System in 
the Vegetable and 
Flower 
Garden 
I T is only natural that 
with the recurrent 
springtide we should 
make resolutions to have b y F F 
a more productive vege¬ 
table garden, a more Photographs 
beautiful flower garden, than ever before. The resolutions come 
easily enough — as easily as the flowers that bloom in the spring — 
and have just about as much to do with the case. It is not so much 
knowing more about what to do, as getting more done, that will 
make this year's gardening an improvement over last year's. 
In other words, it is only by getting the garden work so sys¬ 
tematized that a little time will show a big result, that we can 
go ahead of previous years’ records. Many persons have but a 
few hours during the week—possibly only Saturday afternoons — 
that can be devoted to work of this sort. It is just such time- 
pressed gardeners that the information contained in this article 
is arranged to assist. 
Then, let us analyze the problem — taking it for granted that 
you are a busy person with no time to waste over technicalities. 
In the first place, plants must be given the proper conditions 
under which to grow. If plants are to grow their best or bloom 
their prettiest, they must have plenty of plant food. Further, 
they must have it supplied in such a way that they can take it up 
and use it. In order that they may use it, it must be in what the 
soil doctors call “available” forms, and there must also be a 
certain amount of moisture along with it, because plants take all 
their nourishment in the form of soups, and very weak soups at 
that. It takes, on an average, 400 pounds of water to furnish 
the plant food for the building of one pound of dry plant matter. 
Not to go farther into plant physiology, experience demon¬ 
strates that a finely pulverized, deeply worked soil produces the 
best growth, and is the most retentive of moisture. 
The garden, or the flower beds, should be spaded up and over¬ 
turned to the bottom — that is, down to the subsoil, readily dis¬ 
tinguished by its color and texture which are different from those 
of the long worked loam at the surface. This will usually be, 
in old soil, two spade depths deep. If not. a little subsoil should 
be turned up each year, thus gradually deepening the loam. 
In vegetable gardens of any size, it will be both cheaper and bet¬ 
ter to have the ground plowed rather than spaded. 
The flower borders, which are — or should be — pretty well 
filled up with hardy perennials, of course cannot be worked so 
deeply, on account of the masses of roots. This does not mean 
R o c K w E L L 
by N. R. Graves 
that the usual surface 
scratching — much less 
' thorough than an active 
family hen would fur¬ 
nish — is all that can be 
done for them. Firmly 
established plants will not be at all injured by quite severe prun¬ 
ing of the surface roots, and the deeper and finer the soil can be 
worked, the better will the border stand the long continued 
siege of a dry summer. 
A few dollars invested in a load or two of finely broken up, 
thoroughly rotted manure will give you more vegetable and 
flower garden success than can be obtained from all the wonder¬ 
ful novelties and new varieties catalogued if you attempt to get 
along without suitably prepared soil. When I began gardening 
I thought the variety was everything. W'ell, it is not. It is only 
one of the fine points of the game. The big things are to get 
your soil in proper shape, and then to keep it thoroughly cultivated. 
Work into your garden and flower beds all the manure you can 
obtain. Get it down below the surface, thoroughly mixed with 
the soil where the roots can find it in midsummer when the sur¬ 
face inch or two of soil is nothing but fine dry dust. 
Even the borders should have their share of the manure pile, 
worked into the surface with a fork early in the spring. To be 
sure, the perennials will live and grow without it, but what small 
and scattered flowers one usually sees! 
Do not judge from all this that I have no use for fertilizers. 
They have their function, and a very important one, as a supple¬ 
ment to the manure pile. They sometimes have to be used in 
place of it, but get the manure if you can. If used without ma¬ 
nure, 200 to 225 lbs. on a garden 50 x 100 feet will not be too 
much. If manure is used, 100 lbs. will be ample. All fertilizers 
should be put on after the ground is plowed or spaded, and raked 
or harrowed in. 
When the initial operations of turning over and enriching the 
soil have been carried out as thoroughly as possible, but not be¬ 
fore, attention should be turned to sowing and planting. It is 
a good plan so to arrange the garden that only the portion of 
it required for immediate use need be finished off at one time. 
If the piece is plowed it is only practical, of course, to do it all 
at one time. Then harrow it all down in good shape, but rake 
over only enough of it to make room for the first instalment of 
seeds and plants. When ready for the second planting, rake off 
a second strip, etc. 
