GARDEN GUIDE POSTS 

Steps in preparing your flats 

Continued from Page 9 
Use a box three inches deep and of 
any suitable size. Space the bottom 
boards about an eighth of an inch 
apart to provide drainage. Sift soil 
and use the coarser part in the bot- 
tom, with an inch of fine soil on top. 
Press around edges of box with a 
brick or board to firm the soil. Add 
more sifted soil and draw the 
straight edge of a lath or ruler 
across the top to level. 
Press furrows about one-quarter of 
an inch deep into the soil, the fur- 
rows spaced about 2” apart. By 
treating the seed with Rootone, 
a plant hormone that speeds up 
germination and increases the 
strength of seedling roots, better 
seedlings which will transplant 
with less loss can be grown. Plant 
seeds 34” apart to allow room to 
lift each seedling without disturbing 
the rest. After seeding, fill furrow 
with clean sand or sifted soil and 
press down soil over entire box 
until it is 144” below upper edge. 
WATERING AND TEMPERATURE 
Correct control of moisture is the 
most important single factor in 
success with indoor seed sowing. 
Soil should never be saturated, yet 
must not dry out at any time until 
seedlings show second set of leaves, 
when they can be transplanted out- 
doors if weather permits. 
Use either a small fly sprayer or a 
rubber spray bulb that throws a fine 
mist to water the box after planting. 
If not available, cover surface with 
burlap and water through this. 
If seeds of several varieties are 
grown together, keep box at 70 de- 
grees until seeds germinate, but if 
only tomatoes and peppers are 
grown, a temperature of between 
75 and 85 degrees will produce bet- 
ter seedlings. 
Don’t start seedlings too soon or 
they may become long and spin- 
dling. Six weeks before time to set 
out is soon enough to sow seed in- 
doors, and eight weeks if a hotbed 
er coldframe is used. 
PREPARING YOUR SOIL 
The right kind of soil preparation 
is a three-sided problem. First, 
there’s the matter of getting your 
soil into the right physical condi- 
tion. Second, there’s the question of 
giving it the ability to furnish food 
for your plants. Third, there’s the 
manner of working the soil. 
Physical condition. If your soil is 
heavy clay, lime added before plow- 
ing will help break it up. Even 
more valuable is decayed vegetable 
matter of some sort— peat moss, 
humus, old manure or leaf mould. 
10 
Do not apply fresh manure to 
green vegetation in spring be- 
cause, as this decays, it will form 
a gas that will hurt roots. 
If necessary to make a garden on 
sod, skin off the sod and add it to 
the compost heap. If the garden is 
fall-plowed, however, sod can be 
turned under and will decay fairly 
well if lime and fertilizer are ap- 
plied at the same time. 
Fertilizing. Well rotted manure 
and compost are important to 
the production of good crops and 
they do feed plants, but it must 
be remembered that they do not 
contain the type of nitrogen that 
is needed early in the season. 

For completely even distribu- 
tion of fertilizer, use a 
mechanical spreader 
If 30 lbs. of a good mixed fertilizer 
are applied to every 1,000 feet of 
garden before digging, and an equal 
amount applied between the rows 
about half-way through the season, 
all of the plant food needs of the 
average garden can be met. 
Always “water in’’ the summer ap- 
plication’ to prevent burning. 
WORKING THE SOIL. A good 
gardener can be told by the way 
he treats the soil. No gardener 
worthy of the name works it 
when it is so wet that it will 
pack. Abuse of the soil may ruin 
it for the entire season. Use the 
mud pie test already described 
before digging. 
To Dig or Plow? 
Hand digging, if properly done, is 
better for a garden than tractor 
plowing. Larger areas, of course, 
must be worked by machinery, but 
if possible, do the finishing by hand. 
Many a gardener has wasted pre- 
cious time waiting for a plowman to 
turn over a garden that could easily 
be turned over with a spade and 
would be in better condition than 
if packed by a heavy tractor. 
When you dig, don’t cheat the spade. 
Drive it straight down, lift the en- 
tire clod and turn it completely 
upside down. Hit it with the back of 
a spade, and if the soil is in good 
condition it will crumble. 
The trick of hand spading is to take 
your time. A good sized garden can 
be turned over in about a week by 
working at it an hour a day. 
To be sure that each clod is actu- 
ally turned over, remove a trench 
along the beginning of the garden 
just one spade wide. As each spade- 
ful is lifted, turn it into this trench. 
The soil removed from the first row 
is wheeled around to where you 
plan to finish and is used to fill the 
last trench or spit. 
Continued on Page 12 
KALE OR BORECOLE 
Requires moist, well enriched soil. Pick 
leaves as wanted, or pull whole plant. 
Leaves are best after a frost. 
Dwarf Green Curled—Hardy, large and 
very attractive bright, deep green. 100 
days. 
Dwarf Siberian—Hard and productive. 
Bluish green foliage. Leaves large and 
spreading. 65 days. 
KOHLRABI 
Sow early as possible in light, rich soil. 
When plants are in the third leaf, thin 
to 6” apart. Plant at intervals of 10 
days for succession of bulbs until hot 
weather—after which they do not 
srow. Use while still young and ten- 
der, before skin hardens. 
White Vienna Early—8 to 10-in. leaves 
on slender stems. Bulbs 2 to 3-in., glob- 
ular, light green. Crisp, tender, clear 
white flesh. 55 to 60 days. Pkt. 10c. 
LEEK 
Large American Flag—An early, popu- 
lar variety, with thick, long white 
stems. Leaves large and drooping, me- 
dium green. 130 days. Pkt. 10c. 
LETTUCE 
Sow as soon as ground can be worked 
—or for extra early crops start indoors 
and transplant when danger of heavy 
frost is over. Repeat sowing every 2 
weeks to insure continuous supply. For 
leaf lettuce, thin plants to 6” apart. 
For head lettuce, thin to 8” spacing, 
in rows 18” apart. Lettuce grows best 
and heads best in cool, moist weather. 
Cos or Romaine 
Dark Green Cos — Self folded loaf- 
shaped head. White leaves with faint 
tinge of green. Very crisp. 84 days. 
White Paris or Trianon—Medium large 
self-folding, dark green, loaf-shaped 
heads. Greenish-white, well blanched 
interior. 66 days. 
Head 
Big Boston or Mammoth Boston—Pop- 
ular for cold frame forcing and outside 
culture. Medium, compact heads with 
creamy yellow heart. Smooth, glossy 
leaves, edges wavy, and slightly tinged 
with reddish brown. 75 days. 

Iceberg—Late, large variety. Compact 
heads, crumpled, crisp and _ sweet. 
Leaves light green, slightly brown on 
edges. 85 days. 
Continued Page 11 

A vegetable garden of only 30 
to 50 ft. will keep a family of 5 
in fresh vegetables all through 
the season— with plenty left 
over for canning, 
