House and Garden 
well drained, with a stream of running water the full 
length of its eastern border which divided our plot 
from that of our neighbor. How to get my plot into 
condition for planting rather puzzled me. On one 
of my daily walks towards the outskirts of the town 
I came upon a farmer plowing, and the thought came 
to me, why not get him to do my plowing. It was not 
long afterwards that I had mustered up enough cour¬ 
age to ask the farmer to plow my vegetable plot. 
With a little persuasion I was able to secure him to do 
the work. One morning soon after he drove up to 
the house with a plow" and soon had his team hitched 
to it. Before he started to plow 1 gave him strict 
orders to keep the surrounding ground clean as it 
was before he began work. 'Ihe plot was marked 
off with wooden pegs 
and then plowed. 
About noontime it 
was f i nished. At ter 
dinner he returned 
with a harrow and one 
load of well rotted 
stable manure which 
he scattered over the 
plow’ed up soil and then 
harrowed it until the 
soil was very fine, and 
after he had finished 
and cleaned up, it was 
a very neat looking job. 
He charged me $4.00 
for the day’s work. I 
w"as elated over the 
fact that the hardest 
part of my garden w"ork 
was accomplished at 
such a small expense. 
1 was anxiously waiting 
for the return of my husband that evening. He 
went out and surveyed the work with his critical eye, 
but made no comments and I came to the conclu¬ 
sion that every thing w"as done in a satisfactory man¬ 
ner. As soon as possible, 1 secured the necessary 
packages of seeds of the several varieties that I de¬ 
sired to plant, at the total cost of fifty cents. 
The following day, as soon as my housework 
was over, found me planting my seeds and, fol¬ 
lowing the directions given upon each package, 1 
soon had my sowing finished. The rows w"ere 
made with the use of a garden line to keep them 
straight, and ran north and south, with eighteen 
inches between each row. Neatness was one of the 
main things desired, thus all rows had to be straight, 
so as to have an attractive looking garden when the 
plants were in full growth. March 15th, found the 
plowing, harrowing and the fertilized garden plot 
ready for the seeds. April 15th, I planted my onion 
seeds and in due time thinned the plants to two inches 
apart. When planting the seeds I allowed each al¬ 
ternate row in the garden plot to remain empty to be 
used for transplanting w"hen the plants were large 
enough to thin out. Peas were sown April 20th, 
and were ready June 20th. They were the early 
jiine variety. The peas w"ere follow^ed by celery 
July 15th, for winter use. Spinach was sow"n April 
17th, and w'as ready July 4th, when we gathered our 
first mess. Cabbage was sow"n April 25th, allow¬ 
ing tw"elve inches between each plant after trans¬ 
planting, and was ready for use August ist. Pota¬ 
toes w’ere planted April 20th in hills one foot apart, 
and were ready for use about July 20th, and were 
followed by corn july 15th, for a late supply. Beets 
were planted .May ist, allow'ing three inches between 
the plants. Radishes w'ere sow"n May ist, allowing 
two inches betw"een plants and were follow^ed by 
lettuce June 20th, this being our second sowing of 
lettuce. Pole beans were sown May 6th, lettuce May 
lOth, allowing six inches hetw^een each head, and 
were followed with a second sowing of radishes July 
1st, w hich w"as our last sowing of this variety of vege¬ 
table. One dozen tomato plants w"ere set eighteen 
inches apart May 20th, and the first tomatoes were 
picked the last of August. Our early corn was 
sown May lOth, allowing four kernels to each hill, 
the hills were eighteen inches apart. I had great 
satisfaction in working in my garden, and I learned 
much. 
Working in the open air improved my health and 
gave me the kind of exercise that most housewives 
are in need of. I derived great enjoyment in witness¬ 
ing the attitude of my husband. Every morning before 
going to business, he would go to the garden and look 
it over from every point of view", hut on his return 
A VIEW OF THE GARDEN 
