ROW NO. 1. 25 grape vines, planted about 7½ feet apart. The
first three years these are trained to plain stakes or bean
poles, the space in the rows between the vines being planted
with strawberries, peas, beans or some other low-growing crop,
to occupy the ground and insure good cultivation. When the vines
have made strong canes and have reached the tops of the poles, a
post is set at each vine and a trellis made, as described in the
chapter on grapes. This row is six feet distant from the north
boundary line of the garden.
ROWS NO. 2. These rows are twelve feet distant from each other
and from the row of grapes, and are planted with blackberry
vines, at a distance of three feet in the rows. Though this may
seem like a good deal of “elbow room,” it is as close as they
can be planted to keep them in good order; if planted closer
they will form an impenetrable jungle by the end of the second
season.
ROWS NO. 3. These two rows are planted with red and black
raspberries, the rows also twelve feet apart, but the plants set
2½ feet apart in the rows.
ROW NO. 4. This is planted with rhubarb, sage and thyme,
currants and gooseberries, and is twelve feet distant from the
rows on either side.
ROW NO. 5. Is twelve feet from row No. 4, and is planted with
asparagus, as described in the special chapter on that vegetable.
ROWS NO. 6. These two rows are to be planted with spring-set
strawberries for the next year’s crop, and are four feet distant
from the asparagus and from each other. The strawberries
are intended to be grown on the matted row plan, and to be
cultivated with the horse cultivator; if they are to be grown in
stools, another row can be planted between them, and the whole
worked with the wheel or hand hoes.
ROW NO. 7. This row is for watermelons or cantaloupes, and the
line of hills is six feet distant from the row on either side.
The space in the row between the hills can be planted with egg
plants, cabbage, lettuce or such other plants as may be desired.
ROW NO. 8. This row is a space four feet wide, with room for
the cultivator on either side; this is raked fine and planted
in four rows one foot apart, the first row containing beets and
carrots; the second, onions; the third, lettuce, radishes, etc.;
the fourth, with a dozen plants of parsley, and the balance of
the row in endive and parsnips. When the two middle rows have
been cut out, the cultivator can be used to work the beets,
parsnips, etc., in the outside rows.
ROW NO. 9. This row is three feet distant from the parsnips, and
is planted with early cauliflower and early cabbage, with two
plants of lettuce between each of the other plants, which are
set 1½ feet apart.
ROWS NO. 10. These are four rows of peas, different plantings,
two kinds, early and medium, in each row, in equal quantities,
rows three feet apart. These are to be pulled out as soon as the
crop is gathered, and two rows of celery planted six feet apart.
ROWS NO. 11. Here are four rows of early sweet corn, in four
plantings of successive kinds, to be cleared off and followed
by turnips, drilled in rows one foot apart, and worked with the
wheel hoe; or the seed may be broad-casted after a thorough
cultivating, when the ears of corn are well set, without
clearing the ground. This is not nearly so satisfactory a plan
as to wait until the ground can be cleared and drilled. The rows
of corn should be four feet apart.
ROWS NO. 12. Two rows, 4½ feet apart, of Lima beans, with the
poles about 2½ feet apart in the row.
ROW NO. 13. This row should have six feet clear on each side
for the vines to run, and is to be planted with cucumbers and
squashes. The space between the hills can be occupied with
pepper plants or sweet corn.
ROWS NO. 14. Two rows of tomatoes, four feet apart.
ROWS NO. 15. Four rows of late sweet corn, four feet apart.
ROWS NO. 16. Two rows of sweet potatoes, five feet apart and
five feet from the corn and pole beans on either side.
ROW NO. 17. One row of pole snap beans. About three kinds should
be planted, that they may be had in succession.
ROWS NO. 18. Five rows early potatoes, three feet apart, plowed
in when the ground is plowed in the spring. When cultivated for
the last time, plant a row of late cabbage between each row of
potatoes; when the latter are ripe, dig with a fork, clear the
ground of vines and cultivate the cabbage thoroughly.
ROWS NO. 19. Sweet corn planted between the rows of berry
bushes; a large late variety will be the best for this purpose.
ROWS NO. 20. Two rows of fruiting strawberries, to be plowed
under and be replaced by peas sown in August. This, of course,
applies only to a garden of at least a year’s standing; and the
fruiting plants of strawberries will come in a fresh place each
year. The rows No. 6 being the bearing plants next season.]
