Gardening in a City Lot 
By FRANK G. HEATON 
T HAT a garden of kitchen vegetables can profit¬ 
ably be made in a city back yard such as is 
available in the residence district of a large 
city seems, on its face, to be a proposition too absurd 
for serious contemplation. 
But such a garden, grown under such conditions, 
is a demonstrable possibility, that a supply of crisp, 
fresh vegetables, sufficient in quantity for the needs 
of a family of four—with some to spare for less 
fortunate neighbors—can be grown on the available 
space left in a small back yard after deducting the 
required room for walks, a seven-foot driveway and 
a coal house, and that the work can be done, and 
amazing results secured, by one who has only a few 
hours of daylight in which to do it, is a fact. Add 
to this the obstacle of practically no knowledge of the 
proper methods of planting, cultivating and bringing 
to maturity a vegetable garden, and the total forms 
a combination of unpropitious circumstances that 
would seem totally unsurmountable. This is the 
story of how such a garden was grown, under exactly 
such handicaps; and if it shall lead others similarly 
situated to try this kind of “intensive farming” 
I omato Vines on Trellis. Bush Wax Beans in Foreground. 
Stalks of Stowell's Evergreen Corn Fourteen Feet High 
vest pocket gardening—it will have been well worth 
the telling. 
The writer has always had a fondness for out-of- 
door work and yearly labors with flower beds and 
similar tasks that approach gardening in a way. 
Lack of time, lack of space and lack of a knowledge 
of how it is done, however, have always, heretofore, 
prevented an attempt at growing vegetables. In 
the very early spring of 1906, however, he determined 
that, notwithstanding all the drawbacks, he would 
make an effort to plant and grow a few things in the 
vegetable line, and this is how the determination 
was carried to fulfilment. 
Careful measurements of the back yard showed 
that spaces of the following dimensions could be 
utilized: A strip four feet six inches by eighteen 
feet, between the walk from the back steps to the 
coal house, and the division fence; two strips ten 
feet long, and a foot wide, at either side of the same 
walk; a strip one foot by seven feet at the back of the 
rear enclosed porch; strips one by nine feet and one 
by ten feet, at the front and end of the coal house; 
another strip, four by ten feet between the end of 
Tomato Growth so Luxuriant that Trellis had to be Extended 
Efpward as Shown 
121 
