String beans, or snap beans in bush form, are the most popular for planting in the small garden. The seed should not be planted until the ground is fairly warm and the danger of frost safely passed. Stringless Green-Pod, Currie’s Rustproof Wax, and Refugee Wax are the leading early varieties of bush beans. Where space is limited the bush varieties can be planted in rows 24 inches apart, with the individual plants 3 or 4 inches apart in the row, or in hills 12 inches apart with four plants in a hill. Three, or even four, plantings at intervals of three or four weeks should be made, in order to insure a continuous supply. In sections of the country where the first autumn frost does not occur until about the first of October a late or fall crop of snap beans can be grown to advantage, the seed being planted about the first week in August.
A half pint of seed of snap beans will plant about 100 feet of row with five seeds to a hill and the hills 12 inches apart. A hundred feet of row will be sufficient for one planting to supply the average family. If four plantings are made 1 quart of seed will be required.
Pole or climbing beans should be planted in every garden where space will permit. The variety known as Kentucky Wonder produces a plentiful supply that can be eaten pod and all while they are tender, as shelled beans when more mature, and as dry beans after they ripen. Pole or climbing Lima beans are adapted to a wide range of territory and can often be grown on a division fence, on a trellis covering the kitchen porch, or on an outbuilding. [Figure 11] shows a street fence which is being made to support a splendid crop of Lima beans. Bush Lima beans are more limited in their soil and climatic requirements, but are considered by many persons to be of finer quality than the pole varieties.
Lima beans require a richer soil than string or snap beans, and the seed should not be planted until the ground is quite warm, fully a week later than snap beans. All beans should be planted comparatively shallow, especially on clay or heavy soils. On light or sandy soils beans may be covered from 11⁄4 to 2 inches. Beans will not start well if planted in wet soil or if covered too deeply.
In case the soil should become packed by heavy rains before the plants appear it is a good plan to break the crust over the row by means of a steel rake, great care being taken that the rake teeth do not go deep enough to injure the sprouting beans. Beans should be cultivated and hoed at least once a week, but they should not be worked when their leaves are wet with dew or rain, as this has a tendency to cause them to rust. In case more beans are grown than are required for summer use, the young tender pods may be canned for winter. Any beans that become too old for immediate use should be allowed to ripen and be saved for planting the next season or for cooking as dry beans. Colored dry beans are as good as white, both in flavor and nutritive value, in spite of a rather general popular belief to the contrary, and none of them should be wasted.
Root Crops
The root crops, including beets, carrots, parsnips, salsify, turnips, and radishes, form a group of very important food crops for the small garden. The soil requirements and general culture are very much the same for all the root crops, and for that reason they are considered collectively. The soil for root crops should be quite rich, and it should also be spaded or plowed deep and made fine and mellow the full depth that is broken. These root crops will all withstand slight frosts and may be planted very early in the spring. Root crops are especially desirable for the small garden on account of the fact that the rows may be as close together as 12 or 14 inches and the plants 3 or 4 inches apart in the row, making it possible to grow a large quantity of food on a small tract.
Beets
An ounce of beet seed will be sufficient for the ordinary city garden. Beets may be planted almost as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring. Make the soil fine and mellow; then lay off the row about 1 inch deep, using the hoe handle to make the little furrow. What are commonly called beet seeds are really seed balls, each containing two or three seeds, and for that reason too many should not be put in. Eight or ten to the foot of row are sufficient. Cover the seeds about 1 inch and rake the surface smooth over the row. If the seeds are good and the weather favorable the plants should appear in about 10 days after planting. They should be thinned to about 3 inches in the row, but if not too thick to start with they may be allowed to reach a height of about 3 or 4 inches before thinning, and the thinnings may be used for beet greens. Any skips or spaces can be filled in by transplanting plants that are removed from other parts of the row. A row 50 feet long will furnish enough early beets to supply the ordinary family. A second planting may be made about four week after the first. A late planting should be made about six or eight weeks before the first autumn frosts. Any beets that are left in the garden at the end of the season should be stored for winter use.
