A1.27:24 23 23 23 24 30 TO MUCH has been said and written in the past few years about “scientific farming" and "scientific garden- Success in gardening can be aided greatly by an under- A city back-yard or vacant-lot garden often can supply GROW IN G V E G E T A BL ES IN TOWN AND CITY Planning the Garden Choosing a Location O one NE'S OWN BACK YARD is obviously the most convenient location for a garden, but unless the area is really suitable the garden should be located elsewhere, as near as satisfactory conditions can be found. Vacant lots and community garden plots are extensively used. A farm gardener usually has the opportunity to select the best land on his place for his garden, but the city gardener rarely has such a chance; he must do what he can with the soil of his own small lot or some nearby plot. In many neighborhoods city or town lots are definitely unsuited to gardening. Steep slopes, bad drainage, too many trees, too much rock, too little topsoil, or too much shade from buildings are all serious draw-backs, any of which might make a plot of land useless for vegetable growing. If such conditions as these prevail, the gardener will usually do better to locate a satisfactory plot at some reasonable distance from home. However, the town gardener has some advantages that many farm gardeners do not enjoy. He usually has a water supply close enough to the garden that a hose or a few lengths of temporary piping will give protection droug He also is usually near convenient sources of materials and supplies and rarely is troubled by the depredations of roaming livestock and wild animals. Generally the town gardener has less desirable soil and exposure for his garden than the farmer; nevertheless, millions of town gardeners have obtained excellent results even under considerable difficulties. after a rain and whether water stands on it or washes over it from above or from a nearby stream. An area subject to such excess water should not be used for gardening. The presence of a green scum on the soil surface indicates excessive wetness and danger from poor drainage. One should be especially wary of wet soils located in a pocket from which there is no adequate outlet and which might become a veritable pond during rainy periods. Street and other construction work about cities often results in water problems that are difficult, although they may involve only small areas. A rich, deep, friable sandy loam free from debris is the best all-purpose garden soil, but such an ideal is rarely found. The surface soils of town and city back yards and vacant lots are too often thin and stony or heavy and clay. like or have had excavated materials and trash dumped on them. Unless a soil is of such character that it can be spaded up in the spring into a loose, crumbly condition, it will be difficult to work if not definitely unsuited to vegetable growing. It is possible to use a wide range of soils, from sandy soils through silt loams to clays; but the silt loams and clays are heavy, sticky, and difficult to handle. In general the town gardener takes what he can get, removes the stones or trash, and does the best he can with it. Some lots, however, consist of rubble and "fill” that are so unproductive that it is wasteful to try to use them. If the soil is welldrained and produces a rank, quick growth of weeds or grass, it probably can be developed into a good garden. Land that is nearly level is the best, because it is easiest to work and is less likely to be damaged through washing by heavy rains. If the only available area slopes enough for it to wash, special precautions must be taken to avoid loss of soil and destruction of the crops. This will be discussed further on page 22. A gardener always has much to learn about any plot of soil on which he goes to work. He can rarely do as well the first year as in later years, because the peculiarities of the locality can be learned only by experience. Also, by proper soil management, it is usually possible to improve the soil gradually year after year and to get gradually better results. The convenience of the garden location is more important than might be supposed. The garden should be as close to one's home as a suitable place can be foundpreferably on one's own lot or an adjacent lot. A garden needs some attention almost daily; even when it is too wet to plant or cultivate, the gardener should see it every day or two so as to follow all developments and know in ad What Makes a Good Plot First of all, a plot of land suitable for a town garden must be in the open where it can get direct sunlight at least 6 hours a day, with no obstructing trees or buildings. Vegetables cannot be grown successfully on wooded lots or between buildings where the sun cannot reach. If the sun reaches the plot no more than 6 hours a day, crops like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and lima beans probably will not do very well. The leafy crops like lettuce, mustard, collards, spinach, chard, and kale will tolerate some shade better than the fruit- and seed-bearing crops. The plot must be well-drained. If possible, an should be chosen which the gardener has had a chance to see