Home Vegetable Gardening by F. F. Rockwell (best novels to read to improve english .txt) 📕

compacted. This may be covered with a layer of straw or other light

material to help maintain an even degree of moisture, but should be

removed as soon as the mushrooms begin to appear. Water only when the

soil is very dry; better if water is warmed to about 60 degrees. When

gathering never leave stems in the bed as they are likely to breed

maggots. The crop should appear in six to eight weeks after spawning

the bed.

Parsley:—This very easily grown little plant should have at

least a row or two in the seed-bed devoted to it. For use during

winter, a box or a few pots may be filled with cut-back roots and given

moderate temperature and moisture. If no frames are on hand, the plants

usually will do well in a sunny window.

Parsley seed is particularly slow in germinating. Use a few seeds of

turnip or carrot to indicate the rows, and have the bed very finely

prepared.

Rhubarb:—This is another of the standard vegetables which no

home garden should be without. For the bed pick out a spot where the

roots can stay without interfering with the plowing and working of the

garden—next the asparagus bed, if in a good early location, will be as

good as any. One short row will supply a large family. The bed is set

either with roots or young plants, the former being the usual method.

The ground should first be made as deep and rich as possible. If poor,

dig out the rows, which should be four or five feet apart, to a depth

of two feet or more and work in a foot of good manure, refilling with

the best of the soil excavated. Set the roots about four feet apart in

the row, the crowns being about four inches below the surface. No

stalks should be cut the first season; after that they will bear

abundantly many years.

In starting from seed, sow in March in frames or outside in April; when

well along-about the first of June—set out in rows, eighteen by twelve

inches. By the following April they will be ready for their permanent

position.

Manuring in the fall, as with asparagus, to be worked in in the spring,

is necessary for good results. I know of no crop which so quickly

responds to liberal dressings of nitrate of soda, applied first just as

growth starts in in the spring. The seed stalks should be broken off as

fast as they appear, until late in the season.

Sea-Kale:—When better known in this country, sea-kale will be

given a place beside the asparagus and rhubarb, for, like them, it may

be used year after year. Many believe it superior in quality to either

asparagus or cauliflower.

It is grown from either seed or pieces of the root, the former method,

being probably the more satisfactory. Sow in April, in drills fourteen

inches apart, thinning to five or six. Transplant in the following

spring as described for rhubarb—but setting three feet apart each way.

In the fall, after the leaves have fallen—and every succeeding fall—

cover each crown with a shovelful of clean sand and then about eighteen

inches of earth, dug out from between the rows. This is to blanch the

spring growth. After cutting, shovel off the earth and sand and enrich

with manure for the following season’s growth.

Spinach:—For the first spring crop of this good

and wholesome vegetable, the seed is sown in September,

and carried over with a protection of hay

or other rough litter. Crops for summer and fall

are sown in successive plantings from April on, Long-Standing

being the best sort to sow after about May

15th. Seed of the New Zealand spinach should be

soaked several hours in hot water, before being

planted.

For the home garden, I believe that the Swiss chard beet is destined to

be more popular, as it becomes known, than any of the spinaches. It is

sown in plantings from April on, but will yield leaves all season long;

they are cut close to the soil, and in an almost incredibly short time

the roots have thrown up a new crop, the amount taken during the season

being wonderful.

Spinach wants a strong and very rich soil, and dressings of nitrate

show good results.

THE FRUIT CROPS

Under this heading are included:

Bean, dwarf Bean, pole

Corn Peas

Cucumber Eggplant

Melon, musk Melon, water

Okra Pepper

Pumpkins Squash

Tomato

Most of these vegetables differ from both the preceding groups in two

important ways. First of all, the soil should not be made too rich,

especially in nitrogenous manures, such as strong fresh yard-manure;

although light dressings of nitrate of soda are often of great help in

giving them a quick start—as when setting out in the field. Second,

they are warm-weather loving plants, and nothing is gained by

attempting to sow or set out the plants until all danger from late

frosts is over, and the ground is well warmed up. (Peas, of course, are

an exception to this rule, and to some extent the early beans.) Third,

they require much more room and are grown for the most part in hills.

Light, warm, “quick,” sandy to gravelly soils, and old, fine, well

rotted manure—applied generally in the hill besides that plowed under,

make the best combination for results. Such special hills are prepared

by marking off, digging out the soil to the depth of eight to ten

inches, and eighteen inches to two feet square, and incorporating

several forkfuls of the compost. A little guano, or better still

cottonseed meal, say 1/2 to 1 gill of the former, or a gill of the

latter, mixed with the compost when putting into the hill, will also be

very good. Hills to be planted early should be raised an inch or two

above the surface, unless they are upon sloping ground.

