Vala avav a 

MUSKMELON, Hale's Best No. 36 






LIMA BEAN, 
Baby Bush 
SQUASH, Table Queen or Acorn 
SWEET CORN, 
Golden Cross 



BEANS, String- 
less Green Pod 



The answers to your questions 
Now that just about every fam- 
ily is ‘growing its own,” there’s a 
universal need for good, practi- 
cal gardening information. So this 
spring, instead of issuing just the 
usual kind of seed catalog, we are 
making every possible effort to fit 
our book to the special needs of 
these times. 
As you will find, throughout the 
pages of this book, we are giving 
you a great deal more in the way 
of helpful everyday gardening in- 
formation. Under the ‘Garden 
Guidepost”’ headings, we have as- 
sembled the answers to most of 
the questions that home gardeners 
commonly ask. We have aimed 
to give you in very compact form, 
the necessary essentials ... the 
“‘musts’’ of home gardening. 
For new gardeners 
For gardeners of limited experi- 
ence this data clears up just about 
all of those critical points that need 
special attention. In the shortest 
and simplest possible form, it pre- 
sents the basic moves that mean 
the difference between success 
and failure. 
For veterans 
Experienced gardeners may not 
need some of the information given 
here. But we think that even the 
most seasoned veterans will find 
that our ‘’Guideposts’’ give them 
many handy reminders, 
First of all—-THE SITE AND THE PLAN 
These are the six points to keep 
in mind when you select your site: 
1. Locate the garden near your 
house, if possible, to conserve your 
time and energy. 
2. Six hours of full sunlight are 
needed for vegetables and some 
flowers. 
3. Keep garden site away from 
tree roots. They will rob your plants 
of moisture and plant food. 
4. Make sure your soil is right— 
neither too acid nor too alkaline, 
and not lacking minimum require- 
ments of essential growth ele- 
ments — nitrogen, phosphorous, 
potash, 
Most vegetables, annual flow- 
ers, and border perennials do best 
in soil that is not very acid. 
If you're not certain about your 
soil, a very simple, inexpensive 
soil-test kit will enable you to 
make the necessary tests. 
5. Be sure there is ample drain- 
age. If there is insufficient slope 
for natural drainage, place drain 
tile well below the surface to carry 
off excess moisture. 
6. A gentle slope toward the 
south means an earlier garden; a 
northerly slope exposes growing 
plants to chilling winds and means 
a later-maturing garden. 
Make a garden plan 

To get the most out of your gar- 
den, make a complete plan on 
paper, and keep it as a record to 
check against in succeeding years. 
The right kind of garden plan 
gives you all these advantages: 
1. A succession of fresh vege- 
tables in pleasing variety through- 
out the season. 
2. A succession of bloom in the 
flower department. 
3. A great saving of time and 
energy, by knowing just what and 
when to plant, and when to expect 
to harvest each crop. 
4. Seed saved, by knowing just 
how much you will need. 
5. Full use of every foot of soil 
by succession and companion 
cropping. 
6. A chance to rotate crops on a 
scientific basis to improve yield 
and reduce disease and plant in- 
festation. 
How fo plan your 
vegetable garden 
Every garden must be planned 
individually. What you plant in it 
and how you schedule your plant- 
ing will be governed by— 
(a) the area and kind of soil 
available, 
(b) the personal tastes of your 
family, 
(c) and the supply of fresh vege- 
tables on the local market. 
In other words, there is no sense 
in planting corn if you have only 
wet, heavy soil; or in planting 
collards if no one in your family 
likes this succulent green; or in 
planting rows of carrots if your 
space is limited and they are 
abundant and cheap in your com- 
munity. 
Here are a few guideposts to 
read before setting your plan on 
paper: 
1. Where space is limited, plant 
more of the small, quick-maturing, 
highly perishable and highly pro- 
tective vegetables (rich in vitamins 
and minerals) —such as lettuce, 
spinach, Swiss chard, endive, to- 
matoes, green beans — which are 
to be used fresh and picked fre- 
quently. 
(Continued on Page 7) 
