Plan Your Garden Now 

A good garden has always been one of the best investments that could be made to supplement the family income. Now it is a necessity. 
The rationing of commercial canned vegetables means that the health and welfare of your family may depend on the Victory Garden. 
Your 1943 Victory Garden will be a most important part of your spring and summer plans. It is vital that you start with good seed. 
HOW TO MAKE A GARDEN 
GARDENS will produce the food to win the war. A good garden is always a thing of pride. Vegetables from your own garden always 
taste better and flowers that you grow yourself always smell sweeter. As for your garden, remember this: The more care you give it, the 
more joy and profit it will give back to you. 
LOCATION: Pick the best spot you can get which is handy. One that is open to the sun, away from large trees, and that has reasonably 
good drainage. Loose, mellow, loamy soil is best but use what you have. You must have a garden in 1943. 
FERTILIZER: Before plowing apply a good coat of rotted stable manure together with 2 lbs. of Superphosphate per 100 square feet. 
If manure is not available, use a good, high-grade, complete, commercial fertilizer. This fertilizer should also be put on before plowing or 
spading at the rate of from 2 to 4 lbs. per 100 square feet depending on the natural fertility of the soil. This is the latest approved method 
of fertilization and gives better results than when applied after plowing except on very sandy soil. 
FITTING THE SOIL: Plow deeply, seven or eight inches is not too much. Work until you have plenty of loose, mellow fine soil on top. 
If spaded by hand be sure to pulverize each fork or spadeful as it is turned over. Level and work the spaded ground with a rake. 
PLANTING: Don’t start to plant until you know where each vegetable and flower is to be placed. Draw a plan of your garden. Tall 
growing vegetables such as sweet corn and staked tomatoes should be planted on the north or west side so they will not shade lower growing 
vegetables. Vine crops such as pumpkins and squash should be planted where they will not run over small vegetables and smother them. 
The distance between rows will depend on the method of cultivation you use. If hand tools are used, 12 to 15 inches is enough for 
beets, carrots, lettuce, onions, radish and spinach. Corn, beans, peas, potatoes and staked tomatoes need from 30 to 36 inches between 
rows. Melons, cucumbers and summer squash should be allowed 4 feet between hills and hills of pumpkins and winter squash should 
never be planted closer than 6 to 8 feet. 
Don’t plant too much of some things and too little of others. A five foot row of parsley is usually enough and lettuce and radishes 
do not keep in edible condition for very long. On the other hand, surplus beans, peas, carrots and beets can be canned for winter use. 
Unless your garden has to be on a steep slope it does not make much difference which way the rows run. On such a slope the rows 
had better run cross-ways. 
Plant spinach, lettuce, onion and radish seeds and onion sets just as soon as the soil can be worked in Spring; late frosts will not hurt 
them. They like the cool, moist weather. Other seeds and plants may be put in as soon as all danger of frost is over. 
SOWING SEED: Donotsowtoo thickly. Watch the germination as stated on the seed package. This is placed there for your guidance. 
Do not sow too deeply. Remember the plant must depend on the food in the seed until it gets out of the ground. Small seeds should be 
only lightly covered with fine soil. Beans, corn, peas should be planted about 1 inch deep. 
FALL CROPS AND SECOND PLANTINGS: Your garden should be planted to make every foot produce all through the season. As 
vegetables mature and are used, new plantings should be made. It is safe to plant beans and early sweet corn anytime before July 15th. 
Turnips, endive, radishes, lettuce and Fall spinach may be sowed in New York State up until the last of July. 
Borate mating these second sowings clean up all rubbish from the first crop. Work up two or three inches of nice, loose soil for the 
new seed bed. 
OLD GARDENERS know a lot of ‘‘stunts’’. One of them is this: If your soil is very dry sow your seed and then lay over the rows some 
old boards or papers weighted down with stones. This will hold the moisture and heat and make for quicker germination. Remove these 
covers as soon as seedlings begin to poke through the ground. 
TOMATOES: You can have a lot of fun growing and harvesting this crop. It is one that responds to care and which gives big returns. 
In order to make the most of it, we advise trimming and staking the plants. First—when your plants are ready to transplant, place the 
roots in water for a half hour or so. Second—make the holes for the plants; these should be 24 inches apart and deep enough so that one 
or two of the lower leaf joints will be covered by soil after the plant is set and the hole filled in level. (NOTE: These joints will sprout 
extra roots and make the plants grow better. Deep setting also gets the main roots down where there is lots of moisture.) 
After putting a tomato plant in the hole and sifting some fine dirt around it, you may find it well to gently pour a dipper of water in 
the hole. When this has settled away fill in the rest of the dirt. 
Drive stakes four or five feet high and as soon as the plant has been set. As the plants grow, prune to one or two stalks (stems) and 
loosely tie to the stake with strips of cloth or soft heavy twine. Pinch out those buds which start in the axils of the leaves (that is, where 
the leaf joins the stalk). Leave all those buds which spring from the side opposite to a leaf—these are the blossoms and fruit buds. 
When frost comes in the Fall you can have tomatoes to eat for quite a while longer if you will pull some of the plants by the roots and 
hang them inside in a moderate temperature. Leave all the half-ripe fruit attached and let it ripen. 
POLE BEANS AND SQUASHES: If you do not have a convenient fence on which pole beans can climb, you may plant them in your 
corn and let them run up the corn stalks. : 
Your grandfather probably planted pumpkins in his corn field. You can do the same with winter squash or pie pumpkins. 
CULTIVATION: Weeds are very impolite; they wait for nothing and nobody. If you do not get the start of them (and keep it), they 
will get the start of you. ‘‘Elbow grease’’ and the good, old hoe are their worst enemies. Cultivate shallow but often until the weeds 
are under control. A good time to begin cultivating is right after you have finished. 
TOOLS: Youdon’t need many. A spade or spading fork, a rake and a hoe are quite necessary. A small, hand weeder and a trowel will 
be handy. Maybe you can get a wheel hoe but, if not, the hand hoe will do the whole trick. Keep it good and sharp with a file or on 
the grindstone. This makes it work more easily. 
DON’T BE AFRAID to ask questions of other gardeners. This is a good way to find things out without making mistakes—and we all 
make these. It is also a good way to get any kind of education—and gardening is an education. 
The various State Colleges of Agriculture and Agricultural Experiment Stations have available bulletins on gardening. Write to your 
Agricultural Experiment Station for these. They are usually free to residents of your State. 
New York State has available bulletin E344, ‘‘The Home Garden”. To secure this very instructive bulletin write to the Office of 
Publication, N. Y. S. College of Agriculture, Ithaca, N. Y. (A charge of 5c each is made to non-residents of New York State.) 
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