February, 19 17 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
29 
pest has put in appearance. Also it leaves 
narrow strips of the garden, often only two 
or three feet in width, which cannot be used to 
advantage when the crops growing in them 
have matured, and which are in the way of 
planting to be done on either side of them. 
Plan, therefore, to arrange your various 
plantings in groups that will mature at approxi- 
mately the same time. Whether they are 
planted at the same time or not is of secondary' 
importance, as it is an easy matter, if a careful 
garden plan is made, to leave space for the 
th'ngs which must be planted later. 
To illustrate: Let us suppose that in the 
first two weeks or so of planting this spring 
you expect to put in the following vegetables : 
Beets (plants); beets; cabbage (plants); 
carrots; cauliflower (plants); chard; kohl- 
rabi; lettuce (plants); lettuce; onion (set); 
onions; parsley; parsnip; peas, smooth; peas, 
second planting; radish; salsify; spinach; 
turnips. They would naturally be sown and 
set out in about the following order: 
VEGETABLE GROUND AVAILABLE 
FOR SECOND PLANTING 
Pens, smooth Early June 
Onions, sets Early June 
Cabbage, plants Mid-July 
Radish Mid-May 
Lettuce, plants Early June 
Beets, plants Late June 
Onions, seed Mid-September 
Beets, seed Late July 
Chard All season 
Carrots, seed Late July 
Turnips Mid-June 
Kohl rabi Late June 
Lettuce, seed Late June 
Spinach Late May 
Parsley All season 
Parsnips All season 
Salsify .AH season 
Cauliflower, plants .... Mid-July 
Peas, second planting. . . Mid-June 
The trouble with this arrangement, how- 
ever, would develop when it came time to 
make the second plantings. 1 he same vege- 
tables could however be rearranged as follows: 
VEGETABLES GROUND AVAILABLE FOR SECOND 
(IN GROUPS) 
PLANTING 
Lettuce, 
Beets, 
Onions. 
Radish* 
Spinach 
Peas, smooth 
plants \ 
plants | 
sets ' 
1 
> Mid-June. 
Cabbage, 
Cauliflower, 
Kohlrabi 
Lettuce 
Turnips 
Peas, wrinkled 
plants t 
plants i 
] 
1 
Mid-July. 
1 
Beets 
Carrots 
I 
Late July. 
Chard 
Onions 
Parsley* 
Parsnip 
Salsify 
[ Remain all, or practically 
all, season. 
Note: means very small quantity required. 
Radishes can be “interplanted'' in other crops; parsley 
sown in seed border or out of way corner. 
The advantage of this arrangement is at 
once apparent. The same point should be 
kept in mind in grouping succession plant- 
ings, and the tender vegetables, which will 
be put in during the succeeding few weeks, 
until all of the garden space available has been 
used. 
Plants that will occupy the ground so long 
that a second planting of vegetables cannot 
be made after they are removed, should be 
given a block or section of the garden where 
they will all be together. Most of these can 
be followed by a winter cover crop, and the 
section devoted to them can be changed or 
“rotated” from year to year, so that each 
part of the garden in turn will be sure to get 
a generous supply of vegetable matter which 
is so necessary to maintain its fertility. 
THINK OF THE SUMMER WORK 
A MISTAKE often made is to plan the 
garden for convenience in planting, 
whereas convenience in cultivating should be 
given the preference. Planting is done but 
once; cultivating frequently during the season. 
In working your garden throughout the sum- 
mer you will find your efforts made much 
more efficient by having those things grouped 
together upon which the same attachments to 
the wheelhoe, adjusted in the same way, are 
to be used. Every time you have to take 
off the hoes and put on the fullers or the rakes, 
or adjust the machine for different widths of 
row, valuable time is lost. In a market gar- 
den, where there may be from fifty to one 
hundred rows of each vegetable this is a small 
item; but in the home garden, with only a 
few rows of each thing, it amounts to an 
astonishingly large percentage of the total 
time used. It is a fact that in many instances 
it actually takes longer to get ready for 
the job than it takes to do it. That is why 
one not infrequently sees a gardener doing 
work with a hand hoe which could be done 
much more expeditiously with a wheelhoe — 
but the fault is with the gardener and not with 
the wheelhoe. 
For the same reason your rows should be as 
uniform in width as possible. A tool that is 
set to do perfect work in rows twelve inches 
apart will do a botchy job in rows fourteen 
inches apart until it has been readjusted. 
