CHAPTER X
THE GROWING OF THE VEGETABLE PLANTS
A vegetable garden is admittedly a part of any home place that has a
good rear area. A purchased vegetable is never the same as one taken
from a man's own soil and representing his own effort and solicitude.
[Illustration: Fig. 291. Cultivating the backache.]
It is essential to any satisfaction in vegetable-growing that the soil
be rich and thoroughly subdued and fined. The plantation should also be
so arranged that the tilling can be done with wheel tools, and, where
the space will allow it, with horse tools. The old-time garden bed (Fig.
291) consumes time and labor, wastes moisture, and is more trouble and
expense than it is worth.
[Illustration: Fig. 292. Tracy's plan for a kitchen-garden.]
The rows of vegetables should be as long and continuous as possible, to
allow of tillage with wheel tools. If it is not desired to grow a full
row of any one vegetable, the line may be made up of several species,
one following the other, care being taken to place together such kinds
as have similar requirements; one long row, for example, might contain
all the parsnips, carrots, and salsify. One or two long rows containing
a dozen kinds of vegetables are usually preferable to a dozen short
rows, each with one kind of vegetable.
It is well to place the permanent vegetables, as rhubarb and asparagus,
at one side, where they will not interfere with the plowing or tilling.
The annual vegetables should be grown on different parts of the area in
succeeding years, thus practicing something like a rotation of crops. If
radish or cabbage maggots or club-root become thoroughly established in
the plantation, omit for a year or more the vegetables on which
they live.
[Illustration: Fig. 293. A garden fence arranged to allow of horse
work.]
A suggestive arrangement for a kitchen-garden is given in Fig. 292. In
Fig. 293 is a plan of a fenced garden, in which gates are provided at
the ends to allow the turning of a horse and cultivator (Webb Donnell,
in American Gardening). Figure 294 shows a garden with continuous
rows, but with two breaks running across the area, dividing the
plantation into blocks. The area is surrounded with a windbreak, and the
frames and permanent plants are at one side.
It is by no means necessary that the vegetable-garden contain only
kitchen-garden products. Flowers may be dropped in here and there
wherever a vacant corner occurs or a plant dies. Such informal and mixed
gardens usually have a personal character that adds greatly to their
interest, and, therefore, to their value. One is generally impressed
with this informal character of the home-garden in many European
countries, a type of planting that arises from the necessity of making
the most of every inch of land. It was the writer's pleasure to look
over the fence of a Bavarian peasant's garden and to see, on a space
about 40 feet by 100 feet in area, a delightful medley of onions, pole
beans, peonies, celery, balsams, gooseberries, coleus, cabbages,
sunflowers, beets, poppies, cucumbers, morning-glories, kohl-rabi,
verbenas, bush beans, pinks, stocks, currants, wormwood, parsley,
carrots, kale, perennial phlox, nasturtiums, feverfew, lettuce, lilies!
Vegetables for six (by C.E. Hunn).
A home vegetable-garden for a family of six would require, exclusive of
potatoes, a space not over 100 by 150 feet. Beginning at one side of the
garden and running the rows the short way (having each row 100 feet
long) sowings may be made, as soon as the ground is in condition to
work, of the following:
Fifty feet each of parsnips and salsify.
One hundred feet of onions, 25 feet of which may be potato or set
onions, the remainder black-seed for summer and fall use.
Fifty feet of early beets; 50 feet of lettuce, with which radish may be
sown to break the soil and be harvested before the lettuce needs
the room.
One hundred feet of early cabbage, the plants for which should be from a
frame or purchased. Set the plants 18 inches to 2 feet apart.
One hundred feet of early cauliflower; culture same as for cabbage.
Four hundred and fifty feet of peas, sown as follows:--
[Illustration: 294. A family kitchen-garden.]
100 feet of extra early.
100 feet of extra early, sown late.
100 feet of intermediate.
100 feet of late.
50 feet of dwarf varieties.
If trellis or brush is not to be used, frequent sowings of the dwarfs
will maintain a supply.
After the soil has become warm and all danger of frost has passed, the
tender vegetables be planted as follows:
Corn in five rows 3 feet apart, three rows to be early and intermediate
and two rows late.
One hundred feet of string beans, early to late varieties.
Vines as follows:--
10 hills of cucumbers, 6x6 feet.
