The Vegetable Garden: What, When, and How to Plant

by Anonymous

[THE VEGETABLE GARDEN]

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of Northern and Eastern farms is the home vegetable garden. Even where no orchard has been planted, and where the ornamental surroundings of the home have been neglected, a fairly well-kept garden in which are grown a number of the staple kinds of vegetables is generally to be found. In many cases the principal interest in the garden is manifested by the women of the household and much of the necessary care is given by them. A small portion of the garden inclosure is generally devoted to the cultivation of flowers, and a number of medicinal plants is invariably present. Throughout the newer parts of the country it is seen that the conditions governing the maintenance and use of the vegetable garden are somewhat different, and, while a number of vegetable crops may be grown somewhere on the farm, there is wanting that distinction so characteristic of the typical New England kitchen garden.

It would be impossible to make an accurate estimate of the value of crops grown in the kitchen gardens of the United States, but from careful observation the statement can safely be made that a well-kept garden will yield a return ten to fifteen times greater than would the same area and location if devoted to general farm crops. A half acre devoted to the various kinds of garden crops will easily supply a family with $100 worth of vegetables during the year, while the average return for farm crops is considerably less than one-tenth of this amount. A bountiful supply of vegetables close at hand where they may be secured at a few moments' notice is of even more importance than the mere money value.

Fresh vegetables from the home garden are not subjected to exposure on the markets or in transportation and are not liable to become infected in any way. Many of the products of the garden lose their characteristic flavor when not used within a few hours after gathering. By means of the home garden the production of the vegetable supply for the family is directly under control, and in many cases is the only way whereby clean, fresh produce may be secured. The home vegetable garden is worthy of increased attention, and a greater number and variety of crops should be included in the garden.—(F. B. 255.)

The development and extension of truck farming in the Atlantic coast States have been coincident with the development of transportation facilities throughout that section. In the beginning the points affording water connection with the great consuming centers of the North were those at which truck farming first became established. The phenomenal growth of the great consuming centers of the country has stimulated a corresponding growth and extension of the food-producing territory, especially that capable of producing perishable truck crops. The demands for vegetables out of season, followed later by the continuous demand for fresh vegetables throughout the year by the great cities, led first to the market gardeners located near the cities supplementing their field operations by extensive forcing-house enterprises. Naturally, the products from the greenhouses were expensive and available only to the few who were able to pay fancy prices for green products out of season. The improvement and extension of the transportation facilities which came with the great railway-building era of the United States made it possible to take advantage of the wide diversity of climate offered along the Atlantic coast of the United States to furnish these perishable products to the great cities of the North and East.

Transportation facilities, together with cheap labor and cheap lands at the South, have made it possible to produce in extreme southern locations products out of season at the North in competition with greenhouse products. The greater land area and the smaller amount of capital involved in the production of crops at the South, even though transportation charges were high, have enabled southern growers to produce much larger quantities of the desired crops than could be grown profitably under glass. It was therefore not many years before lettuce, celery, tomatoes, radishes, beets, and bunch beans came to be regular winter and early spring products of gardens located at great distances from the centers of consumption.—(Y. B. 1907.)

It is only necessary to look around the village and town gardens in the South to become convinced of the great need that exists for information in regard to the proper care of the garden, and particularly that part which is intended to give supplies to the table. There town gardeners are very active in the early spring, and their enthusiasm often leads them to go ahead and plant a great many things at a season too early for their safety, so that a return of cold often compels the almost entire replanting of the garden. But with the production of the early crops in the garden, the enthusiasm of the gardeners oozes out under the influence of the summer's heat, and the garden that at first looked so neat in its spring dress becomes merely a weed patch. Few people realize the advantage that long summers and sunny autumns give for the production of a constant succession of crops in the garden, and still fewer realize that in this climate the garden need at no season of the year be abandoned to the weeds. One of the greatest troubles that results from the common practice of allowing the garden to grow up in weeds after the first peas, corn, cabbage, and tomatoes are secured, is that these weeds are the places where the larvæ of the cut-worm hide, and are ready to begin their destructive work as soon as the garden plants are set in the spring. If the garden is kept clean and cropped continuously all the year round, as it may and should be here, there will be no cut-worms to bother the early plants. From January to January there is no need in the South for any space in the garden unoccupied by crops. From the time the earliest peas go into the ground in January up to the time it is necessary to prepare for them the following year there can be a constant succession of fresh vegetables from the garden, by the exercise of a little forethought. And this succession can be made still more perfect if there be added a frame with some hotbed sashes for the production of lettuce, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, etc., during the colder months; while all through the winter there can be celery, kale, spinach and turnips.—(N. C. Bul. 132.)

LOCATION.

The question of the proximity to the house or other buildings is of great importance when locating the garden. Caring for a garden is usually done at spare times, and for this reason alone the location should be near the dwelling. In case the site chosen for the garden should become unsuitable for any cause, it is not a difficult matter to change the location. Many persons prefer to plant the garden in a different location every five or six years. The lay of the land has considerable influence upon the time that the soil can be worked, and a gentle slope toward the south or southeast is most desirable for the production of early crops. It is an advantage to have protection on the north and northwest, by either a hill, a group of trees, evergreens, a hedge, buildings, a tight board fence, or a stone wall to break the force of the wind.