Ida D. Bennett

“ If I could have but one tool to garden with I think it would be a scuffle-hoe, for no other tool will keep the garden so free from weeds. With the common garden hoe my paths through the garden are usually marked by the wreckage of plants, for use as much care as I can sooner or later I get to hoeing too vigorously and off goes a cabbage, tomato or onion. The scuffle-hoe does not seem to arouse an excess of energy; one goes along smoothly and serenely, leaving clean tilth and undepleted rows of vegetables in one's wake and looking back at the end of each row sees that it is good. ”

“ It is amazing, once one has started to conserve fertility, how much one can find to add to this compost heap; I recall that one spring,77 from a well-tended compost heap and one horse stable, I had hauled on to the garden ten large, two-horse loads of fertilizer, and put the garden in excellent shape, and not only this,—it had kept the premises tidy as nothing else would have done. The gatherings of the summer and fall will, by spring, have rotted down into available form and the action of the soil, sun and rain will complete the process. ”

“ The indoor garden may have its beginning in the late days of September, when the hardy spring blooming bulbs come into the market. Nearly all of this class of plants force readily and pots and window boxes may be filled with soil, planted to tulips, hyacinths, narcissi, valley lilies, and the like and set aside in a cool dark cellar for midwinter blooming, requiring no further care for weeks to come. ”

“ Your garden will give back to you just What you put into it—no more, and the more you give to it the less it will exact of you; neglect it ever so little and it willvi prove a hard taskmaster indeed, or a living reproach—a reproach that will burgeon and bloom in noxious weeds and sickening plants, a garden where the worm dieth not and the aphis and grub revel undisturbed and unchecked.
There is nothing so easy as to keep a garden in perfect order, free from weeds and pernicious insect life, nothing easier than to have the reverse of this. ”

“ THE HARDY GARDEN Is a permanent investment, possible only in the permanent home. It adds dignity and charm attainable from no other form of planting. It is to the outdoor life of the home what the possession of colonial furniture and family heirlooms is to the indoor life, and yet is neither expensive nor tedious in its inception. ”

“ They may be purchased all ready to bloom of the florist or easily raised, from spring sown seed, to blooming size by fall. Heliotropes, the sweetest of all flowers, will bloom freely in any sunny window if the precaution is taken to spray or wet the foliage thoroughly every day; without this refreshing bath the foliage will curl up and die and the buds blast. ”

“ WINTER STORAGE It is in the late days of fall that one begins to realize substantially on the summer's investment of seed, time and labor in the garden. Previous to this one has watched the maturing of the summer vegetables with an eye to their immediate use; now one sees before one rich stores of food that shall tide one safely through many lean days when the price of food goes soaring and the visible supply temporarily disappears. ”

“ But it must be borne in mind that the use of commercial fertilizers is not intended to replace that of barnyard manure, but rather to supplement it until the soil has regained what it has lost by poor management. Commercial fertilizers will of themselves produce a crop, but it is at the expense of the after-fertility of the land, just as the application of the whip will spur a jaded horse to one more final effort. Liberal applications of manure, leaf mould or muck and bone meal will bring any land that has soil at all, up to a satisfactory condition of fertility in a very few years. ”

“ Those early vegetables which are so keen an incentive to the planting of a garden—young beets, spinach greens, string beans, limas, peas, tomatoes and the like must be preserved in a cooked form, hermetically sealed from the air to preserve them from spoiling. This the commercial canners have done for years and we have been content to let them do this work for us at a price that has added materially to the high cost of living, while our own garden product, often of a far better quality, has gone to waste. ”

“ Tenacious, clayey soil or newly broken sod ground should not, however, be undertaken by a woman, such ground is a man's job.
But it is the warm, sunny location that is vital to the successful cultivation of the garden. All the early vegetables—peas, lettuce, endive and the like—call for abundant sunshine in the cool days of early spring, and, as the season advances and the fall chill is in the air at nightfall, then the warm sunshine will hasten the maturity of such late comers as tomatoes, winter squash, citron and any late-sown vegetables that are used to succeed the earlier growths. ”

