A Small Vegetable Garden that Paid 
MAKING THE MOST OF A LIMITED GARDEN AREA—THE VALUE OF THOUGHTFUL PLAN¬ 
NING IN PROCURING THE GREATEST VARIETY AND THE BEST QUALITY OF YIELD 
by E. R. Bennett 
T HERE seems to be an instinct in most of us that prompts us 
at least to plan for a kitchen garden. Unfortunately, in the 
majority of cases this 
instinct, or ambition as 
it may be, fades away 
when the time for 
planting and hoeing 
comes. In many cases 
our ambition is all 
right but the work is 
put off from day to 
day. The plan is not 
made, seeds are not 
purchased, and the time 
for garden making 
comes and we find that 
we have not started ofif, 
as it were, on the right 
foot. 
We have always 
maintained'that in most 
cases gardening did not 
pay from a financial 
standpoint; that is, if 
we figure the cost of 
our seed and the cost 
of the labor, even at 
the price paid the com¬ 
mon laborer, we will 
find that the money in¬ 
vested will buy more 
vegetables from the 
market gardener who 
comes to our back door 
than we have grown in 
our garden. We will 
always find, too, that 
while we have had 
more of some things 
than we can use, there 
are other vegetables 
that have failed to 
make good. 
With so simple a 
thing as gardening, it 
would seem that we 
might have very reli¬ 
able data with which 
either to disprove or 
back up our theories, 
so we consulted our 
garden patch to see if 
we could get an area 
of land that could be handled in such a way as to give the soil a 
chance to answer the question. We found that we could get a 
plot twenty feet square that would not be interfered with by 
perennial plants and that was in a good state of tilth, so we made 
a plan of procedure for the season. Just how far apart we may 
place our plants so as not to crowd them and at the same time get 
them as close as they will stand is easily determined on paper, 
until you come actually to make an accurate plan of procedure. 
Certain plants must 
be eliminated, as corn, 
cucumbers, mel¬ 
ons, peas and squash. 
In looking over our 
list we found that 
hardly any two of our 
common garden veg¬ 
etables would give us 
an equal chance for a 
maximum production 
on a small area. We 
decided that the on¬ 
ions, radishes, lettuce, 
beets, pepper, egg¬ 
plants, Swiss chard, 
cauliflower, cel¬ 
ery, cabbages and to¬ 
matoes might be 
grown with profit. 
The difficult feature 
in this problem was 
so to rotate our crops 
as to get the maxi¬ 
mum use of the land 
in the way of grow¬ 
ing a -short crop and 
then harvesting it in 
time to plant a suc¬ 
ceeding crop that 
would mature during 
the season. We knew 
in theory this would 
work out all right 
with the radish, early 
celery, lettuce, early 
cabbage, early cauli¬ 
flower, beets and tur¬ 
nips. We were handi¬ 
capped somewhat, in 
that at our altitude, 
5,000 feet, our sea¬ 
sons are necessarily 
short, and this natural 
shortness was accen¬ 
tuated somewhat last 
year, for there were 
only four months — 
that is, from the 13th 
of May till the 13th 
of September — be¬ 
tween heavy snowfalls. This did not mean, however, that the 
growing season was limited to that time, for many plants were 
growing well before our May snowstorm, and the growth of hardy 
plants continued for a time after the first snow fell in September. 
Again, our soil was not what we ordinarily desire. Western 
soils are naturally rich in pptash and phosphorus, but lacking in 
Only a twenty-foot-square area was available for vegetables, and this was accurately 
staked out before planting was commenced 
rhe early celery was started in flats and transplanted to the plot, one and a half feet 
from the radish row 
