Part 3

If a garden-cultivator is used--and this should be done whenever possible--plan for rows that will enable you to run it the entire length of the garden without turning. Beds are no longer in favor with gardeners who aim to reduce the work to be done to the minimum, for in them the cultivator cannot be used to advantage, and weeding cannot be done with the facility which characterizes row-planting, nor can the hoe be used as effectively. There is really no argument that can be advanced in favor of the old bedding system for gardens in which we propose to use labor-saving implements.

If possible, have the rows run north and south. This enables the sun to get at the ground lengthwise of the rows, and between them, which it could not do if they ran east and west, as the plants in them would shade all the ground except that in the first and most southerly row. It is not enough that the sun should get at the tops of the plants. The soil needs its vivifying effect.

Plant with regard to the height and habit of the vegetables you propose to grow. Give corn a place at the side of the garden. Then peas which grow tall enough to require bushing, and then beans, working down through potatoes, tomatoes, and beets and other low-growing kinds to onions, radishes, and cucumbers.

If the garden-cultivator is to be used, leave a space about eighteen inches wide between the rows to work in. This implement can be adjusted to fit any width desired. Its teeth can be set to throw the soil toward a plant or away from it. It can be made to do deep or shallow work, as the case may require. As a general thing, after a plant has attained some size we throw the soil toward it. If the teeth are set to do this we go down one side of the row and back on the other, thus throwing the soil about the plant alike on both sides.

It will probably be necessary to remove some weeds in the row, which cannot be reached by the cultivator. This can be done most effectively by the use of a hoe which is triangular in shape, with the handle-socket in the center of it. One side is a blade like the ordinary hoe. The other comes to a sharp point, with which it is possible to work close to a plant without running any risk of injuring it--something that cannot be done with the ordinary wide-bladed hoe. Weeds that grow up side by side with vegetable seedlings can be picked away from them so easily, and without disturbing them in the least, that no hand-pulling will have to be resorted to in cleaning the rows.

Where the garden-cultivator is used there will be very little work to do with the hoe, as this implement stirs the soil and uproots weeds at the same time. But in the small garden either hoe or weeding-hook will come into daily use. The weeding-hook is a most important tool, though its cost is but ten or fifteen cents. It enables one to do a good deal of weeding in a short time, does its work well, and does away entirely with hand-pulling, which has heretofore been one of the chief arguments that men have advanced against gardening.

III

PLANTING THE GARDEN

Most persons make the serious mistake of covering garden seed too deeply. Very small seed needs hardly any covering. Indeed, it does its best, as a general thing, when simply scattered on the surface and pressed down into the soil by a smooth board. This embeds the seed in the soil, which is made firm enough under the pressure of the board to retain a sufficient amount of moisture to assist germination. Very fine seed often fails to sprout if covered too deeply.

But most of the seed of garden vegetables is not fine enough to admit of this method of planting. If a seed-sower is not used, little furrows should be made by drawing a stick through the soil, into which the seed should be dropped as evenly as possible. It should then be covered lightly and the soil should be pressed down with the hoe to make it comparatively firm. The probabilities are that many more plants will come up than it is advisable to let grow. These surplus seedlings should be removed from the rows as soon as the plants get a good start.

Nearly all gardeners make use of the seed-sower. This is an implement that can be adjusted to sow all kinds of seed more evenly than it can be sown by hand, and it can be sown thickly or thinly, as desired, and at any required depth. It cannot be used to much advantage in the very small garden, where only a small quantity of each kind of seed will be made use of, but in large gardens it will be found as much a labor-saver as the garden-cultivator.

It is always advisable to plant for a succession if the garden is large enough to admit of it. By planting at intervals of ten days or two weeks it is possible to have fresh vegetables throughout almost the entire season. Where this is done it will not be advisable to plant very much of any one kind.

Among almost all vegetables there are early, medium, and late varieties. Some of each of these should be planted in all gardens of a size to warrant so doing. In the small garden I would advise the choice of the later varieties, as these are almost without exception superior in flavor to the earlier kinds, which are grown more on account of earliness than quality.

SEEDS THAT GIVE BEST RESULTS

It is very important that seed of only the best kind should be used, if we would grow vegetables of superior quality. Every gardener of experience will indorse the truth of this statement.

