ii6 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
looking for the location. First, suitable 
soil, and second, nearness to the kitchen. 
That is, we want it convenient for the 
good wife to gather the vegetables with 
the least trouble. 
Of course the soil is the most important 
thing, for if we do not have the soil that 
is adapted to growing vegetables the 
garden is going to be a failure. Still, 
here in Florida we can usually get any of 
our soils to grow vegetables with more or 
less success, especially if we will manage 
properly. But we want a spot that is 
naturally well drained, not too high and 
sandy, and if possible so situated that we 
can use some form of irrigation. Even 
if the land is naturally rather dry and 
thirsty, by getting plenty of humus in it 
and breaking deep this trouble can gradu¬ 
ally be overcome. 
Now since we have selected the land 
let us give a few minutes to the way to 
prepare and plant. The land should be 
broken deep and quite a while before you 
are going to plant, for you may either 
turn under some legume crop or a heavy 
application of stable manure or compost, 
and for any of these it will take some time 
for them to decompose. Then, too, you 
want to break early so the rains that fall 
may be saved in the soil for the time that 
moisture is scarce and the crops are need¬ 
ing it. This soil moisture will have to 
be conserved, though, by giving the land 
frequent and shallow cultivations, thus 
breaking the capillary action in the soil 
and keeping the soil moisture from evap¬ 
orating. 
There are very few farmers but who 
have vegetables from their own gardens 
for at least a short time each year. Still, 
we do not want to stop at a short time, 
when we have the climate that we have 
in this state. What we want is some¬ 
thing to come direct from our garden to 
our table every day in the year. When 
we do this the high cost of living that we 
hear so much talk of will not worry us 
nearly so much. To accomplish this we 
must plant a succession of crops, also 
make a number of plantings of the same 
crops. That is to keep putting seed in the 
ground every week or ten days. By this 
method we have good young healthy 
plants coming on all the time and if con¬ 
ditions are not suitable for a good crop 
as they might be these plants will be 
much better able to stand these unfavor¬ 
able conditions and still produce a crop 
than old plants that have used up most of 
their vitality by production. 
Another thing, if we want to make a 
success of this kitchen garden we have 
got to give it careful and constant atten¬ 
tion in the way of cultivating, etc. If 
we want nice juicy, well-flavored vege¬ 
tables we have got to keep the plants 
healthy and growing all the time. This 
can only be accomplished by frequent cul¬ 
tivations and attention. Give the plants 
plenty of moisture and necessary plant 
food. 
This is another place where the garden 
being close to the kitchen will sometimes 
come in nice, for the lady of the house 
may be able to get a hand and look after 
having the vegetables worked when the 
man is too busy at some other work. 
What I want to see is a small piece of 
land set aside on every farm and as many 
