CONSIDERING THE HOUSEKEEPER 



M. T. RICHARDSON 



Planning the Vegetable Plot With a View to Meeting the Family Needs for 

 a Succession of Young Tender Crops Where Table Quality is the Standard 



FLOWERS BORDER AND SCREEN THE HOUSEKEEPER'S GARDEN 

 And the tall growing things are in groups together; likewise the all-season crops and the succession crops 



)TOW can any one live in the country or suburbs, with 

 even a small patch of ground available, and be 

 ' content to buy all the vegetables needed for the 

 table? Raising the crops that the housekeeper will 

 care for pays in money, in the quality of the vegetables, and 

 in the comfortable feeling of plenty she experiences in es- 

 caping from the grocer's quart measure. 



If there be lots of room, and plenty of help with the work, 

 there's no great problem; but even if you can't spare much 



Raspberries 



Asparagus 



Melon Patch 

 Hills 4ft Apart 



lima. Beans 

 }Oft Poles &!t Apart 



3ush Itmas 



Ooldefi Bantam 



Rows iff Apart 



Beets 



Spinachl 



Beans 



lettuce 



lie.ans 



^qclishe.s 



Peas 



P adtshes 



Ped Chili Peppers 



'^/; c;/. 



GRASS PATH 



et peppers 



s5tri.}.-i OidrcL 



TgS Plant 



Tarty Pea.K 2 Vouble. P pyvs 



Cuvumbers 



late. Corn 



-GtrM^n—^pd — Irppyrs— 



■ 5io\v c lls Zyergrccn — Jj g o y vJ 



. Tomatoes 



Ir/ng Povy of ra rl y Potatoes 



l.ono Porf of Strawberries 4ft Apart m Roy 



FLOWER BORDER. 



SUGGESTED PLAN FOR HOUSEKEEPER'S GARDEN 



Individual families may have different needs — 

 More Onions or Potatoes and less Corn for example 

 — and the planting plan may be changed to suit 



ground, or expect to care for the plot yourself, don't be dis- 

 couraged. A garden 50 x 100 will furnish a supply of vege- 

 tables for a family of four or five (without intensive planting) . 

 The accompanying plan is a little larger than that, and will 

 furnish abundant supplies for a family of seven, as I know 

 from experience — provided you use plenty of fertilizer, good 

 seed, and cultivate well. Before spading or plowing the plot, 

 cover well with manure — fertilizer will do on a pinch, but is 

 not so good — and have it dug under. The ideal way is to 

 have the garden plowed in the fall, and leave it exposed to 

 the frost. This insures an early start in the spring, besides 

 killing many worms and grubs. 



It is well to plan the garden on paper, even if you do not 

 follow the plan exactly. Have the rows run north and south 

 if possible — though that is not essential. Remember, if 

 your space is limited, that you can't grow everything; and 

 select your seeds accordingly. The crops I consider indis- 

 pensable — others may disagree with me — are asparagus, 

 peas, beans, beets, corn, tomatoes, musk-melons, strawberries; 

 I also grow peppers, carrots, a few onions, radishes, lettuce, 

 spinach, okra, and chard. I omit potatoes, which take a 

 good deal of room and much care, and parsnips, eggplant 

 and cabbage, because we do not care for these particular 

 edibles. Nor do I raise squash or pumpkins. 



Some of the vegetables can be hurried, others cannot. 

 Peas, spinach, lettuce can be planted as soon as the ground 

 can be worked. I have put in peas while the ground was still 

 frosty, by scraping out a furrow, putting a layer of manure 

 in it and dropping the peas right on the manure. But corn 

 is a tender seed and must be left for warm weather. The 

 hardy little Golden Bantam, the sweetest corn there is, can 

 be planted, in a good season, about the middle of April. 



223 



