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Home Vegetable Gardening

F >> F. F. Rockwell >> Home Vegetable Gardening




_Seed sowing_. Under glass: tomato, egg-plant and peppers. On sod:
corn, cucumbers, melons, early squash, lima beans.

_Planting, outside_. Onions, lettuce, beet, etc., if not put in
last month; also parsnip, salsify, parsley, wrinkled peas, endive.
Toward the end of this month (or first part of next) second plantings
of these. Set out plants of early cabbage (and the cabbage group)
lettuce, onion sets, sprouted potatoes, beets, etc.

_In the Garden_. Cultivate between rows of sowed crops; weed out
by hand just as soon as they are up enough to be seen; watch for cut-
worms and root-maggots.

_Fruit_. Thin out all old blackberry canes, dewberry and raspberry
canes (if this was not done, as it should have been, directly after the
fruiting season last summer). Be ready for first spraying of early-
blossoming trees. Set out new strawberry beds, small fruits and fruit
trees.

MAY

_Keep ahead of the weeds_. This is the month when those warm,
south, driving rains often keep the ground too wet to work for days at
a time, and weeds grow by leaps and bounds. Woe betide the gardener
whose rows of sprouting onions, beets, carrots, etc., once become green
with wild turnip and other rapid-growing intruders. Clean cultivation
and slight hilling of plants set out are also essential.

_The Frames_. These will not need so much attention now, but care
must be taken to guard tender plants, such as tomatoes, egg-plant and
peppers, against sudden late frosts. The sash may be left off most of
the time. Water copiously and often.

_Planting, outside_. First part of the month: early beans, early
corn, okra and late potatoes may be put in; and first tomatoes set out
--even if a few are lost--they are readily replaced. Finish setting out
cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, beets, etc., from frames. Latter part of
month, if warm: corn, cucumbers, some of sods from frames and early
squash as traps where late crop is to be planted or set.

_Fruit_. Be on time with first sprayings of late-blossoming
fruits--apples, etc. Rub off from grape vines the shoots that are not
wanted.


JUNE

_Frequent, shallow cultivation!_

Firm seeds in dry soil. Plant wax beans, lima beans, pole beams,
melons, corn, etc., and successive crops of lettuce, radish, etc.

Top-dress growing crops that need special manure (such as nitrate of
soda on onions). Prune tomatoes, and cut out some foliage for extra
early tomatoes. Toward end of month set celery and late cabbage. Also
sow beans, beets, corn, etc., for early fall crops. Spray where
necessary. Allow asparagus to grow to tops.

_Fruit._ Attend to spraying fruit trees and currants and
gooseberries. Make pot-layers of strawberries for July setting.


JULY

Maintain frequent, shallow cultivation. Set out late cabbage,
cauliflower, broccoli, leeks and celery. Sow beans, beets, corn, etc.,
for late fall crops. Irrigate where needed.

_Fruit_. Pinch back new canes of blackberry, dewberry and
raspberry. Rub off second crop of buds on grapes. Thin out if too many
bunches; also on plums, peaches and other fruit too thick, or touching.
Pot-layered strawberries may be set out.


AUGUST

Keep the garden clean from late weeds--especially purslane, the hot-
weather weed pest, which should be always _removed_ from the
garden and burned or rotted down.

Sow spinach, rutabaga turnip, bush beans and peas for last fall crop.
During first part of month, late celery may still be put out. Sow
lettuce for early fall crop, in frames. First lot of endive should be
tied up for blanching.

_Fruit_. Strawberries may be set, and pot-layered plants, if
wanted to bear a full crop the following season, should be put in by
the Thin out and bag grapes.


SEPTEMBER

_Frames_. Set in lettuce started in August. Sow radishes and
successive crop of lettuce. Cooler weather begins to tell on late-
planted crops. Give cabbage, cauliflower, etc., deeper cultivation.
"Handle" celery wanted for early use.

Harvest and store onions. Get squash under cover before frost. From the
15th to 25th sow spinach, onions, borecole for wintering over. Sow down
thickly to rye all plots as fast as cleared of summer crops; or plow
heavy land in ridges. Attend to draining.

