VARIETAL DESCRIPTIONS OF VEGETABLES 
KEYSTONE SEEDS 
GARDENING SUGGESTIONS - Continued 
When possible, choose a soil that is well drained but retentive of moisture. Even a 
light sandy soil may be built up by the addition of organic matter so that it will produce 
vegetables throughout the entire summer, but sandy loam, or clay loam soils are better. 
Keep the soil mellow and fertile by the addition of manure each year at the rate of 
10 to 20 loads an acre. Fresh manure should be applied in the fall and plowed under, 
unless the garden is on an abrupt slope subject to washing. Only well-rotted manure 
should be applied in the spring. The majority of vegetables will benefit by the applica¬ 
tion of limestone if the soil has an acid reaction. 
In the preparation of the soil, thorough, deep plowing in the fall or early winter is 
advisable. Frequent, thorough cultivation is necessary. If the top surface of the soil is 
stirred as soon as it will do to work after rains, trouble seldom will be experienced with 
weeds. Moisture also will be conserved by preventing the ground from cracking. The 
object of cultivation is not only to suppress the growth of weeds, but also, and at all 
times, to keep the soil mellow and loose. Soil may be injured by cultivating when too 
wet, but never when too dry, if cultivation is shallow, which nearly all cultivation 
should be. 
Each rain should be followed by a thorough loosening of the soil as soon as dry 
enough to work. This kills the young weeds before they have injured the crop, prevents 
baking of the soil, and admits air and moisture. A loose covering of soil intercepts the 
moisture arising from below, thus performing the office of a mulch, increases dew de¬ 
posit, gives freer admission to air and rain, and facilitates chemical action. Timely and 
frequent cultivations will tend to make gardening and trucking not only profitable but 
a real pleasure. 
ROTATION 1 
Rotation should be practiced with system in every garden; not alone for the soil’s 
recuperation, but also to lessen the attack of insects and fungous diseases. 
Various vegetables, whether grown for home or market use, occupy the soil different 
lengths of time, making it possible to produce half a dozen or more crops on the same 
plot of soil within the space of twelve months. 
When a plant ceases to fruit or there is no further use for it, it should be at once 
removed, if diseased, and destroyed. The plot should then be manured, prepared, and 
planted again. 
Since a number of vegetables reach maturity early in the season, it is possible to 
utilize the space they occupied for successive plantings of the same vegetables or for 
rotation plantings of different plants. The earliest of all the vegetables to mature is the 
radish. The gardener generally can count on being able to utilize anew the space occu¬ 
pied by the first planting of these vegetables in from 5 to 7 weeks, depending on the 
rapidity with which they are consumed. In intensive gardening, however, it is not neces¬ 
sary to wait until all the radishes of the first planting have been removed before other 
plantings can be made. Enough of the roots can be removed at intervals to make places 
for setting lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, or other plants, and the two 
crops—radishes and the interplanted crop—can continue growing side by side until the 
former is used. In a similar way, onion sets may be set out in rows that are to be occu¬ 
pied later by tomato plants, room being made for the latter by the removal of a few on¬ 
ions when the proper planting time for tomatoes arrives. Various combinations of this 
sort can be worked out between quick-maturing crops and the plants grown in frames 
or seed beds for later planting in the open. 
The gardener should not plant all of his radish, lettuce, or spinach seed at once, but 
should make several successive plantings at intervals of about two weeks. In this way 
the season for these vegetables will be lengthened greatly. Successive planting is possible 
also with beets, peas, beans, sweet corn, and a number of other vegetables. The best of 
the successive crops of the quick-maturing vegetables must be crowded into the early 
part of the season, since most such plants do not thrive well when planted in hot weath¬ 
er. This is especially true of radishes and lettuce. In the case of lettuce, this disadvan¬ 
tage can be overcome to a certain extent by artificial shading. 
l. Missouri State Board of Agriculture Monthly Bulletin, July, 1917, Vol. XV, No. VII, 
“The Small Vegetable Garden,’’ pp. 26-27. 
— 72 - 