“ Indeed, if one owns the site of a home and the building is yet in the future, no better expenditure of one's spare time and dollars can be inaugurated than such initial planting as shall insure the presence of blooming shrubs about the home at the time of its completion so that all may be beautiful and perfect together, rather than that two or three years must elapse before one can begin to enjoy the results. ”

“ If it had been in a situation demanding a heavier planting I should have alternated the plants, setting them behind the spiræas, with forsythias—whose golden yellow blooms make bright the garden in earliest spring—and between the forsythias introduced the deutzias.
There are few more satisfactory and graceful plants for use in front of a porch than this Spiræa Van Hutti; its gracefully curved branches, though growing to a good length, curve away gracefully from the building, bending with their weight of snowy bloom almost to the ground and the growth is very strong and rapid, but never coarse. ”

“ The soil must always be firmed above the seed after sowing, either by means of a flat piece of board, with a handle on one surface or, in the case of large seeds by tramping the rows with the feet; this firming of the soil is most important, it brings the soil close about the seed so that the first little root—a very tiny, delicate little root, feeling its way about in search of nourishment can come at once into contact with the warm soil and obtain the food and moisture so critically needed at this juncture of its little life. ”

“ For garden culture where hand cultivation is to be practised, the plants may be set in hills two or three feet apart each way, leaving room to cultivate between each way for the first few years. Two year old roots are the best to use and in planting a little mound of earth should be made in each hill, the roots of the plant spread out around this so that the earth will fit in beneath, close to the under side of the crown, then the earth should be firmed about the roots, a handful of bone meal sprinkled over the soil and the remainder of the soil filled in. ”

“ Any garden spot, however, should always be ploughed rather than spaded and as deep ploughing as possible should be the rule. If the soil is good go as close to the bottom of it as possible, the shallow ploughing so universal—seldom more than six inches in depth, does not give a mellow bed for any but shallow rooted vegetables. Carrots, salsify, parsnips and similar long-rooted things must fairly drill their way into the hard ground below the shallow cultivation, this resulting in deformed, stunted or many twigged roots, unsalable and of little value for the home table. ”

“ The nicotianas are other cold-resisting plants and have the added advantage of self-sowing—not to a troublesome extent but sufficiently to insure a yearly supply of volunteer plants without267 thought or trouble on the gardener's part. The nicotiana does not open up well in bright sunshine, but unfolds its snowy cups in late afternoon and on cloudy days, but in shady positions is more generous of its beauty and is lovely when silhouetted against the flaming red of the salvias. ”

“ They make the daintiest, most charming little plants imaginable. Shapely, many branched and loaded with bloom they are the very daintiest "Favors" imaginable for luncheons and other social affairs and are charming gifts at all times. The blossoms are about the size of a ten cent piece, and come in white, pink and red. The seeds may be sown in the pots—three inch ones, in which they are to bloom or may be sown in flats and pricked out into pots when large enough. I have found the seed to germinate very freely and the plants to grow on finely from the start. ”

“ SWEET, POT AND MEDICINAL HERBS Are a very welcome addition to the kitchen garden, giving just the often needed touch to the achievement of a successful dish, a touch that will change an everyday vegetable or meat course to something unusual and fancy in cuisine, and with no trouble or added expense to the cook—just a little pinch of this or that, and what a difference it makes! ”

“ If economy must be observed or the bed is for temporary use, a rough frame of boards will answer every purpose; it need not even extend below the surface of the ground, but merely rest upon it, but such construction is not to be recommended except for temporary structures or where it is desired to remove the frame as soon at it has served its purpose in supplying plants for spring planting; but a well built, permanent hotbed has by no means served its mission with the passing of the spring months, it may be profitably kept in commission the year around. ”

“ When one has undertaken a garden like this it will be found surprising how many things one will pick up in one's little excursions out of town to add to it; all one's friends will take an interest and pleasure in donating seeds and plants and if the roof affords room for a hammock and a few chairs, the question of where to go for a summer vacation will not take on such poignant interest, nor the inability to afford one be so great a tragedy. ”