Said one amateur gardener to me when I gave him this advice: "Why should one be so particular about the seed? It's the culture that you give the plant that counts. Plant any kind of seed that happens to be handiest and take good care of the plants that grow from it and you'll have good vegetables." To some extent what he said was true, but he had yet to learn that there is a vast difference between ordinary seed and seed that has bred into it by careful culture the superior qualities which characterize the choicest varieties of all our garden plants. There is such a thing as aristocracy of seed, and no seed that is lacking in this feature can be expected to afford the satisfaction that results from the use of the best. No amount of culture can make a superior vegetable from plants grown from inferior seed. Bear this in mind, and buy only the best seed on the market, be your garden large or small. The smaller it is, the greater the importance of using only the best.

"But how are we who know very little about such things to know which is the best?" some one may ask.

The only answer I can make to this question is this: We have in this country many seed firms that have been in existence for years--some of them over half a century--and these have built up for themselves a reputation for handling only seed of the very best varieties of garden vegetables that it is possible to grow. Inferior sorts have been discarded from time to time as those of superior merit have been produced. These firms, proud and jealous of the reputation they have gained, cannot afford to deal in anything that is not up to their standard of "the best." From these dealers you can be sure of getting seed that can always be depended on to give the highest degree of satisfaction. The seed they sell you may cost a little more than some of the newer dealers ask for theirs, but the certainty of getting what you want makes it well worth while to invest some extra money in it. Cheap seed--that which is advertised as being "just as good as higher-priced seed for a much smaller amount of money"--is likely to prove as cheap in quality as in price.

EARLY GARDEN WORK

After planting the garden there will be a little interval of leisure while the seed that has been put into the ground is germinating.

Then will come the time of early warfare with the weeds. Here is where the weeding-hook of which I have spoken will come into play in the small garden. This little implement is in the form of a claw, with five or six fingers, each about an inch long, and shaped so that they reach into the ground and take a firm hold of whatever plants they are placed over. It can be so operated that these fingers, working close to plants which it is not desired to uproot, will tear away the weeds without disturbing the other plants, and the soil will be left in light and mellow condition, as if a tiny rake had been drawn through it. With this tool the work can be done with great rapidity. No owner of a garden, large or small, can afford to be without it.

It should be used to supplement the work of the cultivator, which can be depended upon to take care of all the weeds between the rows, but which cannot be worked among the plants in the row.

Weeding should be begun as soon as the plants are of a size that makes it possible to tell which is seedling and which is weed. By beginning the work of clearing the garden at this period, and doing it thoroughly, and continuing it at intervals thereafter, it will be a comparatively easy matter to keep weeds under control. But if they are allowed to get a strong start--as they will in an incredibly short time if let alone--it will be a difficult matter to subdue them and keep the upper hand during the rest of the season. It is very important that they should be given to understand, at the outset, that they will not be tolerated in your garden. This will necessitate early work and careful and regular attention thereafter, but it will not be the laborious work that so many persons think it is if it is begun at the right season and always carried on on the offensive. It is when weeds have been allowed to intrench themselves firmly in the garden that this work becomes disagreeable.

Nor is it work that will require a good deal of one's time. In the cultivation of a garden it is the little attentions, given when needed, that count, rather than the amount of labor and time expended there, as you will find when you come to have a garden of your own.

If there are any vacant places in the beds or rows, fill with plants taken from places where they stand too thick. In the small garden there should be not one vacant spot. Every bit of soil should be made to do its share of work in the production of some vegetable.

If weeds are kept down during the early part of the season there ought not to be many during the latter part of it. But there will be no time when there will not be some to wage warfare against, and every gardener should make it a rule to destroy every one that gets a start as soon as discovered, for, by preventing it from developing seed, we can save ourselves a good deal of work next season. One weed will bear seed enough to fill the whole garden with its progeny if allowed to do so.

If the soil was properly fertilized at planting-time it will not be necessary to apply more fertilizer, if any, until the latter part of the season, and then only a small amount will be required--just enough to enable the soil to do its share in ripening off the plants that are growing in it. But if, at any time, the plants seem to lag or come to a standstill enough should be given to stimulate active growth.

Careful watch should be kept of everything in the garden, and prompt advantage should be taken of any tendency toward slow development by making fresh applications of whatever fertilizer was used at the beginning of the season. In order to attain the success that the gardener aims at in the cultivation of vegetables it is absolutely necessary to keep them going steadily ahead from start to finish, and this can only be done by supplying them with a generous amount of plant-food. There should be no alternations of liberal feeding and lack of feeding.