Your Saturday Afternoon Garden 
SOWING SEEDS NOW TO TRANSPLANT NEXT MONTH FOR FALL AND WINTER CROPS—GARDEN PESTS 
AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM—THE CARE OF CROPS IN JUNE 
D . R . E d s o n 
I T is one thing to hurry home from the office on a balmy 
spring afternoon, to get in your first planting of beans, and 
to put in a trellis for the rapidly growing peas that are trying 
to get away from 
you. It is quite 
another to bring your¬ 
self to keep up with 
your garden schedule 
and to cultivate and 
plant on a sweltering 
early summer after¬ 
noon. 
But there are a 
number of things that 
must be thought of 
and attended to now 
if you expect to enjoy 
your garden to the 
full during the 
autumn and winter, 
First process in planting beans and similar crops: 0 1" jf you hope to en- 
prepare the ground finely and mark out with 
shallow drill J°y Salads and Canh - 
flower next August 
and September, and beets and carrots and oyster plant next 
January and February. During this month, also, the various 
garden pests, in the form of insects and diseases, will begin to 
put in their appearance, and you must be 
on the sharp lookout for them. In most, 
instances fighting them is rather hopeless 
if once they get a good start. 
One of the most important jobs for 
some Saturday afternoon, late in May or 
early in June — better put a red circle 
around May 29 and June 5 on the calen¬ 
dar — is the sowing of seed for plants to 
transplant next month for fall and winter 
crops to fill in the spaces that will have 
been left empty by your early crops of 
beets, peas, spinach and lettuce. A pack¬ 
age each of the following will be sufficient 
for the average-sized home garden. The 
varieties mentioned, while perhaps there 
may be others of similar type as good, 
will, in my opinion, be found as satisfac¬ 
tory as any : Brussels sprouts — -Dalkeith; 
cabbage—Volga and Savoy; cauliflower — 
early snowball; endive—broad-leaved Ba¬ 
tavia; lettuce, loosehead—Grand Rapids; 
heading — big Boston. 
Select some spot in the garden where 
the ground can be freshly forked up and 
prepared in a narrow strip. Usually 
where the first crop of lettuce has been 
used will make a good place, and will give 
about the desired amount of room. Pre¬ 
pare the ground finely, mark out a shallow 
drill and sow the seed of each sort thinly. 
These plants will not be transplanted until 
the time to set them in their permanent positions and, therefore, 
require much more space than seedlings sown outdoors in flats, 
which are transplanted once before being set out. They should 
be given from 3" to 
6" each in the row to 
make strong, stocky 
plants. Therefore 
four or five seeds to 
the inch will be 
plenty. If the soil is 
dry, to make sure of 
good germination, 
take your hoe and 
make a deep furrow 
the length of the row 
the day before you 
expect to plant and 
fill this with water, 
letting it soak away 
over night. This will 
put the ground in ex¬ 
cellent condition for 
planting and make it 
moist enough to insure prompt and strong germination. Be sure 
to tag each thing so used, otherwise you are likely to have things 
most annoyingly mixed up by transplanting time. With the back 
of a narrow hoe or with the edge of a 
short board press the seed down firmly into 
the drill before you cover it. Then cover 
with a quarter of an inch or so of moist 
soil and firm lightly as before. Do not 
water the surface of the soil after plant¬ 
ing. If the ground is so dry that water 
is necessary, apply as already directed. 
Watering on the surface is seldom done 
thoroughly enough to wet the soil to and 
below the seed. 
At this time of the year, in properly 
prepared soil, germination should take 
place within a few days, particularly with 
seeds of cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels 
sprouts. The little seedlings are apt to be 
troubled with the flea beetle, a small, hard- 
shelled black beetle which you will recog¬ 
nize readily. Keep a little tobacco dust 
on hand and sprinkle the plants lightly 
with it a few days after they are up until 
danger from this pest is past. Even where 
the seed has been sown thinly thinning out 
will usually be required. This should be 
done as soon as the second or third leaves 
appear. 
In addition to these crops, which are 
all to be transplanted later, there are a 
number of succession sowings which 
should be made now to keep the garden 
up through the latter part of the summer. 
(Continued on page 461) 
Second process: sow the seed thinly; with beans 
see that the eye is down, press the seed down 
firmly 
Third process: cover one-half to two inches, press the 
soil down gently with board or foot. Avoid sur¬ 
plus moisture 
419 
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