How I Cared for My Backyard Garden— By Roger w. Babson,££i 



[Editors' Note: — This is the fourth article in Mr. Babson's scries (beginning in the April number), in which the economic value of the backyard in relation to 

 the ''Cost of Living" problem is discussed. Tlwrc arc yet two articles to appear.} 



I SUPPOSE most business men think 

 the way to care for their backyard 

 gardens is to let their wives hire a man 

 to hoe the same and then draw a check 

 to pay for this man's services. This, 

 however, is not the way to reduce the cost 

 of living. Not only does this way eliminate 

 all chances of financial profit, but also 

 the chances of profit to one's health and 

 of pleasure. I, personally, have taken sole 

 care of my garden, have never spent a 

 dollar for any hoeing, and have obtained 

 most satisfactory financial and physical 

 results. My principal method of care has 

 been to systematically spend two hours 

 every Saturday in the garden. This has 

 been practically the only time I have 

 spent, but I have systematically spent this 

 amount. A great many people go through 

 life without doing anything systematically, 

 and to this fact is the high cost of living 

 partly due. 



There is an old saying: "A stitch in 

 time saves nine." Whether or not this 

 applies to sewing, I do not know; but I 

 do know that it applies to the garden. 

 When weeds are only half an inch high, 

 one hundred of them can be killed with 

 one stroke of the hoe; but after they are 

 two feet high, they begin to be plants, 

 instead of weeds, and must be pulled up 

 with great care. Indeed, there are many 

 occasions in gardening when it is wiser 

 not to disturb weeds than to uproot them 

 even with care. This is especially true 

 in the case of running vines like squashes 

 and pumpkins, which are very tenaceous 

 of the hold they get upon surrounding 

 objects through their tendrils or feelers; 

 and if this hold is broken, the result in 

 fruit development will be impaired, per- 

 haps utterly destroyed. 



There are many varieties of weeds and 

 so quickly and generously do they improve 

 the opportunity to possess the land that 

 one marvels at the law which seems to 

 favor them more than those growths which 

 men cultivate and alone deem valuable. 

 I have sometimes fancied that every 



growth in the vegetable kingdom has a 

 value if only it could be discovered. I, 

 personally, know that several very common 

 weeds frequently allowed to develop in the 

 backyard garden possess a considerable 

 food value. 



Common pusley, which will completely 

 cover the ground as with a mat, if given 

 half a chance, and a brief one suffices when 

 the chance is full, makes an excellent green 

 for the dinner table, while two varieties 

 of "pig" weed, when cooked as greens, can 

 barely be told from spinach. Then there 

 is common sorrel, which many crave when 

 properly cooked and served. The fore- 

 going, ragweed and wild turnip and chick- 

 weed, are the principal garden weeds in 

 most New England localities. 



Somebody has said, and it seems to me 

 wisely, that anything is a weed which 

 grows unsown and out of place! There 

 is often a temptation to allow a thrifty 

 squash or cucumber vine or a tomato 

 plant, which comes up where it was not 

 sown, to grow, even when it interferes with 

 the symmetry of a garden bed and the 

 maturing of something useful and of an 

 entirely different nature. The chances 

 are many to one that the fruit of the 

 interloping plant will prove comparatively 

 worthless as a specimen of its species; and 

 therefore it is generally safe to cut up 

 these plants when known weeds are 

 destroyed. 



I referred above to vegetable growths, 

 meaning weeds chiefly, being useful. There 

 is no question that they are useful to turn 

 under as humus to return nitrogen and other 

 chemical elements to the soil and make it 

 light and friable, but weeds for this use 

 should rather be those that are allowed to 

 make a growth late in the season than 

 while the useful products of the garden are 

 being developed for the harvest. In other 

 words, if the ground is covered with weeds 

 in the autumn and if they are plowed under 

 then, of if they freeze during the winter 

 and what remains of them is plowed under 

 in the spring, they serve a useful end. At 



the same time, there are better leguminous 

 piants that can be sown in the garden 

 which will perform a much better service 

 than ordinary weeds. 



