One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money

by Harold Morse Dunphy

Vegetables That Require Considerable Space in the Garden

There are a number of garden vegetables that require too much space for growing in the small home garden. Wherever plenty of land is available these vegetables should be grown. Among those included in this group are Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, sweet corn, squashes, cantaloupes, and watermelons.

Irish Potatoes

Irish potatoes are among the first crops that can be planted in a home garden. They have no place in a small garden, but where a space as great as 30 by 60 feet is available they should be included. A peck of seed potatoes, properly cut, will plant 300 feet of row and should yield 4 to 5 bushels. The usual method is to cut the seed, two eyes to each piece, dividing the fleshy part of the potato as equally as possible. The seed should not be cut until the ground is all ready to receive it. Great care should be taken to get seed that is free from scab or other diseases.

Irish potatoes can be planted in the North just as soon as the frost is all out of the ground and the soil dry enough to work. In the South the planting date will be governed by the season and the time that the young plants will be safe from spring freezes. It generally takes three to five weeks after planting in the Southern States for the potatoes to come up. In the North they will appear in a shorter period if weather conditions are favorable.

Peas

Peas, often called English peas, require considerable space and should not be planted in a small garden. In order to be of real value at least 15 feet of row should be planted for each person in the family. Peas are the first crop that can be planted in the spring. In the North, this planting can be made just as soon as the ground can be worked, and two, or even three, plantings should be made in order to have a continuous supply. In the South, peas are planted about the same time as early Irish potatoes or a little earlier.

Peas require a rather rich soil with a little fertilizer added, as they make a quick growth. One pint of seed will plant 75 to 85 feet of row, and this should yield plenty of peas for five persons at each of four or five pickings. First, spade and rake the ground until it is fine and mellow; then open a furrow 3 to 4 inches deep with the corner of a hoe. Scatter the seeds broadcast in the bottom of the furrow or space them at the rate of 12 to 15 peas to a foot and cover them 3 to 4 inches deep. In heavy soils the seeds should not be covered so deeply as in light or sandy soils. If the ground is cold the seeds may be 10 days or two weeks in coming up, and if there should be a heavy rain meantime the crust forming on the surface of the soil should be carefully broken over the rows with a steel rake.

Extra Early Alaska, Gradus, and Thomas Laxton are among the leading early sorts. The Champion of England and Telephone are considered good medium and late varieties.

The extra-early sorts may be planted with the rows as close as 24 inches apart where hand cultivation is practiced. The later and larger growing varieties require a space of about 3 feet between the rows. There should not be more than 10 days or two weeks’ difference between the planting dates of early and of late varieties of peas, as the late ones mature more slowly than the early sorts.