The greatest difficulty in raising all the vine fruits—melons, etc.—

is in successfully combating their insect enemies—the striped beetle,

the borer and the flat, black “stink-bug,” being the worst of these.

Remedies will be suggested in the next chapter. But for the home

garden, where only a few hills of each will be required, by far the

easiest and the only sure way of fighting them will be by protecting

with bottomless boxes, large enough to cover the hills, and covered

with mosquito netting, or better, “plant-protecting cloth,” which has

the additional merit of giving the hills an early start. These boxes

may be easily made of one-half by eight-inch boards, or from ordinary

cracker-boxes, such as used for making flats. Plants so protected in

the earlier stages of growth will usually either not be attacked, or

will, with the assistance of the remedies described in the following

chapter, be able to withstand the insect’s visits.

Beans, dwarf:—Beans are one of the most widely liked of all

garden vegetables—and one of the most easily grown. They are very

particular about only one thing—not to have a heavy wet soil. The

dwarf or bush sorts are planted in double or single drills, eighteen to

twenty-four inches apart, and for the first sowing not much over an

inch deep. Later plantings should go in two to three inches deep,

according to soil. Ashes or some good mixed fertilizer high in potash,

applied and well mixed in at time of planting, will be very useful.

As the plants gain size they should be slightly hilled—to help hold

the stalks up firmly. Never work over or pick from the plants while

they are wet. The dwarf limas should not be planted until ten to

fourteen days later than the early sorts. Be sure to put them in

edgeways, with the eye down, and when there is no prospect of immediate

rain, or the whole planting is fairly sure to be lost.

Beans, pole:—The pole varieties should not go in until about

the time for the limas. Plant in specially prepared hills (see above)

ten to twenty seeds, and when well up thin, leaving three to five.

Poles are best set when preparing the hills. A great improvement over

the old-fashioned pole is made by nailing building laths firmly across

2 x 3-in. posts seven or eight feet high (see illustration). To secure

extra early pods on the poles pinch back the vines at five feet high.

Corn:—For extra early ears, corn may easily be started on sod,

as directed for cucumbers. Be sure, however, not to get into the open

until danger from frost is over—usually at least ten days after it is

safe for the first planting, which is seldom made before May 1st.

Frequent, shallow cultivation is a prime necessity in growing this

crop. When well up, thin to four stalks to a hill—usually five to

seven kernels being planted. A slight hilling when the tassels appear

will be advisable. Plant frequently for succession crops. The last

sowing may be made as late as the first part of July if the seed is

well firmed in, to assure immediate germination. Sweet corn for the

garden is frequently planted in drills, about three feet apart, and

thinning to ten to twelve inches.

Cucumber:—This universal favorite is easily grown if the

striped beetle is held at bay. For the earliest fruits start on sod in

the frames: Cut out sods four to six inches square, where the grass

indicates rich soil. Pack close together in the frame, grass side down,

and push seven or eight seeds into each, firmly enough to be held in

place, covering with about one and a half inches of light soil; water

thoroughly and protect with glass or cloth, taking care to ventilate,

as described in Chapter VIII. Set out in prepared hills after danger of

frost is over.

Outside crop is planted directly in the hills, using a dozen or more

seeds and thinning to three or four.

Eggplant:—The eggplant is always started under glass, for the

Northern States, and should be twice transplanted, the second time into

pots, to be of the best size when put out. This should not be until

after tomatoes are set, as it is perhaps the tenderest of all garden

vegetables as regards heat. The soil should be very rich and as moist

as can be selected. If dry, irrigating will be necessary. This should

not be delayed until the growth becomes stunted, as sudden growth then

induced is likely to cause the fruit to crack.

Watch for potato-bugs on your eggplants. They seem to draw these

troublesome beetles as a magnet does iron filings, and I have seen

plants practically ruined by them in one day. As they seem to know

there will not be time to eat the whole fruit they take pains to eat

into the stems. The only sure remedy is to knock them off with a piece

of shingle into a pan of water and kerosene. Eggplants are easily

burned by Paris green, and that standard remedy cannot be so

effectively used as on other crops; hellebore or arsenate of lead is

good. As the season of growth is very limited, it is advisable, besides

having the plants as well developed as possible when set out, to give a

quick start with cottonseed meal or nitrate, and liquid manure later

is useful, as they are gross feeders. The fruits are ready to eat from

the size of a turkey egg to complete development.

Melon, musk:—The culture of this delicious vegetable is almost

identical with that of the cucumber. If anything it is more particular

about having light soil. If put in soil at all heavy, at the time of

preparing the hill,