The Busy Woman's Garden Book

by Ida D. Bennett

The usual practice is to let the parsnips remain in the ground over winter, taking up and storing in boxes of slightly moist earth or sand, in the cellar, a supply for winter use. The parsnip is improved in quality by a touch of frost but must be dug before growth starts in the spring.

Parsnips are eaten quite readily by Belgian hares and imperfect or small roots may be sorted out and fed to them, avoiding any loss in grading.

PEAS

Of the very earliest kinds, and that is distinctly the smooth peas, should be gotten into the ground very early in spring. Most of the early sorts will stand considerable cold, but the wrinkled sorts are tender and should not be planted until the weather and soil are warm and reasonably dry. More failures in growing peas come from planting in cold, wet soil, in a mistaken hurry to get early peas than from any other cause.

Ground for peas should be very rich; it is not sufficient that the garden plot has been well manured before ploughing;—the strip allotted to the growing of peas should have additional fertilizer trenched in, especially is this necessary in growing the wrinkled sorts and especially the dwarf peas, such as Nott's Excelsior and the like. These dwarf peas cannot bear a big crop on their abbreviated tops unless forced to production by heavy feeding, but as the wrinkled, medium early and mid-season peas are the most delicious of all in quality, the extra care required is well repaid. Another object in heavy fertilizing is that by this means a succession of peas may be grown on the same ground. Personally I prefer peas that require support to the very dwarf sorts; in the first place you have more vine for the production of pods. You cannot, with the best intentions, get as big a crop from one foot of vine as you can from three, all things being equal. Again, the labor of gathering pods from upright growing vines where the pods are easily seen and reached is far less than from the prostrate vines which must be lifted or looked under in search of pods. Wire netting furnishes a better support than brush and where the gardener is a woman is much pleasanter to work about. Brush has an unpleasant habit of catching on the clothing and twisting around, often to the injury of the vine, but the netting gives a firm support, to which the vine readily attaches itself.

In the home garden the best way to plant peas is in double rows a foot apart, making the trench about three inches deep and dropping the peas as evenly as possible. Early sown peas do not require as deep planting as the wrinkled sorts which may be planted four or five inches deep to avoid blight. As the wrinkled sorts are very tender they should not go into the ground before corn planting time and not then unless the nights and soil are warm.

An excellent arrangement for a succession of peas in the home garden is to prepare the rows by trenching in manure and then make two furrows a foot apart and in one furrow plant the earliest peas and in the other a second early pea, stretching a four or five foot width of wire netting between the rows; this extends the bearing season a couple of weeks. When all the pods have formed on the earliest varieties of vines a second furrow may be opened beside it and a wrinkled sort of medium earliness be planted; these will be ready to climb about the time the first vines are turning yellow when they may be pulled up, leaving their place for the new vines. This system of succession of planting may be repeated on the other side of the netting, thus giving four sowings of peas to one strip of netting and a succession of peas for several weeks.

The germination of the seed may be hastened by soaking the seed over night in warm water and when sowing unsoaked seed, in dry weather, germination is hastened by pouring hot water into the trench before covering the seed.

The experienced gardener will have his pet variety of peas but the amateur will be somewhat afield in selection so I would suggest as a desirable early sort the Gradus or Prosperity Pea, a delicious sort of the tall kind that has much to recommend it. American Wonder is another extra early pea of a wrinkled sort that appeals to those who prefer a dwarf pea, being but a foot in height and compares in general excellence with Nott's Excelsior. On the same trellis with Gradus may be planted the Senator Pea; this is a number one pea in every respect—quality, quantity and appearance; following these one may plant more Senators and the Telephone; these will give a succession of peas for several weeks.