Having the plan of work all settled, the next thing is to know what
is to be grown, the varieties of each that are best adapted to the
situation and soil of the garden, and where they can be procured of the
best quality. Under this head come the seeds needed for the vegetables
and the roots, tips and runners for the plantings of small fruits. This
should be done as soon as convenient, as I have found by experience it
is a great saving to have the entire supply of seeds on hand a week
or two before it is possible to begin planting. This is an important
item, as I have sometimes lost my crop from planting inferior seed
purchased at the last moment from the commissioned seeds that are sold
in the country stores. It does not pay to economize or try to garden
with poor seeds; it is a waste of time and labor in planting, and a
waste of ground and manure, as the inferior vegetables raised will
hardly cover the original cost of the seed. The gardener who sells his
products, unless his crops are of the best, will soon find his trade
falling off, and will be compelled to seek new customers each market
day. Personally, I have found it more satisfactory and productive of
better results to buy each season almost all the seeds needed from
some reliable seedsman, rather than to depend on those of my own
saving. For instance, such as peas, sweet corn and other vegetables,
where the earlier the crop is ready to market the greater the profit;
these mature much earlier if the seed is procured from reliable
seedsmen who have their supplies grown in the North. Such northern
grown seeds retain their instinct to hurry up and mature in a short
season, while in one’s own saving they begin even in the first year to
grow more leisurely and to accommodate themselves to the longer season.
In the case of peas, those grown in Northern New York and Canada, such
as are sold by all our leading seedsmen, will mature from one to two
weeks earlier than those saved in our own neighborhood. The northern
peas are also generally free from the weevil or striped bug, which
bores the large round hole in all the home-saved peas and destroys
their germinating power. So it is with almost every known variety of
vegetable; each has some special locality in which it reaches a higher
degree of perfection than in others less favorably situated. While,
of course, these facts are of interest to the gardener, they are only
learned after years of experience, and it is the seedsman’s business
to know the peculiarities of the different varieties, and to raise or
procure his stock from the best strains grown in the most favorable
localities. It is for the gardener to purchase from a seedsman whom
he knows to be thoroughly reliable, and whose interest it will be to
serve him with prompt shipments and carefully-selected strains of the
vegetables desired. All this is equally true of the nursery-man or
small-fruit grower from whom the supply of roots and plants is to be
purchased. On no part of the farm is “_Pedigree Stock_” of more
importance than in the kitchen garden. I will speak further on of the
saving of seeds, and refer now only to those which it is necessary to
buy. First, it is often a saving of several days to have the seed on
hand, as it is sometimes impossible to foretell just when you will
need the seed to plant a certain plot, how soon the ground will be fit
to work, or how soon will come the opportunity, in the press of other
work; if you have the seed at hand that part is always ready, and this
is quite an item where the garden frequently has to be attended to in
the intervals of farm work. Next, it is a cash saving to order all
your seeds at one time. If, as is most frequently the case, you have
to send to some large city for your supply, by procuring all that you
need at one time, you have but one freight or express charge to pay.
In making up your order, stick to the old varieties that you know suit
your soil and your market; all the more if your market is your own
table, for the greatest pleasure in gardening is in testing the merits
of your fruits and vegetables with the appetite engendered by their
culture. Also take into consideration the preferences of the household
department as to the cooking merits of the different varieties. Do not
experiment with your main crop of any vegetable, but do not neglect
to try such new varieties as seem to possess merit, for the varieties
are being continually improved by good culture and selection, as well
as by hybridization or cross-breeding. To have a fine garden, the
gardener must know the merits of all new and old varieties, and be as
progressive as is the successful man in any other line of business. I
know of nothing so interesting as watching the growth and development
of some new and improved variety that has been recommended to the
gardening public in the most glowing terms, and often in glowing colors
on a beautiful colored plate. Although I have been “taken in” fully
as often as the average gardener of my experience, I have been many
times repaid all trouble and outlay by the numerous successes that I
have met with and the great improvement in some of the varieties grown.
Sometimes I have made quite a nice little sum out of these novelties,
when I have been able to sell the selected seed of the new variety to
some other seedsman or to my neighbors. In these new varieties, more
than in any others, do you need to order early, or, instead of the seed
that you desire and which is to make reputation and money for you,
“being something superior to anything ever grown before,” you may get
one of those provoking little slips stating that the seedsman “regrets
to inform you that, owing to the great demand, the supply is exhausted
for this season, and hopes that the substituted kind will do as well.”