XII 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



April, 1907 



-Ref inish Your Furniture 



Do It Yourself 



I 



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GARDEN WORK FOR APRIL 



By Eben E. Rexford 



THIS is the busy month of the season. As 

 soon as the ground becomes dry enough 

 to work to advantage, spade it up. 

 Throw it up in clods without attempting to 

 pulverize it. This can not be done successfully, 

 until air and sunshine have had a chance to do 

 their work upon it. After being exposed for 

 a few days to the action of the elements it will 

 be in a condition to disintegrate readily. Then 

 — and not till then — work it over and over 

 with the hoe and spade until it is mellow and 

 fine. 



Add to it, as you pulverize it, whatever 

 fertilizer you decide on using. Incorporate 

 this thoroughly with the soil. 



If barnyard manure is not obtainable, most 

 of the commercial fertilizers can be substi- 

 tuted to good advantage. Before deciding on 

 any kind, it would be advisable to consult 

 some practical farmer or gardener, or dealer 

 in fertilizers, and get his opinion of what is 

 best adapted to the soil in your locality. Soils 

 vary greatly, and what may answer perfectly 

 in one place may not be what is needed ten or 

 fifteen miles away. 



Plowing can not be done to advantage in 

 small pieces of ground, such as comprise the 

 average garden. Of course plowing does away 

 with considerable hard labor on the part of 

 the gardener, and it expedites matters con- 

 siderably, but results are quite as good where 

 the spade is used, if it is used thoroughly. The 

 soil must be turned up to the depth of a foot 

 at least. One argument in favor of the use of 

 the plow is, that all the soil in the garden will 

 be turned over by it, while if spading is de- 

 pended on, a good deal of that between the 

 rows will be skipped. This ought not to be, 

 for while plants in rows do not grow in the 

 unspaded soil, they should receive a good deal 

 of benefit from it, and this they can not do 

 unless it is thoroughly stirred and kept free 

 from weeds. It is an excellent plan to have 

 the garden plowed every other year, if it can 

 be done. The use of the garden cultivator in 

 the paths, during the season, will keep the 

 soil open to the admission of air, and moisture, 

 and prevent the growth of weeds. 



The garden cultivator, which is the tool 

 of the garden, par excellence, can not be used 

 to advantage unless vegetables are grown in 

 rows, because of the many turns that must be 

 made when one attempts to use it in beds. If 

 the rows run lengthwise of the garden, but few 

 turns will have to be made. You will go up 

 one side of a row, and back on the other, 

 and there will be very little waste of time or 

 labor, but in cultivating the short rows run- 

 ning across a bed more time and work will be 

 expended on the turns you have to make than 

 on the bed itself, and it will be impossible to 

 do as good work, or make the garden look well. 



Seed-sowing is not the careless, rapid work 

 that many amateur gardeners seem to think it. 

 Neither is it the difficult, complicated work 

 that one often gets an idea of its being after 

 reading some of the elaborate advice of fussy 

 gardeners. When your soil is in proper condi- 

 tion, work out the rows plainly before anything 

 else is done. Get them straight by the use of 

 a line. Then run a stick with a rather blunt 

 point along the row, being careful to just stir 

 the surface of the soil enough to enable you to 

 easily follow the row after the line is re- 

 moved. It is not necessary to make a depres- 

 sion in the soil for the reception of seed of 

 ordinary vegetables, as some seem to think. 

 Scatter the seed evenly. Sow thickly enough to 

 make sure of sufficient plants all along the row. 

 If there are too many, surplus ones can easily 

 be pulled out. It is better to have more than 

 are needed than not enough, for that means 