The width to make your rows should, of course, 
be determined when you are making your gar- 
den plan. I have grown acres of such vege- 
tables as onions, carrots and beets in rows 
twelve inches apart, but that is too narrow 
under some conditions. If your soil is stony, 
or there is any trash or rough manure, or if 
it is exceptionally weedy, it would be better 
to give them thirteen or even fourteen inches. 
The same is true if your soil is very rich, and 
you are planning to use irrigation. As a 
rule, the wider the rows the more rapidly the 
work of hoeing and weeding can be done — 
but the more ground it takes for the same 
number of rows. 
On the other hand, it is highly desirable to 
keep the rows close enough together so that 
the plants when full grown or nearly so will 
shade the soil as much as possible. The more 
thoroughly the ground can be shaded the 
more moisture will be conserved and the more 
throughly will the weeds be smothered until 
the plants are so large that cultivation has to 
be discontinued. 
WHAT SEEDS TO SOW FIRST 
TN STARTING out to sow a number of 
A different vegetables with the seed-drill 
it is always an advantage to begin with the 
smallest seed. In this way much less time is 
lost in adjusting the machine for each change 
— which is a delicate matter and one requiring 
a great deal of care, in order not to sow too 
much or too little. If larger seeds follow 
smaller, there is no danger that the few seeds 
which may be left over of the kind you have 
just been sowing, will clog up the machine. 
For instance, if you sow turnips, onions, 
carrots, beets, and peas, in the order named, 
any seeds which may chance to be left in the 
drill — and it is often impossible to get them 
all out even if the machine is inverted in 
the attempt to do so — will quickly work 
through when it is adjusted for the larger 
seeds. If, however, the seeds left in the drill 
are larger than those to be sown, they will not 
pass through and will more or less interrupt 
the flow of seed even if they do not choke the 
opening. 
WHERE COMPANION CROPS BOTHER 
r l 'HERE has been much said during recent 
years about “inter-cropping,” “com- 
bination cropping,” and “companion crop- 
ping,” etc. In planning your garden, par- 
ticularly if your space is limited, it is well to 
make use of all these schemes where needed, 
but the thing can be easily overdone. As a 
general rule it is best to plant only one thing 
in a place at a time. I know from long 
experience, that, generally, where space is 
limited, better results can be had by extra 
close planting of the same crop than by attempt- 
ing combinations. 
If, for instance, you were planning to set 
early cabbage and cauliflower two feet by 
eighteen inches apart, and inter-crop with 
lettuce, beets, or radish, you could save as 
much or more space by squeezing up the cab- 
bage to twenty by fifteen inches and putting 
the other crops planted close in the space 
saved. The chief disadvantages of double 
cropping in the home garden are that one of 
the crops may delay the second use of the 
ground when others are ready to be removed; 
and there is likely to be much more of one 
of the crops than is needed. Radishes, for 
instance, which are frequently recommended 
for use in this way, should be planted in the 
home garden only in very small amounts at one 
time, as otherwise there will be a large per- 
centage of waste. Multiple planting has its 
legitimate uses, but do not be tempted into 
trying it merely for the performance of a 
garden “stunt.” 
NORTH AND SOUTH VS. EAST AND WEST 
T HE advice is frequently given that the 
garden rows should run north and south, 
the argument being that in this way the roots 
of the plants are shaded during midday, and 
each side of the plant receives its share of 
sunshine. I have never been able to notice 
any perceptible difference. Most crops should 
be planted closely enough so that the soil will 
be shaded as the plants reach full growth. Con- 
venience in cultivating far outweighs any other 
advantage. Usually it is preferable to have the 
rows run parallel to the shortest axis of the gar- 
den. If the garden is on a decided slope it will 
be easier to plant and to cultivate if the rows; 
run with the slope. If the soil, however, IS 
such that there is danger of washing, it may be 
better to run them at right angles to the slope, 
it which case the roots will help to hold the 
soil as soon as growth is fairly begun. A soil 
with plenty of humus and manure is not likely 
to wash badly. 
MIXING CUCUMBERS AND MELONS 
A NOTHER statement affecting the plan- 
ning of the garden which I have often 
heard, but have never seen verified, is that 
the various cucurbits, such as cucumbers, 
melons, both musk and water, squash and 
citron, will, if planted anywhere near each 
other, spoil the flavor of all the fruits. They 
will mix and the seed will be useless, but the* 
cross-polhnization or hybridization will not 
affect the flesh of the fruit the first season. 
I have, like most other gardeners, seen insipid 
muskmelons growing near cucumbers! — but in 
a sun-shy season or heavy unsuitable soil, 
when they would have been the same without 
associating with the humble cucumber. 