6 hills of early squash, 6x6 feet.
20 hills of muskmelon, 6x6 feet.
10 hills of Hubbard, 6x6 feet.
One hundred feet of okra.
Twenty eggplants. One hundred feet (25 plants) tomatoes.
Six large clumps of rhubarb.
An asparagus bed 25 feet long and 3 feet wide.
Late cabbage, cauliflower, and celery are to occupy the space made
Vacant by removing early crops of early and intermediate peas and
string beans.
A border on one side or end will hold all herbs, such as parsley, thyme,
sage, hyssop, mints.
The classes of vegetables.
Before attempting to grow particular vegetables, it will help the
beginner to an understanding of the subject if he recognizes certain
cultural groups or classes, and what their main requirements are.
Root-crops--Beet, carrot, parsnip, salsify.
The root-crops are cool-weather plants; that is, they may be sown very
early, even before light frosts disappear; and the winter kinds grow
very late in the fall, or may be left in the ground till most other
crops are harvested. They are not often transplanted.
Loose and deep soil, free from clods, is required to grow straight and
well-developed roots. The land must also be perfectly drained, not only
to remove superfluous moisture, but to provide a deep and friable soil.
Subsoiling is useful in hard lands. A large admixture of sand is
generally desirable, provided the soil is not likely to overheat in
sunny weather.
To keep roots fresh in the cellar, pack them in barrels, boxes, or bins
of sand which is just naturally moist, allowing each root to come wholly
or partly in contact with the sand. The best material in which to pack
them is sphagnum moss, the same that nurserymen use in packing trees for
shipment, and which may be obtained in bogs in many parts of the
country. In either sand or sphagnum, the roots will not shrivel; but if
the cellar is warm, they may start to grow. Roots can also be buried,
after the manner of potatoes.
Alliaceous group--Onion, leek, garlic.
A group of very hardy cool-weather plants, demanding unusually careful
preparation of the surface soil to receive the seeds and to set the
young plants going. They withstand frost and cool weather, and may be
sown very early. Seeds are sown directly where the plants are to stand.
For early onions, however, the special practice has recently arisen of
transplanting from seedbeds.
Brassicaceous group--Cabbage, kale, cauliflower.
These are cool-weather crops, all of them withstanding considerable
frost. The cabbages and kales are often started in fall in the middle
and southern latitudes, and are harvested before hot weather arrives.
In the northern states, these plants will all do best when started early
in hotbed, frame, or greenhouse,--from the last of February to
April--and transplanted to the open ground May first to June first,
partly because their season of growth may be long and partly to enable
them to escape the heat of midsummer. Still, some persons are successful
in growing late cabbage, kale, and cauliflower, by sowing the seeds in
hills and in the open ground where the plants are to mature. It is best
to transplant the young plantlets twice, first from the seed-bed to
boxes, or frames, about the time the second set of true leaves appears,
placing the plants 24 inches apart each way, and transplanting again to
the open ground in rows 4 to 5 feet apart, with plants 2 to 4 feet apart
in the row. If the plants are started under cover, they should be
hardened off by exposure to light and air during the warmer hours of
several days preceding the final transplanting.
The most serious enemy of cabbage-like plants is the root-maggot. See
discussion of this insect on pp. 187, 201.
[Illustration: Fig. 295. The white butterfly that lays the eggs for the
cabbage-worm.]
The cabbage-worm (larva of the white butterfly shown in Fig. 295) can be
dispatched with pyrethrum or kerosene emulsion. It must be treated very
early, before the worm gets far into the head (p. 200).
The club-root or stump-root is a fungous disease for which there is no
good remedy. Use new land if the disease is present (p. 208).
Solanaceous group--Tomato, egg-plant, red pepper.
These are warm-weather plants, very impatient of frost. They are all
natives of southern zones, and have not yet become so far acclimatized
in the North as not to need the benefit of our longest seasons.
Plants should be started early, under glass. They should be "pricked
off," when the second leaves appear, 3 or 4 inches apart, into flats or
boxes. These boxes should be kept in a coldframe, to which an abundance
of light and air is admitted on warm, sunny days, in order to harden
them off. After all danger of frost is past, and the garden soil is well
warmed, the plants may be finally transplanted.
If the ground is too rich, these plants are likely to grow too late in
the northern seasons.