Book of Gardens 
93 
A wide drill, as for 
peas, is made with the 
hoe blade held flat 
Sow small seed direct 
from the hand, held 
close to the drill 
Cover the wide drill 
from both sides, push¬ 
ing in the soil with 
the feet 
Cover the first plant¬ 
ing of peas about 1" 
deep, in a wide drill 
The back of a wooden 
rake is excellent for 
covering shallow drills 
Then turn the rake as 
shown at the right, to 
firm down the soil 
Use a wooden rake for 
the final smoothing 
of soil before sowing 
not to be used in the same manner as it would 
be in raking grass. 
In the latter case, the object is to rake up 
everything there is on the surface of the 
ground; in the garden, to rake up as little as 
possible. In preparing the garden, the rake 
is used primarily for leveling the surface, and 
only incidentally for gathering up such pieces 
of manure, small stones, plant stems and other 
useless rubbish as may be on the very surface 
of the ground. The rake, then, should be used 
with a backward-and-forward motion to level 
down all ridges and fill up hollows, and lightly 
remove any loose trash from the surface, leav¬ 
ing a perfectly level, fine, moist strip of ground 
ready to receive the seed. 
The next step is to mark off the first row. 
Don’t just go ahead and guess at it. It will 
probably not take over ten minutes at the most 
to get it perfectly straight and parallel with 
or at right angles to the edge of your garden 
or the side of the house or the sidewalk— 
whichever is the most natural line to go by in 
laying out your garden. That first row will 
determine the general appearance of the entire 
garden; make it straight and true. 
If you have a right angle to make, here is 
a simple method of determining whether you 
have it exact or not. Measure off 6' from the 
corner along one line, and 8' from the comer 
along the other. If it is a true right angle, the 
diagonal between the two points should measure 
exactly 10'. If it does not, you can adjust one 
side or the other until the angle in question is 
a true one. 
The actual getting of the seed into the soil 
is the next thing to be done. There are four 
distinct kinds of planting: in drills, in rows, 
in hills, and transplanting or setting out plants 
which have been started from seed sown in¬ 
doors or in the hotbed. 
“Drills” are plants grown in a continuous 
row so close together that no effort is made to 
have them at regular distances, or to cultivate 
between the individual plants. Radishes, 
spinach and many other things familiar to 
everyone are grown by this method. “Rows” 
signify that the plants are set at regular dis¬ 
tances apart, but so close together that cultiva¬ 
tion is done only in one direction, except for 
the use of the hand hoe or rake. Cabbages, 
peppers and potatoes are familiar examples 
of vegetables grown in rows. By “hills” is 
meant the setting of the vegetables so far apart 
in both directions that cultivation is given both 
ways, and each group of plants or “hill” is 
treated as an individual unit. Familiar ex¬ 
amples of vegetables grown in this way are 
melons, sweet corn and pole beans. 
Most of the vegetables planted in drills are 
root crops and do not need very much space 
between the rows. If the soil is poor, a hand¬ 
ful of ground bone along the bottom of each 
20' of drill is advisable. 
A thorough manuring and fertilizing of the 
whole area planted is worth while before sow¬ 
ing vegetables in rows, with a little extra where 
each plant is to be. Hills are usually enriched 
as units. The soil in them should be especially 
prepared for a space of 18" to 24" across and 
6" or more deep. 
All this preliminary work with the soil has 
a definite bearing on the size, quality and 
general development of the vegetable crop. As 
to the dates and depths of planting, the quan¬ 
tities of seed for given spaces, and other specific 
details about the various things ordinarily 
grown in the home garden, a tabulation will be 
found in the vegetable guide on another page 
of this book. 
(Below) Use a board to stand 
on, so as not to make tracks in 
the soil 
Onion sets are planted in 
drills. Put them about 2" 
apart in the row 