at frequent intervals through a season so that he can know whether it is inclined to be very wet for a long time area vance what work needs to be done. Gardening at a distance is not only inconvenient but generally less satisfactory than nearby, since it is more difficult to do things at the right time. Timeliness is a surprisingly large element in success. Arranging the Crops Corn and other crops are stunted and ruined when they compete with tree roots for water and soil nutrients. There is no one "right" plan for a home garden, but numerous good plans can be developed for any one locality. A plan that is best suited to one family's needs might be undesirable for another's; plans that are good in one part of the country or even one part of a State may be very poorly adapted to some other. The reader of this publication is therefore urged to consider his own needs, the climate of his locality, and his own particular garden spot in planning and arranging his garden. Conditions and details of methods of growing plants differ so widely over the United States that it is not possible to tell here all that gardeners need to know in every locality. This publication is designed to present the important principles that apply generally, together with approximate directions for different parts of the country. For greatest usefulness it should be supplemented by information obtainable from local sources on spring and fall frosts, on any specially adapted varieties, and on special cultural practices necessitated by any unusual local conditions. Gardeners should obtain the recommendations of their respective State agricultural experiment stations, agricultural extension services, agricultural colleges, and county agents. The State stations are located as follows: ALABAMA MAINE OHIO ARIZONA MARYLAND Tucson College Park OKLAHOMA ARKANSAS MASSACHUSETTS Stillwater Fayetteville Amherst OREGON Corvallis East Lansing PENNSYLVANIA Davis MINNESOTA State College COLORADO St. Paul RHODE ISLAND Fort Collins MISSISSIPPI Kingston CONNECTICUT State College SOUTH CAROLINA Storrs MISSOURI Clemson New Haven Columbia SOUTH DAKOTA DELAWARE MONTANA Brookings Newark Bozeman TENNESSEE Knoxville Lincoln TEXAS College Station Reno UTAH Tifton NEW HAMPSHIRE Logan VERMONT Burlington New Brunswick VIRGINIA Blacksburg State College WASHINGTON Pullman Geneva Puyallup Ames Ithaca WEST VIRGINIA KANSAS NORTH CAROLINA Morgantown Manhattan Raleigh WISCONSIN KENTUCKY NORTH DAKOTA Lexington Fargo WYOMING LOUISIANA Laramie Baton Rouge In a garden that is much longer than wide it is generally more convenient to work with wheeled tools, if the rows run the long way. It matters little whether the rows run north and south or east and west, but on a sloping area it is important that the rows run across the slope, not up and down. Running the rows across the slope, or on the Auburn Orono Columbus Wooster contour, helps hold the rainfall on or in the soil instead of letting it rush down the sloping rows and carry away the soil. Perennial plants, such as asparagus, rhubarb, and various savory herbs, should be kept together at one side of the garden, where they can be conveniently handled without interfering with the part to be plowed or spaded each year. During the winter before a season's work is started, a detailed plan and schedule of operations should be developed for the garden (see scheme, p. 39). First, a goodsized sketch or map of the garden plot should be drawn, preferably to scale, so that the time and space that each crop will occupy can be set down on the sketch. Very few town or city gardens can be large enough to supply all the vegetables a family will need in a year, or even all needed during the growing season. Thus, it is especially important that plans be made to insure that one does not plant more of any vegetable at one time than can be used or preserved before that crop becomes too old. Many vegetables remain in good edible condition but a short time; so the seeds for the entire supply desired for the season must not be planted all at once but at intervals. There are, however, difficulties with some vegetables in this matter of successive plantings in regions having short spring seasons and hot summers. Where late plantings of some vegetable suffer from hot weather it is usually better to plant it all early, using a number of varieties that mature successively; for example, early, medium, and late varieties of cabbage. This subject requires considerable knowledge of varieties and of local conditions, but it is so important that it is worth careful study. Additional information will be found under the headings for the individual crops (pp. 24 to 39). Most beginners tend to plant too much of lettuce, radish, cabbage, spinach, and other quick-growing crops to mature at one time. The result is that some is wasted and then no more is available. A succession of varieties or of plantings will give a much longer period of harvest from the same total amount planted. Another common failure of many gardeners is that they do not have a definite plan for following each early maturing crop promptly with some other, so as to keep the ground Durham Madison |
