Breaking Into Gardening 
» 
A BEGINNER’S SPECULATION IN A BACK YARD VEGETABLE GARDEN THAT TURNED OUT A SUCCESS¬ 
FUL INVESTMENT—THE THREEFOLD DIVIDENDS OF EXERCISE, PLEASURE AND FRESH VEGETABLES 
BY J. F. Tappan 
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B EFORE starting my first vegetable garden a number of my 
friends tried to discourage me in many ways. One said he 
spent more for water used in watering 
the garden than the vegetables he raised 
would cost if bought from the vegetable 
man. Of course, he believed it was a 
losing proposition, figured out in dol¬ 
lars and cents; also, it took a lot of 
time, and, furthermore, it was hard 
work. Another kind friend informed me 
there was a considerable amount of time 
taken up, and if it happened by any 
means to be a bad year, the seeds planted 
would become failures; in other words, 
I would lose the money spent for seeds 
and manure and all the work would be 
done for nothing. Still another friend 
gave me to understand that I should 
have some experience in such matters be¬ 
fore starting all alone. 
After having heard the advice of these 
three wise men, I decided to have that 
vegetable garden just the same, so I 
mapped out a plan and started ahead 
upon the trail of truth about back yard 
vegetable gardens, profit or loss. 
I had just built myself a new house 
on a lot forty feet by 125 feet, the yard 
of which was graded fairly level. I then 
laid out a path three feet wide, running 
up the center of the yard, as shown by 
the plan. On each side of the path I 
planted some grape vines, after which 
four holes, each two feet six inches deep, 
were dug on either side, eight feet apart, 
holes dug, I had to get some 
locust posts about eight feet 
long in order to start a 
grape arbor. About this time 
I happened to discover quite 
a few locust trees in a small 
woods, which lay directly 
across the street from our 
house, and as I knew the 
owner, I telephoned to him 
and got permission to cut 
down eight locust trees. The 
following morning, at five 
o’clock, I called upstairs to 
a friend who was staying 
with me, and asked him to 
help me cut down eight trees. 
At first he thought I was 
mentally unbalanced, but 
finally, after much persua¬ 
sion, he grumblingly agreed 
to help; so we started out 
with axe and saw, cut the 
trees down, trimmed off the 
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Even from so small a space as this results were 
obtained that on paper seemed almost incredible 
Of course, having the 
branches and dragged them from the woods to the yard, where 
they were safely deposited in a heap. I then breakfasted and 
made my regular train to business. 
That night, before dark, the trees were 
placed in the ground with five feet six 
inches showing above the surface of 
the earth. Then some 1" x 2" strips 
were nailed to the posts, four strips 
high, about twelve inches on centers, 
the first strip starting sixteen inches 
from the ground. 
After all this preliminary work had 
been accomplished, I measured off the 
amount of space left and found that I 
had on one side seventeen feet by 
forty-two feet and seventeen feet by 
sixty-one feet on the other side, mak¬ 
ing a total of 1,751 square feet in area 
to be used as a vegetable garden. The 
next step was to get some first-class 
seed catalogues. After consulting these 
I bought the following: 
Garden collection, 20 packages 
vegetable seeds . $1.00 
Tomato plants (80). 1.00 
Swiss chard .05 
Turnips .20 
Beets .24 
Peas . 15 
Beans .10 
Parsnips .05 
Pepper plants (2 dozen).15 
Bush lima beans.25 
Big Boston lettuce.10 
Hand rake.05 
Garden fertilizer. 1.08 
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The two plantings of bush limas were flanked on one side by corn and 
on the other by peas 
Total expenditures.. .$4.42 
Tools used, such as rake, 
hoe, shovel, fork and pick, I 
already had in my cellar, 
ready for use. Outside of the 
fertilizer, no manure of any 
kind was used. 
Now that I had seeds, fer¬ 
tilizer and tools, I started to 
dig my garden each morning 
and night, before and after 
work. On Saturday after¬ 
noon I had one side nearly 
half dug, raked and ready for 
seed, after carrying out of the 
yard ten wheelbarrows of 
stone. That first Saturday 
was a day of great pleasure 
and excitement; I couldn’t 
wait to get at the seeds, and 
a little manual which was 
given me when I purchased 
