How I Planted and Prepared My Backyard Garden 



By Roger W. Babson, £=L 



(Editor's Note: This is the third article in a series of six that will discuss the present day problem of the "Cost of Living," with 

 special reference to the part that the backyard garden can be made to play in its reduction. The first of the series appeared in A pril.) 



IT SEEMS to me that 

 to write an article on 

 gardening for The 

 Garden Magazine 

 is a good deal like carry- 

 ing coals to Newcastle or 

 pouring water into the sea. 

 There are hosts of trained 

 agriculturists who forget 

 more every night about 

 planting gardens than I 

 ever knew. Neverthe- 

 less, as this is one of a 

 series of articles on re- 

 ducing the cost of liv- 

 ing, rather than on 

 agriculture, it probably 

 is necessary for me to 

 tell how an 

 active busi- 

 ness man , 

 who is not a 

 trained agri- 

 c u 1 1 uri s t 

 with plenty 

 of time, 

 money, and men, has planted and cared 

 for his garden. 



As heretofore suggested, the first act 

 of the drama — or tragedy some may call 

 it — is to spade the garden. As stated 

 last month, unfortunately I cannot speak 

 from experience regarding spading; for 

 when it is time to spade and plant, I am 

 usually very busy in New York or else- 

 where, and it is all I can do to get time to 

 plant the garden, let alone spading it. 

 I therefore have a laborer do this work 

 which costs about $1.25. A young man, 

 however, who has his garden in the back- 

 yard of his winter home can very easily 

 do a littlt spading each day and will find 

 it unnecessary to hire the work done. 

 (To spade an entire garden at "one sitting ", 

 so to speak, is too much of a job for an 

 indoor man who is not accustomed to any 

 manual labor.) Such a young man can 

 go out each morning and work for fifteen 

 or twenty minutes with great profit. 

 Moreover, spading the garden one's self 

 has another advantage over having the 

 work done by a common laborer. I 

 refer to the fact that if a laborer spades the 

 garden it is all spaded in one day or less, 

 and, as the garden should be planted only 

 little at a time so the crops will not mature 

 at the same time, it then is often necessary 

 to spade a portion of the garden again 

 before the final planting is completed. If 

 one spades his own garden, however, he 

 can do it as he plants. 



When about ready to spade, a load of 

 manure should be ordered. If possible 

 get old manure, free from shavings and 

 wood chips and also free from straw. 



Either old horse or cow manure is satis- 

 factory, but very warm manure in which 

 the straw or wood has decayed or burned 

 is far preferable. I also use fertilizer, but 

 manure alone is perfectly satisfactory, 

 especially for a man who owns his land and 

 is truly interested in developing a splendid 

 garden for the long pull. If one is only 

 renting his home and is liable to leave at 

 any time, possibly fertilizer will do as well. 

 Manure, however, is food for the ground, 

 whereas fertilizer is more of a stimulant. 

 Thus a garden which is heavily manured 

 grows better each year, while a garden 

 which is simply fertilized with artificial 

 fertilizer is said to run out. For my 

 garden, which contains 1,500 square feet, 

 I use two small loads of manure, one 

 spread upon the ground before spading, 

 and the other used with fertilizer in my 

 rows and hills. I usually order two 50- 

 pound bags of a standard fertilizer "for a 

 kitchen garden." 



Assume that the garden is spaded and 

 we are now ready to commence planting. 

 In the vicinity of New York, Pennsylvania 

 and southern New England, planting can 

 be commenced about the middle of April. 

 It is, however, a great mistake to decide 

 upon any definite date for planting. More 

 people plant too early than too late, and 

 it is wise to wait until the ground is fairly 

 mellow and workable. It is also useless 

 to plant in cold, wet ground, and it is 

 foolhardy to plant before the frost is com- 

 pletely out of the ground. The last few 

 years I have begun to plant my backyard 

 garden on April 19th, which is a holiday 

 in Massachusetts. On this day I have 

 dug with my hoe seven rows and have 

 planted two rows of early "American- 

 Wonder" peas, or about a pint in all; 

 two rows of Early Scarlet Beets, or about 

 two ounces thereof; and two rows of New 

 Zealand spinach, using about the same 

 amount of this; and one row of Swiss 

 chard, using about one half an ounce. 

 It is also possible to plant carrots, cabbages, 

 and certain other "root" vegetables at 

 this time ; but I usually plant my cabbages 

 in the house or buy the plants, and do 

 not plant them in the open ground from 

 seed. 



The reader must be acquainted with all 

 the above vegetables with the possible 

 exception of New Zealand spinach, which, 

 to my mind, is one of the most profitable 

 and useful vegetables for a backyard gar- 

 den. Its seed is quite expensive and much 

 more must be planted than is customary 

 when planting greens, because only a 

 small proportion of the seed properly 

 germinates. I usually buy 50 cents' worth 

 and let it come up as it will and do not 

 bother to thin it out. In about a month 



305 



from planting time one can enjoy the first 

 meal by cutting off the extreme tops of 

 each plant with scissors and cooking same 

 about twenty minutes, as one would cook 

 greens of any kind. Many people make 

 the mistake of allowing this New Zealand 

 spinach to grow long or tall; but I never 

 permit it to get beyond six inches in height, 

 keeping it continually cut down. The more 

 one cuts, the more he has. It lacks the 

 bitter taste of the regular spinach and is 

 much more tender and sweet. Moreover, 

 it is always ready to cook as it takes only 

 about five minutes' time to gather enough 

 for a good meal. It is as tender in August 

 or even September — if kept cut down and 

 watered — as in June or July. By all 

 means plant New Zealand spinach and 

 Swiss chard. Moreover, by planting them 

 both, it is unnecessary to use the Swiss 

 chard as greens, but the chard can be 

 allowed to grow up in stalks and these 

 stalks can be used as asparagus is used. 

 When the stalks are about twelve inches 

 long, they can be gathered, the leaf part cut 

 off and the stalks cut up in pieces about 

 one inch long. After these have been 

 stewed for half an hour with a little salt 

 they make a most delicious table vegetable. 



how 1 PLANT 



In planting the above vegetables, the 

 peas are planted in a trench about eight 

 inches deep and covered about three 

 inches; while the beets, spinach and chard 

 are also planted in trenches, but are covered 

 with only about one inch of soil. After 

 planting these vegetables, the top surface 

 of the rows remain filled up to within two 

 or three inches below the surface of the 

 ground. It is very important that a 

 portion of the trenches be left so that the 

 earth may later be hoed up around the 

 roots. This will give the garden a more 

 level appearance during the summer as 

 the rows will not project above the rest 

 of the garden surface. When planting a 

 garden one should continually keep in 

 mind that the garden must have sufficient 

 moisture and hoeing. By having the 

 rows and hills indented in the ground tends 

 to collect the moisture where it is most 

 needed, or near the seeds and around the 

 roots of the plants. Hills and rows which 

 come up above the level of the garden 

 serve as the roof of a house and take moist- 

 ure away from the plant instead of collect- 

 ing it. This often makes a difference be- 

 tween a successful and unsuccessful garden. 

 Remember to leave the ground so as to 

 collect and hold water about the plants. 



I do not plant any more vegetables 

 until my peas are up, which is usually 

 about two weeks after planting them, 

 when I plant two more rows of peas and 



