Your Saturday Afternoon Garden 
THE FIGHT AGAINST HOT-WEATHER WEEDS—CROPS FOR CANNING AND TO FILL OUT THE 
SEASON—BLANCHING CELERY AND CAULIFLOWER—IMMEDIATE WORK WITH VINE CROPS 
D. R. E d s o n 
far north for the former to winter successfully, rye and winter 
vetch. By using buckwheat with the crimson clover and by sow¬ 
ing early it can be grown where planted later, and by itself it 
would be likely to winter kill. The buckwheat will die down at 
the first frost, but forms a mulch and a winter protection for the 
clover. Sow the maximum amount of seed of all these things, 
because they are for spading or plowing under next spring and 
for adding humus to the soil. This adding of vegetable matter 
to the soil is of the greatest importance, particularly where the 
chief source of plant food is commercial fertilizer instead of 
manure. 
There are a number of crops which should still be sown to 
fill out the season clear to the end — beans, lettuce, beets and 
carrots for winter use; lettuce and cauliflower for the frames, and 
spinach in the frames. The earlier varieties of dwarf wax beans 
are the ones to sow now, and there is little danger that you will 
have too many of them, as any surplus that is grown now is 
easily canned for winter use. Most vegetables desired for can¬ 
ning should, in fact, be sown now, so that the work can be done 
when the weather is cooler and while the vegetables are at their 
very best, so far as quality is concerned. Of the beans, Bountiful 
and Early Valentine are good green-podded sorts and Brittle Wax 
and Refugee are good yellow-podded kinds for late planting. The 
Refugee is especially good for late planting for preserving because 
the pods, while very numerous, are not as large as some of the 
others. The earlier varieties of peas also should be selected, such 
as Little Marvel, Laxtonian or Blue Bantam for dwarf and Pros¬ 
perity, Earlv Morn or Thomas Laxton for a tall bush kind. Early 
Model or Detroit Dark Red will make a good beet for winter 
keeping or canning—the former gets bulbs for usable size con¬ 
siderably sooner. The short-growing varieties of carrots, such 
as Chautenay and Guerandel, are best for late sowing. Of turnips, 
White Egg and Amber Globe, both of which are good winter 
keepers, may be grown now and will reach medium size and the 
finest table cpialitv in time for storing. Lettuce may be used 
again for a fall 
crop : a small 
packet sown now 
will give plenty of 
nice plants to 
transplant to the 
frames for winter 
use; the larger 
plants, if left ten 
or twelve inches 
apart in the row 
where they were 
sown, will mature 
early enough, so 
that by using 
marsh hay as a 
protection against 
the first frosts 
they can be kept 
in the open gar¬ 
den until they are 
large enough to be 
( Cont. on p. 52) 
A T this time of the year the receipts from the garden are at 
their highest, and the gardener is likely to feel that his 
season's work is over and that he can sit down and enjoy his 
just reward. While it is possible to let up a little, there is still 
plenty to do, particularly if the garden is to be made to yield 
right up until freezing weather, as it should. Crops that are far 
enough along to look perfectly safe now may, if left to them¬ 
selves, be smothered out almost before you realize it by the 
rapid-growing hot-weather weeds. Two of these, which are to 
be particularly guarded against at this season, are purselane and 
the annual barnyard or bunch grass. It is essential to keep theSe 
well cleaned out at the first stages of growth for two reasons: 
they soon become so thoroughly established that they cannot be 
uprooted without great injury to nearby vegetables, and they 
mature and distribute their seeds so quickly that next year’s crop 
of trouble will be sown before the fight with this year’s is won, 
unless the garden is very carefully looked after. Purselane is 
the worst of all the garden weeds in this respect. The first seed 
pods will be ready to spill their ripened seed at the slightest 
disturbance before the plant has, to the casual observer, begun 
to bloom. Furthermore, every little piece of it that is broken off 
will root itself even after days of dry weather. If, unfortunately, 
your garden is infested with it, pull each plant up whole, throw 
them into small heaps, gather them at once into some tight- 
bottomed receptacle, pile them on a stone or on some place where 
they can dry out a little, pour kerosene over them and burn them. 
If any of the bunch grasses have grown so large that they 
threaten to uproot your onions or beets or carrots, when you 
pull them out, use a sharp knife to cut them off just below the 
soil. The great pest of the late garden is chickweed; at the 
present time they are quite inconspicuous, innocent-looking little 
plants, but they will continue to grow even after a hard frost 
and after almost everything else in the garden is dead, and pro¬ 
duce a crop of weed seeds that will make a green mat of weeds 
next spring for several feet around where each plant was al¬ 
lowed to mature. 
Take some Sat¬ 
urday afternoon 
of this month for 
a regular clean-up 
day in your gar¬ 
den. Cut out the 
weeds around the 
edges and at the 
ends of the rows, 
where they may 
heretofore have 
been overlooked. 
Pull up and burn 
any crop rem¬ 
nants which may 
have been left. 
Where the ground 
is not needed for 
a last planting, 
sow crimson clo¬ 
ver and buck¬ 
wheat; or, if too 
.Plant now those crops that are to fill out to the end of 
the season — beans, beets and carrots for winter use 
25 