“ A good rain, however, should always precede the planting, if possible, as newly worked ground is not sufficiently settled for sowing seed and not so desirable for setting out of plants.
The arrangement of the vegetables in the garden has much to do with the convenience of caring for it. It is always a good arrangement to plant the early vegetables, such as lettuce, radishes, beets, endive and onions at the end of the garden nearest the house where they are most easily available as one has occasion to use them in preparing a meal. ”

“ For those who love the bitter tang of the dandelion as a green, the cultivated affords a much finer dish than the wild as the leaves are double the size of the wild dandelion. The seed should be sown in drills, covering very lightly and shading with newspapers or brush until up. Thin to stand a foot apart and blanch, if desired, by inverting a box or flower-pot over each plant, or a cone of stiff paper can be used. For greens, only the top may be removed but for salad the plant may be cut down to the root, the part beneath the surface of the ground being very white and tender. ”

“ Set the wide branching asters at least a foot apart and see that all asters have clean, healthy soil to grow in to avoid the troubles that arise when conditions are unfavorable. A warm, fibrous loam, well enriched with old manure, is best and water should be given freely during dry weather, especially when the buds are forming. The black aster beetle is the only serious foe of the aster and makes its appearance when the flowers are in full bloom, doing an immense amount of damage in a few hours if not destroyed as they eat the petals of the flowers, rendering them very unsightly. ”

“ The ideal conditions of warm soil, mellow, moist soil of just the right consistency; protection from changes of weather all make for a high per cent of plants from the sowing, and the chief difficulty is often an embarrassment of plants—that is they come up too thickly, a trouble that is easily obviated by sowing quite thinly, holding back a portion of the seed for later sowings if needed, or for a later crop. ”

“ After planting the ground should be kept cultivated by hoeing or by the use of the scuffle-hoe—anything which will maintain a dust-mulch, prevent the earth drying out and caking and retain the moisture. The success of the planting depends upon this one feature more than upon any other one thing. A plant insufficiently supplied with moisture during the growing season is quite certain to succumb to the rigors of the succeeding winter—not, indeed, on account of the cold itself, but the condition in which it entered the winter. ”

“ So many consider that all the fertility in a soil is contained in the few top inches of soil, and in a measure this is true—the available fertility is right there—but there is a wealth of unused fertility in the lower strata, but lack of cultivation, lack of moisture and most of all, lack of the humus which makes the soil retentive of moisture, render it unavailable, but if it is broken up and gradually mixed with the humus of the upper soil it becomes available and the soil is increasing in fertility instead of growing thinner and poorer year by year. ”

“ Eggplants are considered one of the difficult things to grow; personally I have seldom lost a plant except at the hands, or mouth rather, of cutworms, but I have frequently gotten an unsatisfactory setting of fruit. However, one must have certain standards to adhere to in their culture, the first of which is heat in all the early stages of their growth, the second, rich soil, with occasional supplementary dressings of nitrate of soda, and thorough cultivation.
The plants require considerable room when mature and should not be set closer than three feet each way. ”

“ Winter squash are an important garden product, not much appreciated during the flush times of summer but coming into its own at the approach of cold weather; the culture is practically179 that of all vine products. Starting seed on sod in the hotbed and transplanting has much to recommend it as the squash seems to attract more than a fair sort of attention from striped cucumber beetle, squash bugs, stink worm and blight. The vine borer also takes its tithe of the plant and a sudden wilting of the leaves is indication that he is at work; he should be hunted for and killed. ”

“ Throwing some loose stuff—clover hay, corn fodder or weeds—over the plants on a cold night will usually save them and a spell of warm weather that usually follows the first hard frosts may bring on immature fruit to a usable size. It requires about five months from the sowing of the seed to produce usable fruit so it will readily be seen that it is important to start the seed in the hotbed, greenhouse or in the house and to take every precaution to grow them on rapidly without any check. ”

“ A great many of the vegetables that are always sown in the open ground—beets, string or lima beans, endive, lettuce—all may be started in the hotbed27 and planted out and will give one very tender and succulent vegetables to use while the main crop is maturing from open ground sowing. Once one has acquired the hotbed habit one will never have quite room enough for one will always be wanting to try something more. One of the most satisfactory pushing forward of vegetables is achieved in planting melons and cucumbers and squash on pieces of sod in the hotbed. ”