There are several of these legumes — 

 clovers and vetches — and rye which can be 

 sown even in a small garden between rows 

 of corn, beans, etc., in late summer, the 

 seeds being covered with a garden rake or 

 scuffle-hoe, and which will develop suffi- 

 ciently to cover the ground and protect 

 the soil during the winter, and which can 

 be turned under by the plow or the spade 

 the following spring to great advantage. 

 This is not commonly done in small gardens, 

 but may be done. It is a growing practice 

 where agriculture is intensive. Then weeds 

 have great uses — in fact, all rubbish 

 from a garden may, when available, be 

 placed around the trunks of fruit trees if 

 any such there are connected with a garden 

 or located near it, care being taken not to 

 have the pile touch the trunks of the trees, 

 lest it harbor mice, which may gnaw the 

 bark. 



As a general principle, it is better not 

 to have fruit or shade trees in a garden, but 

 people having "backyard gardens" may 

 wish to have an apple tree, a pear, plum, 

 or peach tree or something of that sort. 

 If the reader has no such trees, all such 

 rubbish can be placed in a pile by itself 

 in some place where it may not be offensive 

 to the eye or smell, and be allowed to rot 

 and produce fertilizer of value. All house 

 waste may be thrown upon such a pile 

 and covered with loam from time to time. 

 Such piles are of greater fertilizing value 

 than is commonly appreciated, and it is 

 true economy, in case of the farmer or the 

 gardener, to utilize everything of that sort. 

 Only by such methods can the cost of 

 living be reduced. 



As the reader must not forget the main 

 object of this backyard garden, which is 

 to save the cost of vegetables, I wish to 

 say that hoeing and harvesting go hand 

 in hand. In fact, harvesting of radishes, 

 lettuce, etc., begins at the time of the first 



June 12-30 



July 1-7 

 July 8-14 

 July 15-21 

 July 22—28 

 July 20-Aug. 4 

 Aug. 5-1 1 

 Aug. 12-18 

 Aug. 19-25 

 Aug. 26-Sept.i 

 Sept. 2-8 

 Sept. 9-15 

 Sept. 16-22 

 Sept. 23-29 

 Sept. 30- Oct 6 



June 12-Oct. 6 



20. .$1.00 

 4.. .40 



$ .50 



.60 

 .70 



1 .00 

 .40 

 ■ 3° 

 25 

 So 



1.20 

 .60 

 .40 

 .40 

 ■25 

 . 20 

 . 20 



6.. 



17. . 



24. .Si .40 



.8 90 

 . 2 00 

 . 1 . 10 

 . 1.40 

 .10 



■8 .50 3°- .8750 I 49... 85-5° 



14. . .Si .40 

 17... 1.80 



1 . 20 



.60 



1 .00 



71.. .87-1° 



TOMATOES 



2^ lbs S 



i lb 



1 lb 



1 lb 



2 lbs 



17 lbs 2 



23 lbs 2 



42 qts.(a). . 2 

 67 qts. ... 3 



80 qts 3 



55 qts 1 



8 qts 



6 qts 



82.55 See note ..817.14 See note . .Si. 75 



CUCUMBERS 



(b). 



■ 8 .05 



■ -05 

 . .08 



• 40 



• -40 



SWISS CHARD 



SUMMER 

 SQUASH 





















8.. 

 7-- 

 4- • 



Si 



00 



70 

 40 



2. . 

 3-- 



2. . 

 2. . 



4- • 



5- - 

 4. . 





20 

 30 

 20 

 20 

 40 

 50 

 20 



.S4.I0 



S.76 



■ S .45 



. .63 



• -75 

 .1.25 

 . 1.08 



■ -70 

 .40 



24-.-S5.46 



MISC. & 

 VEGETA- 

 BLES NOT 

 PICKED 



(a) As from now on some of the tomatoes were picked for canning purposes, part of them are reckoned at the price per bushel. 



(b) Some of these cucumbers were used for pickle. 



339 



