The Home Vegetable Garden 
H AVE a plan for your garden—drawn to scale on paper 
before you start, to give proper order in planting and 
enable you to buy the right amount of seeds in advance 
while the selection is good. 
Put in one general group small plants like beets, onions, 
lettuce, carrots, radishes and parsnips. In another general 
group put larger plants like corn, tomatoes and potatoes. 
Spreading ground vines, like melons and cucumbers, which 
need wider spacing, should be put in another general group. 
The reason for this grouping is that the various plants in a 
group need similar general treatment as well as spacing. 
’Sunshine 
In the location of a garden it is not always possible to 
choose conditions as to sunlight. It is important, therefore, 
that in the arrangement of the various varieties of vege¬ 
tables which are to be planted, due care should be given to 
providing the greatest exposure to the sun for those crops 
which need it most. Those plants which must ripen their 
fruits, such as tomatoes and eggplant, require the greatest 
amount of sunshine, while lettuce, spinach, kale and other 
leaf crops require relatively less. Even these latter, how¬ 
ever, should have at least 2 to 3 hours a day. 
Vary from Last Year’s Plan 
It is important to remember that plant diseases and 
insects are apt to thrive in a spot in which they have be¬ 
come established. For this reason those who make gardens 
this year should take care not to place the individual crops 
in the spot in which the same crops grew last year. Vary¬ 
ing the arrangement of the garden in this way will reduce 
the danger from diseases and insects. 
THE SOIL AND MANURES 
The back yard gardener must use the soil he has, but he 
can improve it if it is poor, and he must do this as far as 
possible. Stable manure will help even the richest soil, and 
you are not likely to use too much of it. During a single 
season professional gardeners apply as much as six inches 
of it. From 400 to 600 pounds can be used to advantage on a 
plot 20 by 20 feet. .Coarse manure should be applied and 
thoroughly plowed or spaded under in the fall. In the spring, 
fine, rotted manure is applied, just before plowing or spad¬ 
ing preceding the planting of any crop. If the ground is 
fairly rich and well rotted manure is scarce, the manure 
may be scattered in the row only, and should be mixed into 
the soil before the planting of seed. 
Loam is the best garden soil. Sand, with manure, gives 
good results. Clay is hardest to work, but is greatly im¬ 
proved by well rotted manure and vegetable matter—called 
humus. These should be well worked in with hoe and rake. 
Sifted coal ashes, entirely free from clinkers, will help 
loosen up clay when mixed into it, but will not remove an 
acid condition nor increase fertility. 
Commercial Fertilizer 
Many gardeners experience difficulty in obtaining supplies 
of well-rotted manure. In such cases commercial fertilizers 
should be used. Even where stable manure has been secured 
and worked into the soil it is well to supplement with mod¬ 
erate quantities of quick-acting fertilizer in order to give 
plants an early start and hasten maturity. 
It is safest to rely upon the ready-mixed fertilizers usu¬ 
ally obtainable at seed and hardware stores. Several spe¬ 
cially prepared mixtures in convenient packages are now 
on the market. 
Where no manure is used the fertilizer should be spread 
over the surface of the finely prepared seed-bed at the rate 
of 5 pounds for a plot 10 feet square, just before planting. 
The surface soil should then be thoroughly raked so as to 
mix the fertilizer evenly to a depth of 2 inches. Never place 
seed or transplanted plants in direct contact with fertilizer. 
Thorough mixing of the fertilizer with the soil is essential 
to prevent injury of seed .or roots. 
Tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, spinach and some other 
crops requiring rather long growing seasons, are materially 
benefited by a second application of fertilizer when half 
grown. Side dressings of this kind should be scattered be¬ 
tween the rows at the rate of four ounces (one-half pint) 
to 10 feet of row, when rows are spaced 2 feet apart; and 
pro rata for rows spaced a greater or lesser distance. To 
insure even distribution mix the fertilizer with fine, dry 
earth just before spreading. 
Lime 
Land which has long been unused or land in lawns, is apt 
to be sour. To remedy this condition apply evenly 1 pound 
of airslaked lime or 2 pounds of ground limestone to every 
30 square feet. The lime should be applied and raked in to a 
depth of 2 inches when the seed bed is being prepared in the 
spring. Instead of lime 2 pounds of unleached wood ashes 
may be used. 
As an addition to soil lime is of considerable value. Be¬ 
sides correcting acidity it changes the physical structure of 
the soil. One of the elements of lime is calcium, which is 
required for plant growth. 
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