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The Saturday 
Afternoon Garden 
WEEK-BY-WEEK WORK IN THE VEGETABLE 
PATCH FOR THE BUSY MAN OR WOMAN 
T HE suburban garden, as a factor in reducing the annual 
family budget, has been under-, rather than over-esti¬ 
mated. In spite of the fact that new methods and varieties have 
mated. In spite, of the fact that new methods and varieties have 
mitigated against what might have been the natural result of this, 
and the consumer has to pay as dearly for vegetable products as 
ever before. The home garden must continue for many years to 
play an increasingly important part in helping to solve the national 
bread-and-butter problem. Veg¬ 
etables and fruits are occupying a 
larger and larger place in our diet; 
and, the larger the place they occu¬ 
py, the smaller the doctors’ bills 
are likely to be. The home garden 
has been underestimated; not that 
there has not been enough written 
about it, but in much back-to-the- 
backyard literature, as in the back- 
to-the-land movement, the “inspi¬ 
rational" side of it has been over¬ 
worked, and the perspirational side 
has been overlooked. If you are 
going to get results worth going 
after you have got to go after them 
with your collar off, and expect to 
get your nands dirty. If you are 
one of the thousands who would 
like to see the table expense item 
of tbe family budget cut down 
without knocking off on the table, 
secure a small plot of ground 
somewhere that you can cultivate. 
Half an acre will be ample, and 
more than that may prove too 
much. 
If all the readers of this magazine had gardens of standard 
sizes and shapes it would be comparatively easy to tell them how 
to get out of the ground the maximum results with a minimum 
amount of work. But, of course, their gardens are of all sorts and 
conditions and sizes, and they lie in every climate, from the tropi¬ 
cal of the Southern States to the short, cool summers of Northern 
New England and Canada. It is out of the question, then, to 
plan one garden for all conditions. On the other hand, the more 
general in character the information and suggestion one may give, 
the less use it is likely to be to the non-professional gardener. 
In this series of articles I have attempted to arrange the work 
which demands attention throughout the year, planning it so that 
it may be taken up on successive Saturday afternoons so far as is 
feasible. In addition, as a guide rather than as a model, two 
sample gardens of different but average sizes, will be laid out, 
and the various tasks to be done in them, in connection with 
vegetables and small fruits, such as cultivating, spraying, succes¬ 
sion planting, etc., will be explained as the season progresses. In 
this way the busy gardener may, with the least loss of time, 
utilize those things which will help him in solving his own prob¬ 
lems. However, throughout the en¬ 
tire season he will have to use his 
own judgment about following 
dates in connection with planting, 
early and late, and harvesting; 
about the amount of space to he de¬ 
voted to each crop, and about a 
score of other things which it is 
impossible to prescribe for anyone 
else’s garden. 
While there is not much to be 
done this month in the way of act¬ 
ual garden operations, there are 
some preliminary things which 
should be attended to. The suc¬ 
cess of your summer’s garden will 
depend to a very large extent upon 
the amount of time and thought 
you are willing to devote to it this 
month and next. Many persons 
fail to take any action until the per¬ 
ennial spring garden fever lures 
them to it. But the gardener who 
is content to wait for any such 
primitive impulse will have a primi¬ 
tive garden. 
The average gardener usually 
thinks of making out the seed order as the first step to be taken. 
But before you undertake this absorbing task there are two other 
things which should be done. 
The first good Saturday afternoon this month (and if there is 
no good Saturday afternoon, you can do it on Sunday without 
exciting the suspicion of the neighbors) select the spot or spots 
which you can devote to your vegetables and small fruits, and 
get accurate measurements of all dimensions. If tbe amount of 
ground at your disposal is very limited there will be no choice of 
location. But a good garden can be made on almost any soil, 
provided it can be well drained and is not too much shut out from 
the sun. I know of one successful garden made on ground so 
WHAT TO DO IN JANUARY 
2d — Select the places in your 
garden to devote to vegetables 
and small fruits, and if you’ve 
recovered sufficiently from your 
New Year’s dinner to bend 
over, take accurate measure¬ 
ments. 
gth — Clear a place on the 
dining-ro'om table and draw a 
careful plan of the size and 
shape of your garden. Indicate 
everything — trees, big stones, 
paths, shadows from zvalls and 
steep grades. 
16th — Build or arrange for 
some place to keep your tools 
and seeds. If it is a _ shed 
away from the house, brighten 
it up with a coat of paint. 
23d — Lay in a store of plant 
food — manure. Mixed barnyard 
manure well dried and broken 
up is best. But see to it your¬ 
self. 
30th — Study your catalogs 
carefully, together with the 
plan you made two weeks ago. 
Then send in your seed orders. 
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