

 draw hoe to cut down weeds or you will 

 cover them as you work and are always 

 walking on the finished work, a scuffle hoe is 

 the proper tool to use for weeding operation — 

 and by the way use it in the morning so the 

 weeds may be raked up in the afternoon. The 

 manure fork while useful enough is really 

 a luxury for small gardens. It is used in 

 handling manure, hay, mulch, piling up 

 refuse in fall, etc. Few appreciate the 

 importance of using the garden line. For 

 my own part I would rather have a good 

 garden line than a good hoe. You can make 

 good drills without a hoe but I defy any one to 

 do it without a line. In use keep the line 

 taut. Straight rows are much more easily 

 cultivated than crooked ones. 



Small hand tools, such as dibble, hand 

 weeder, clean cultivator, trowel, etc., though 

 frequently of great assistance, are (with the. 

 possible exception of the trowel) by no 

 means necessities. The spray pump or 

 powder bellows might also be included among 

 the luxuries as the powder can be applied 

 by punching holes in the bottom of a tin 

 can, and the liquids can be applied by using 

 a whisk broom but the comfort and use of the 

 particular appliance is so great and so obvious 

 that the real gardener will surely acquire 

 them. Raffia for tying, of course! No garden 

 should be without it; also seed labels. 



The wheel cultivator and seeding implements 

 are up to the minute appliances and if your 

 garden is of any size beyond the normal city 

 yard the wheel cultivator will pay for itself 

 in a very short time. For cutting pea brush, 

 cutting down dead vines and stalks in fall, 

 add a machete; in fact I don't have a tool 

 that I make better use of. Another little but 

 necessary garden accessory is a pair of cotton 

 gloves which can be purchased for a few 

 cents and are very useful at all times. 



Taking Care of Tools 



COMMON sense tells any one how to 

 take care of garden tools, but it doesn't 

 make him do it. The worst trouble is 

 nothing but carelessness — laziness if you like. 

 Leaving the tools exposed in the garden at all 

 times causes the wooden handles to check and 

 split and the metal parts to rust, andis obvious- 

 ly bad. All tools should be kept -under cover, they 

 will not only last considerably longer but 

 will do much better work with less effort. 

 The soil will adhere to rusted metal. A 

 simple method of keeping the tools clean is to 

 keep a tub of water handy for dipping the 

 tools after use. They won't rust if hard 

 water is used. Of course if the tools are not 

 to be used for any considerable length of time, 

 they should be coated with a cheap oil or 

 grease. 



Why Does the Farmer Plow? 



THERE are several reasons why soil is 

 "prepared." The layer beneath the 

 surface ofttimes contains an excess of organic 

 matters which are more or less deleterious to 

 plant growth. It is desirable to bring these 

 to the action of the sun and air; air is just as 

 important to the roots of plants as water is 

 and it is only by working over that the soil 

 can gather the necessary air, plowing breaks 

 the soil particles thus improving the texture, 

 making it retentive of moisture and allowing 



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the air to penetrate more deeply. Every time 

 a soil is worked it is improved. Digging has; 

 the same effect as plowing and is better 

 for home gardens. This constant working 

 is what makes old gardens more productive 

 than new ones. And don't be afraid to bring 

 some yellow loan to the surface. Always, 

 reverse the positions of the soil layers. Fall 

 trenching that was done in old time gardens is 

 merely bringing the bottom soil to the surface. 



Use Manure Freely 



T TNQUESTIONABLY manuring is the! 

 ^ best means of restoring to the soif 

 the elements that plants take from it. Any-' 

 thing contained in the soil of benefit to plant 

 life must be soluble, the more soluble the 

 more readily available — plants don't eat 

 anything. 



Generally speaking manure is any pro- 

 ductive matter that can be added to the soil 

 to increase fertility. 



Barnyard Manures- are the excrement 

 of animals usually mixed with rye straw, 

 shavings or oth-er-bedding materials. Horse 

 or stable manure is more generally used than 

 any other form. Each year you can dig 

 stable manure into the soil and you will find 

 that in a short time it is entirely disintegrated 

 and absorbed into the soil. Stable manure 

 catches and stores moisture in large quantities, 

 soil containing manure or which has been 

 manured for several seasons does not bake, 

 which is a very valuable point as plants will 

 not grow in an arid, sun-baked soil. 



Cow Manure has the same effect as stable 

 manure and is preferred for plants that make 

 a soft quick growth. It is difficult to get and 

 is therefore little used excepting on estates 

 where they have their own cattle. Cow 

 manure is recommended for light soils as it is 

 more retentive of moisture than ordinary 

 stable manure. 



Pig Manure is usually classed as a bulk 

 manure the same as stable manure, and 

 usually is mixed with such manures. The 

 customary procedure is to throw the fresh 

 stable manure with the soiled bedding into 

 the pig pen, where the animals by continual 

 rooting and tramping convert it into first class 

 manure. Any of these bulk manures may 

 be applied to the ground in liberal quantities 

 say from 2 to 4 loads for a garden 50 x 50 ft. 

 according to the condition of the soil. 



Sheep Manure as it is handled nowadays 

 is really a concentrated manure; in appear- 

 ance so much saw dust but extremely fertile. 

 It is high priced and is usually employed as a 

 special "tonic" for plants that are not doing 

 well or for special crops where an extra degree 

 of perfection is desired. It is not recommended 

 for dry soils as it does not hold moisture to 

 any extent; but on the other hand is invaluable 

 to wet soils as it gives open passage to excess 

 of moisture. 



Many suburbanites who also keep chickens 

 rarely make use of the hen droppings, because 

 it has a bad reputation for no other reason 

 than that it contains an enormous amount of 

 readily available plant food and when used 

 carelessly will burn. To prevent this put it in 

 barrels with almost an equal quantity of 

 sifted ashes. Apply this thinly and dig under. 

 It is a wonderful fertilizer for onions, and is 

 excellent for corn, leek, and other surface 

 rooting plants. Use at the rate of a barrel 

 to every 500 sq. ft. 



