Two persons would not need a very large garden, and I will commend this early example to the beginner in gardening and urge a very small garden to start with. For it is well to undertake only what can be easily handled or what can be done thoroughly. There is joy in the contemplation of a perfect work, even though it be on a small scale, that never comes from a more ambitious undertaking imperfectly carried out. Better six square feet of well tilled, weedless, thrifty garden than an acre poorly cultivated and full of weeds.
A Girl Scout who proposes to make a garden will naturally ask herself certain questions. If she has the ground, if she knows already where her garden is to be placed, the next thing, perhaps, that she will wish to know is, what tools will be needed. Then follows the way to treat the soil in order to prepare it for planting the seeds. After that comes the question of seeds and the way to plant them. Then the cultivation of the crops until they are ready to be gathered.
Here, then, we have material for short sections on (1) tools, (2) preparation of the soil, (3) selection of seeds, (4) planting, and (5) cultivation.
(1) Tools
Not many tools will be needed, but some seem to be indispensable. I would suggest: 1. A spading fork. Some like a long-handled fork, others prefer a short-handled one. 2. A hoe. 3. A garden or iron-toothed rake. 4. A hand weeder of some kind. 5. A shovel. In addition to these tools every gardener will find it necessary to have a line for making straight rows. This should be at least the length of the longest dimension of the garden and white that it may be easily seen. There should be two pegs to stick it in with. I should add a board about ten inches wide with straight edges and as long as the bed is wide, and a pointed stick.
(2) The Preparation of the Seed Bed
The first thing to do, after having determined the location of your garden, is to measure your bed. If you have a single bed, one twelve feet long by six feet wide is enough to start with. I should prefer, however, to have two beds, each three feet wide by twelve feet long with a narrow path between, say, twelve inches. The reason for thus laying out the ground in two beds is that it will be easier to reach the whole bed from either side without stepping or kneeling on the cultivated soil. All cultivation can be done from the paths.
The soil for flower beds needs most careful preparation. The bed should be dug out to a depth of two feet, and if the soil is clay, two feet six inches. In the latter case, put broken stones, cinders or gravel on the bottom for drainage. The soil should be a mixture of one-half good sandy loam, one-fourth leaf mould or muck that has been left out all winter. Mix these thoroughly together before filling the beds, sprinkle wood ashes over the beds and rake them in before planting. This is to sweeten the soil. Lime may be used for the same purpose, but in either case get advice as to the amount needed for the soil in question.
Manure. Next in order will come the enriching of this plot of ground by spreading upon it a good coating of well rotted cow manure. In case barnyard manure is not available, a good mixture of commercial fertilizer consists of four parts ground bone to one of muriate of potash applied at the rate of four pounds to the square rod. This done, proceed to fork the whole piece over, thrusting the spading fork into the ground its full length each time, and turning the forkful of earth so that the manure will be covered and not lie on top of the ground.
When the spading has been done, then use your rake and spare it not. Rake until the earth in the beds is finely pulverized and until the whole bed is as level as you can make it.