4 
WAR GARDENING 
Fig. 1 — A community garden which produced excellent results. The ground was provided by a manufacturing 
concern for its employes and the plowing and harrowing were done by the company. Expert supervisors directed 
the work. This supervision is an important help to successful gardening. 
CORPORATION GARDENS 
Manufacturing concerns, and other enter- 
prises which employ labor on a large scale, 
may make valuable contribution to the 
national food supply by encouraging their 
employees to cultivate war gardens. Many 
concerns furnish large tracts of land, which 
are divided into individual garden plots. 
These plots are allotted to such employes as 
are willing to cultivate them. Each plot and 
everything it produces are recognized as the 
individual property of its cultivator. The 
company bears the expense of plowing and 
fertilizing these plots and employs an expert 
to have charge. 
HOW TO HAVE A GOOD GARDEN 
Garden Plan 
Have a plan for your garden — drawn to 
scale on paper — before you start, to give 
proper order in planting and enable you to 
buy the right amount of seeds in advance 
while the selection is good. 
Put in one general group small plants like 
beets, onions, lettuce, carrots, radishes and 
parsnips. In another general group put 
larger plants like corn, tomatoes and pota- 
toes. Spreading ground vines, like melons 
and cucumbers, which need wider spacing, 
should be put in another general group. The 
reason for this grouping is that the various 
plants in a group need similar general treat- 
ment as well as spacing. 
In making a plan provide space in which 
to enter costs and yield of the various crops. 
This will give you a complete record which 
, will be useful another year. Another help- 
ful use of the plan is that it will guide you in 
the rotation of next year’s crops. For this 
purpose save your plan for next season. 
In planning your garden formulate some 
definite plan as to what you will do with 
surplus vegetables. Detailed instructions for 
home storage of vegetables for winter use are 
given in Part II of this booklet. Detailed 
instructions for canning, drying, pickling and 
other forms of conservation are given in the 
Home Manual on these subjects issued by 
this Commission. 
Sunshine 
In the location of a garden it is not always 
possible to choose conditions as to sunlight. 
It is important, therefore, that in the ar- 
rangement of the various varieties of vege- 
tables which are to be planted, due care 
should be given to providing the greatest 
exposure to the sun for those crops which 
need it most. Those plants which must ripen 
their fruits, such as tomatoes and eggplant, 
require the greatest amount of sunshine, 
while lettuce, spinach, kale and other leaf 
crops require relatively less. Foliage crops 
must have at least 3 hours of sunlight a day 
and plants which ripen fruits at least 5 hours 
a day. This is important. 
Vary from Last Year’s Plan 
It is important to remember that plant 
diseases and insects are apt to thrive in a 
spot in which they have become established. 
For this reason those who make gardens 
this year should take care not to place the 
individual crops in the spot in which the 
same crops grew last year. Varying the ar- 
rangement of the garden in this'way will reduce 
the danger from disease and insects. The 
same vegetables in the same place each year 
exhaust certain food elements, and reduced 
yields are sure to result. 
SURPLUS PRODUCTS 
At times, even with the best of planning, 
a gardener will find that his garden has 
matured more of some varieties of vegetables 
than can be used immediately. None of this 
excess should be wasted and there is no 
occasion for waste. If there is no ready 
market for the surplus it should be prepared 
for winter by either canning or drying. By 
modern methods either canning or drying 
may be done with little expense of time, 
trouble or financial outlay. By using the 
