104 



The Garden Magazine, April, 1920 



ience only of these. I prefer a wire fence to anything else for 

 their support and 1 like to get the vines up high so that they may 

 get plenty of light and air. My fence is 5J feet high, but this 

 is too low so uprights are nailed to the posts, with single wires 

 strung through staples a foot apart in them. This increases 

 the height to 9 feet. The beans are planted on both sides of 

 the fence and the whole trellis is covered during the summer 

 with a dense screen of vines, heavily laden with big pods. Any 

 kind of a fence will of course support Limas, and suburban 

 dwellers who have long fences could perfectly well utilize them 

 for the purpose. Single poles upright, sunk deep so that 

 the eventual weight of the vines will not make them sag, are 

 good, but a better method of growing is to plant them along a 

 permanent lattice-work arbor such as grapevines commonly 

 grow on — and, in addition to being ideally supported by such 

 a structure they form a very pretty avenue of shade as well. 



One further consideration remains. This is the planting 

 itself. And it is this which causes the average gardener to fail 

 with Lima Beans. In the first place beans of all kinds are very 



tender; and they positively will not sprout in damp, chilly soil. 

 In middle latitudes it is rarely worth while planting them until 

 May first. In planting, the seeds should be pressed two inches 

 into the soil with the eye down (the bean being held edgeways). 

 This work should be done by hand. If the soil is hard, cover 

 each seed with a handful of finely crumbled earth, which may 

 be firmed down well over the planted seed. If heavy rains fall 

 on a tough soil between the planting and the breaking through 

 the ground of the seed, the surface must be worked — but very 

 lightly and carefully to avoid injuring the brittle stems which 

 are trying to push their way through the earth. As regards 

 watering, Limas do not suffer greatly from drought for their 

 roots are deep-plunging and their foliage affords shade. But 

 sometimes watering seems advisable. Never water at the top 

 however. My own method is to sink tin cans, perforated at 

 the bottom, between every two plants if along the fence, or a 

 can by each bean-pole. When drought comes 1 fill these cans 

 once a week and the water is slowly and evenly distributed to 

 the roots. 



INTELLIGENT USE OF FERTILIZERS 



Avoiding Mixing Things That Waste Each Other 



IMELY, intelligent use of fertilizers in the garden be- 

 fore we plant cannot possibly be duplicated by means 

 of top-dressings, liquid manures and other late season 

 BPpISP stimuli no matter how valuable and effective they 

 may be. 



The wise and forehanded gardener will have already done 

 much by planting a cover, or green manure, crop last fall — 

 rye and vetch, clover, peas and oats. Perhaps, previous to that 

 a dressing of manure was turned under and some lime raked in 

 later during the winter, and manure spread ready for the spring 

 plowing. If so well and good; if not here is the programme 

 to follow as closely as possible, beginning immediately. 



Wherever possible get stable manure and have it spread six 

 inches deep all over the garden plot. Try to get well rotted 

 manure including both cow and horse droppings, but if it is 

 mostly the latter see that it is not burned out or "firefanged," 

 as indicated by a white, dusty, lifeless 

 appearance. 



At the right moment have this plowed 

 or dug under, depending on the size of 

 the garden. In either case make the job 

 a good deep one. What the " right mo- 

 ment" is for your particular soil and loca- 

 tion, only experience can tell ; it is when 

 the soil is moist but not wet, friable and 

 loose but not dry and dusty. 



On the upturned furrows strew some 

 form of lime unless you know from past 

 seasons' experience that the soil is not 

 sour; in that case better use a good 

 dressing of bone meal. Rake or harrow 

 this application in; and then (if you really 

 want abundant, soul-satisfying crops) 

 rake in a dressing of some well-balanced, 

 all-round garden fertilizer. Save your 

 nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia 

 or other favorite "tonics" until your 

 crops are up and really growing, and able 



/K/a> 'Fhosptofe 



Fbkvh 

 Sa/ti 



TO MIX, OR NOT TO MIX? 



The materials formed by the white bands may be 

 mixed and applied together, but not for storage. 

 The thin black lines join materials that can 

 be mixed at any time. Do not mix, nor apply 

 together the substances joined by heavy black 

 lines, as they re-act destructively on each other 



to digest, enjoy and benefit from them. As to cautions: — 

 note in the accompanying diagram which kinds of plant 

 foods should not be applied together. This is of special 

 importance when you mix your own fertilizers, and worth 

 considering even when you buy commercial plant food and 

 also use manures, lime, or wood ashes. 



If you apply "a little fertilizer" at seed planting time, as 

 some advocate, mix the soil and fertilizer first and do not sow 

 the seed directly in the dry fertilizer. Why not? Because 

 plant food is taken into the roots in solution; fertilizers are dry 

 and especially "thirsty" and will absorb the first moisture they 

 can get. If this happens to be in a germinating seed or a lusty 

 root-hair with which they are in contact, the fertilizer will play 

 the vampire, the seed will be sucked dry (or as we usually say 

 "burned"). 

 The most valuable fertilizers are the most soluble ones; and 

 so are the ones most likely to be picked 

 up by the water in the soil, which, if the 

 soil be sandy, rapidly leaches through 

 and out. This, then is the reason for 

 delaying the application of the highly 

 soluble forms until the plants are old 

 enough to snatch the "soil soup" as it 

 trickles past their feeding roots. 



As to lime, the more the average soil 

 chemist learns about it, the less he is 

 generally willing to affirm as to its true 

 relation to soil fertility and plant feeding. 

 It does appear certain, however, that it 

 helps put in usable form the plant food 

 that already exists in the soil, and that 

 so long as we keep our ground reasonably 

 well supplied with the elements essential 

 to plant growth, we can safely work in 

 some form of lime whenever the oppor- 

 tunity offers to do so without conflicting 

 with other fertilizing practices. Look at 

 the adjoining diagram. 



