If onion seed has been sown in August for early spring onions it will be well to give the beds a covering of straw or marsh hay at the approach of cold weather. The rhubarb rows may be banked with coarse manure from the barnyard and the asparagus bed may have the tops removed and the roots protected with manure; this will hasten the production of shoots in the spring and make stronger roots.
If there is a bit of land available for early peas it may be ploughed and the furrows filled with well-rotted manure, each furrow turned over the manure in the next and the rows marked with sticks; in early spring, drills may be opened with the hand cultivators and the seed for the very earliest peas sown.
If the lettuce, carrots, beets, salsify, endive, spinach, parsnips and radishes have proved satisfactory and any of the annual varieties have been allowed to go to seed it will be wise to save the seed for the coming season as the increasing shortage of seeds makes it more or less problematical whether a supply may be forthcoming another season. Lettuce, endive, spinach, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, and radishes seed freely the first year, beets, carrots, salsify, parsnips and turnips the second year and the mature vegetables must be planted in the spring to produce seed. If there are good roots of carrots and beets, these may be stored in sand in the cellar and planted out in the spring when they will bloom and produce seed. The parsnips and salsify left in the ground may be dug in the spring and reset where they are to bloom and a few plants will give sufficient seed for the home garden. The seed from the best tomatoes should have been saved, a few melons, cucumbers and eggplants allowed to ripen and the finest of the red peppers saved for seed. The sweetest and driest of the winter squash should have its seed set aside for the coming year. Even should there prove to be an abundance of seed this saving will do no harm; the raising of seed of biennial vegetables is interesting and should there be a real scarcity of seed one will be very thankful of the forethought which makes the shortage innocuous as far as one's own garden is concerned and, besides, one may do one's little bit by supplying friends and neighbors.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE ANNUAL GARDEN
For the busy woman who has but a modicum of time to spare for the growing of flowers, but is loath to relinquish entirely their cheerful presence about the grounds and house, the annual garden with its wide diversity of color, season and charm affords the greatest possible returns for the outlay required. A few packets of seed, most of which may be purchased for from five to ten cents, will lay the foundation for sheets and sheets of bloom and the labor of planting and caring for them will be less than is required for perennials.
One great advantage in growing annuals is that the beds may be freshly prepared each spring, there is nothing in the way to retard spading—no perennial growths to be carefully worked around, that the roots may not be injured or the new growth, not yet above ground, be destroyed. It is all straight ahead work, and the first early crop of weeds is completely eliminated, grass eradicated and all is in order for the reception of the plants which may have been started in flats in the house or in a hotbed or cold frame or, in the case of such annuals as do not take kindly to transplanting, in the open ground.
Nor is it necessary in the case of annuals that there should be a regular, formally laid out garden or permanent beds. A border about the base of the house along the fence or walks, will give room for several kinds of flowers, flowers that will be a mass of bloom from early summer until late frost.
A very satisfactory place for annuals I have found is down through the vegetable garden. I like their company while I am at work among the useful but less ornamental vegetables, so always plan to have a row of something mid-way of the garden; usually the row takes the form of tea roses which never do so well for me as in this homely situation. The culture is more thorough than can be given to plants in beds, there is less crowding, hence fewer insect pests and I always plan to have the adjacent vegetables of as ornamental a character as possible; a fine row of mossy parsley on one side, feathery carrots on the opposite row gives a charming background of green. Lettuce, beets, parsnips, any of the pleasantly leaved greens are attractive companion rows and although the rose is the aristocrat of the garden, objecting decidedly to sharing her bed with less royal plants I have never found that she objects to their presence when they keep to their own allotted row.