Chart for a Perpetual Vegetable Garden — By p. p. Pierce, „. 



District 

 Colombia 



IET us understand. This is not a plan 

 for a specific garden, but a chart 

 i which is adaptable to any vege- 

 table garden. 



The usual garden plan is deficient in that 

 it fails to show, with respect to any given 

 section of the plot, what has occupied the 

 ground before and what is to 

 come after. In other words, 

 rotation does not receive de- 

 tailed consideration. While it 

 is probable that few gardeners 

 plant the same vegetables in 

 the same place year after year, 

 scientific rotation requires 

 something more. It is, of 

 course, possible to grow good 

 crops of a vegetable on the 

 same ground for a number of 

 years if heavy fertilization is 

 practised. It is believed, how- 

 ever, that the fertilizer bill 

 may be greatly reduced or the 

 yield greatly increased, or 

 both, by practising careful ro- 

 tation. 



A three year rotation has 

 been chosen as best adapted to 

 this latitude (Washington, D. 

 C), where the comparatively 

 long season favors succession 

 cropping. Farther north a four 

 or five year rotation would 

 probably be preferable. 



As far as possible plants of 

 the same general cultural and 

 manurial requirements will be 

 placed together, thus the leg- 

 umes which require a deep, 

 sweet soil are to be placed this 

 year in plot No. i, which is 

 to be deeply worked and well 

 limed but which as a whole will 

 receive no manure. In light 

 soils a little fertilizer, strong 

 in potash, might profitably be 

 applied in the pea furrows, care 

 being taken to mix it with the 

 soil and to keep it below the 

 peas as otherwise the growing 

 sprouts might be burned. 

 With the rotation once estab- 

 lished enough potash and phos- 

 phorous will be carried over 

 from the previous crops of po- 

 tatoes, etc., to grow a good 

 crop of peas. A little manure 

 will be placed under each hill 

 of lima beans. 



In planting the succession 

 crops on this plot a liberal 

 amount of compost will be 

 placed under each cabbage 

 plant, and mixed with the soil 

 where the drills of kale, spin- 

 ach and carrots are to be. A 

 tablespoonful of fertilizer will 

 also be mixed with the soil un- 

 derneath each hill of corn. 



I find that it is not advisable to fork the 

 ground deeply for succession crops, nor is 

 it advisable to turn under pea vines or 

 similar refuse as the capillarity of the soil 

 is thereby destroyed with fatal results 

 should the late season be dry. The sur- 

 face, however, should be thoroughly pul- 



«r^f!ijj 



Grow companion crops whenever possible and economise space 



ALTERNATE ROWS 

 BEETS . SALSIFY 



ONION SETS 

 PARSNIPS 





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CARR0TS+ RADISHES IN DRILLS 

 OF ALL 



LIV. CORE LESS TOM._ «J» _ EY. PRIZE HD. LETTUCE. 



ADVANCE TOM. ""J". ...■pf^Lf.Z. 9L0JBZ. RAOISHES_ 

 GER. BLK WAX BEANS 



IRISH COBBLER 



POTATOES 



EOL. 



Br 



G.S.B CELERY 



' rVfin ~q~ 'ciLfm 



G.B.W BEANS _ 



f'O HOOK CUCUMBER 



GLORY CABBAGE 



FMEHALO GEM MELONS "• 



EY. ERFT. CAULIFLOWER, 10 



GOLDEN BANTAM CORN ""■•"■ RUTABAGAS 



r " CALHOUN PUMPKINS 



MANGELS 



MA/VGELS 



£ Y. L.PA. PEAS 



MAM. CHILI SQUASH 



r-oi. by- WINTER BEETS 



20 PLANTING 



4 

 TREATMENT 



OF 



1st CROP 



G.B. CORN 



THOS LAX TO IV 



FOL 



BY 



GLOP.Y CABBAGE 



PC/13 



DWF. S. C. 



KALE 



BLOOMSDALE SPINACH 



BPS. S.G.P BEANS 



CHANTENAY CARROTS 



FORDS MAM. LIMA BEANS 



ICEBG LETTUCE 



<3CALE 



Chart showing three year rotation for a home vegetable garden 

 88 



verized and the soil around the seeds com- 

 pacted. If available, water may be allowed 

 to run for some time in furrows where the 

 late crops are to be planted. 



Practically all of the coarse manure to be 

 used will be applied to the second plot 

 wherein the gross feeding group of vege- 

 tables is to be planted. Com- 

 panion cropping will be prac- 

 tised on this plot. Squash is 

 to be placed in well manured 

 hills at intervals in one row of 

 corn, pumpkins in every fourth 

 hill of another row, and the 

 winter root crops between the 

 hills of all the rows shortly be- 

 fore the corn matures. Crim- 

 son clover will be sown be- 

 tween the rows when the corn 

 is last cultivated to be turned 

 under the following spring. 



Such vegetables as may be 

 most advantageously grown in 

 a bed will be placed in the last 

 plot together with the potatoes 

 and tomatoes. Commercial 

 fertilizer is to be largely used 

 on this plot as the bedded root 

 crops are liable to become split 

 or forked by manure and the 

 potatoes scabby; furthermore, 

 potatoes are not especially 

 benefited by lime and tomatoes 

 and the radishes which are to 

 be planted between them, or 

 to be more accurate, between 

 where they are to be, are in- 

 jured by lime. Compost will 

 be applied to the bed and 

 manure will be placed under 

 each tomato plant. In the bed 

 drills will be made 8 inches 

 apart. Onion sets are to be 

 stuck in the alternate drills, 

 the remaining drills to be 

 planted, at the same time, to 

 root crops, such as salsify, 

 parsnips, etc., in the drills of 

 which radish seeds will be thinly 

 sown. The radishes mature 

 quickly and are removed first, 

 the onions next, leaving the 

 ground clear for slowly matur- 

 ing crops. 



It will of course be under- 

 stood that the vegetables which 

 occupy plot No. i one year 

 will be planted on plot No. 3 

 the next, those on No. 2 on 

 No. 1, and those on No. 3 on 

 No. 2. It is in this way that 

 the plan becomes perpetually 

 available, requiring only such 

 yearly modification as experi- 

 ence dictates. I have worked 

 out this accompanying plan 

 after several years of personal 

 experience in rotation, succes- 

 sion and companion cropping. 



TREATMENT 



CROP 