_Fruit_. Trees may be set. Procure barrels for storing fruit in
winter. At harvest time it is often impossible to get them at any
price.


OCTOBER

Get ready for winter. Blanch rest of endive. Bank celery, to be used
before Christmas, where it is. Gather tomatoes, melons, etc., to keep
as long as possible. Keep especially clean and well cultivated all
crops to be wintered over. Late in the month store cabbage and
cauliflower; also beets, carrots, and other root crops. Get boxes,
barrels, bins, sand or sphagnum moss ready beforehand, to save time in
packing.

Clean the garden; store poles, etc., worth keeping over; burn
everything else that will not rot; and compost everything that will.

_Fruit_. Harvest apples, etc. Pick winter pears just before hard
frosts, and store in dry dark place.


NOVEMBER

_Frames_. Make deep hotbeds for winter lettuce and radishes.
Construct frames for use next spring. See that vegetables in cellar,
bins, and sheds are safe from freezing. Trench or store celery for
spring use. Take in balance of all root crops if any remain in the
ground, except, of course, parsnip and salsify for spring use. Put
rough manure on asparagus and rhubarb beds. Get mulch ready for
spinach, etc., to be wintered over, if they occupy exposed locations.

_Fruit_. Obtain marsh or salt hay for mulching strawberries. Cut
out old wood of cane-fruits--blackberries, etc., if not done after
gathering fruit. Look over fruit trees for borers.


DECEMBER

Cover celery stored last month, if trenched out-of-doors. Use only
light, loose material at first, gradually covering for winter. Put
mulch on spinach, etc.

_Fruit_. Mulch strawberries. Prune grape-vines; make first
application of winter sprays for fruit trees.


AND THEN

set about procuring manures of all kinds from every available source.
Remember that anything _which will rot_ will add to the value of
your manure pile. Muck, lime, old plastering, sods, weeds (earth and
all), street, stable and yard sweepings--all these and numerous others
will increase your garden successes of next year.




CHAPTER XX

CONCLUSION


It is with a feeling in which there is something of fear that I close
these pages--fear that many of those little things which become second
nature to the grower of plants and seem unimportant, but which
sometimes are just the things that the beginner wants to know about,
may have been inadvertently left out. In every operation described,
however, I have tried to mention all necessary details. I would urge
the reader, nevertheless, to study as thoroughly as possible all the
garden problems with which he will find himself confronted and to this
end recommend that he read several of the many garden books which are
now to be had. It must be to his advantage to see even the same
subjects presented again from other points of view. The more familiar
he can make himself, both in theory and in practice, with all the
multitude of operations which modern gardening involves, the greater
success will he attain.

Personally, the further I have gone into the growing of things--and
that has now become my business as well as my pleasure--the more
absorbingly interesting I find it. Each season, each crop, offers its
own problems and a reward for the correct solution of them. It is a
work which, even to the beginner, presents the opportunity of deducting
new conclusions, trying new experiments, making new discoveries. It is
a work which offers pleasant and healthy recreation to the many whose
days must be, for the most part, spent in office or shop; and it gives
very substantial help in the world-old problem of making both ends
meet.

Let the garden beginner be not disappointed if he does not succeed, for
the first season or two, or possibly three, with everything he plants.
There is usually a preventable reason for the failure, and studious
observation will reveal it. With the modern success in the application
of insecticides and fungicides, and the extension of the practice of
irrigation, the subject of gardening begins to be reduced to a
scientific and (what is more to the point) a sure basis. We are getting
control of the uncertain factors. All this affects first, perhaps, the
person who grows for profit, but with our present wide circulation of
every new idea and discovery in such matters, it must reach soon to
every remote home garden patch which is cared for by a wide-awake
gardener.

Such a person, from the fact that he or she is reading a new garden
book, I take the reader to be. I hope this volume, condensed though it
is, has added to your fund of practical garden information; that it
will help to grow that proverbial second blade of grass. I have only to
add, as I turn again to the problems waiting for me in field and under
glass, that I wish you all success in your work--the making of better
gardens in America.

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