| As a rule, we choose to grow bush beans rather than | | | | plants about one foot apart, or thin out to this distance. |
| pole beans. I cannot make up my mind whether or not | | | | To plant one hundred feet of drill buy half an ounce of |
| this is from sheer laziness. In a city backyard the tall | | | | seed. Seed goes a long way, you see. Kohlrabi is |
| varieties might perhaps be a problem since it would be | | | | served and prepared like turnip. It is a very satisfactory |
| difficult to get poles. But these running beans can be | | | | early crop. |
| trained along old fences and with little urging will run up | | | | Before leaving the cabbage family I should like to say |
| the stalks of the tallest sunflowers. So that settles the | | | | that the cabbage called Savoy is an excellent variety |
| pole question. There is an ornamental side to the bean | | | | to try. It should always have an early planting under |
| question. Suppose you plant these tall beans at the | | | | cover, say in February, and then be transplanted into |
| extreme rear end of each vegetable row. Make | | | | open beds in March or April. If the land is poor where |
| arches with supple tree limbs, binding them over to | | | | you are to grow cabbage, then by all means choose |
| form the arch. Train the beans over these. When one | | | | Savoy. |
| stands facing the garden, what a beautiful terminus | | | | Carrots are of two general kinds: those with long roots, |
| these bean arches make. | | | | and those with short roots. If long-rooted varieties are |
| Beans like rich, warm, sandy soil. In order to assist the | | | | chosen, then the soil must be worked down to a depth |
| soil be sure to dig deeply, and work it over thoroughly | | | | of eighteen inches, surely. The shorter ones will do well |
| for bean culture. It never does to plant beans before | | | | in eight inches of well-worked sandy soil. Do not put |
| the world has warmed up from its spring chills. There is | | | | carrot seed into freshly manured land. Another point in |
| another advantage in early digging of soil. It brings to | | | | carrot culture is one concerning the thinning process. |
| the surface eggs and larvae of insects. The birds | | | | As the little seedlings come up you will doubtless find |
| eager for food will even follow the plough to pick from | | | | that they are much, much too close together. Wait a |
| the soil these choice morsels. A little lime worked in | | | | bit, thin a little at a time, so that young, tiny carrots may |
| with the soil is helpful in the cultivation of beans. | | | | be used on the home table. These are the points to jot |
| Bush beans are planted in drills about eighteen inches | | | | down about the culture of carrots. |
| apart, while the pole-bean rows should be three feet | | | | The cucumber is the next vegetable in the line. This is |
| apart. The drills for the bush limas should be further | | | | a plant from foreign lands. Some think that the |
| apart than those for the other dwarf beans say three | | | | cucumber is really a native of India. A light, sandy and |
| feet. This amount of space gives opportunity for | | | | rich soil is needed I mean rich in the sense of richness |
| cultivation with the hoe. If the running beans climb too | | | | in organic matter. When cucumbers are grown |
| high just pinch off the growing extreme end, and this | | | | outdoors, as we are likely to grow them, they are |
| will hold back the upward growth. | | | | planted in hills. Nowadays, they are grown in hothouses; |
| Among bush beans are the dwarf, snap or string | | | | they hang from the roof, and are a wonderful sight. In |
| beans, the wax beans, the bush limas, one variety of | | | | the greenhouse a hive of bees is kept so that |
| which is known as brittle beans. Among the pole | | | | cross-fertilization may go on. |
| beans are the pole limas, wax and scarlet runner. The | | | | But if you intend to raise cucumbers follow these |
| scarlet runner is a beauty for decorative effects. The | | | | directions: Sow the seed inside, cover with one inch of |
| flowers are scarlet and are fine against an old fence. | | | | rich soil. In a little space of six inches diameter, plant six |
| These are quite lovely in the flower garden. Where | | | | seeds. Place like a bean seed with the germinating end |
| one wishes a vine, this is good to plant for one gets | | | | in the soil. When all danger of frost is over, each set of |
| both a vegetable, bright flowers and a screen from the | | | | six little plants, soil and all, should be planted in the open. |
| one plant. When planting beans put the bean in the soil | | | | Later, when danger of insect pests is over, thin out to |
| edgewise with the eye down. | | | | three plants in a hill. The hills should be about four feet |
| Beets like rich, sandy loam, also. Fresh manure worked | | | | apart on all sides. |
| into the soil is fatal for beets, as it is for many another | | | | Before the time of Christ, lettuce was grown and |
| crop. But we will suppose that nothing is available but | | | | served. There is a wild lettuce from which the |
| fresh manure. Some gardeners say to work this into | | | | cultivated probably came. There are a number of |
| the soil with great care and thoroughness. But even so, | | | | cultivated vegetables which have wild ancestors, |
| there is danger of a particle of it getting next to a | | | | carrots, turnips and lettuce being the most common |
| tender beet root. The following can be done; Dig a | | | | among them. Lettuce may be tucked into the garden |
| trench about a foot deep, spread a thin layer of | | | | almost anywhere. It is surely one of the most |
| manure in this, cover it with soil, and plant above this. | | | | decorative of vegetables. The compact head, the |
| By the time the main root strikes down to the manure | | | | green of the leaves, the beauty of symmetry all these |
| layer, there will be little harm done. Beets should not be | | | | are charming characteristics of lettuces. |
| transplanted. If the rows are one foot apart there is | | | | As the summer advances and as the early sowings |
| ample space for cultivation. Whenever the weather is | | | | of lettuce get old they tend to go to seed. Don't let |
| really settled, then these seeds may be planted. Young | | | | them. Pull them up. None of us are likely to go into the |
| beet tops make fine greens. Greater care should be | | | | seed-producing side of lettuce. What we are |
| taken in handling beets than usually is shown. When | | | | interested in is the raising of tender lettuce all the |
| beets are to be boiled, if the tip of the root and the | | | | season. To have such lettuce in mid and late summer |
| tops are cut off, the beet bleeds. This means a loss of | | | | is possible only by frequent plantings of seed. If seed is |
| good material. Pinching off such parts with the fingers | | | | planted every ten days or two weeks all summer, you |
| and doing this not too closely to the beet itself is the | | | | can have tender lettuce all the season. When lettuce |
| proper method of handling. | | | | gets old it becomes bitter and tough. |
| There are big coarse members of the beet and | | | | Melons are most interesting to experiment with. We |
| cabbage families called the mangel wurzel and ruta | | | | suppose that melons originally came from Asia, and |
| baga. About here these are raised to feed to the | | | | parts of Africa. Melons are a summer fruit. Over in |
| cattle. They are a great addition to a cow's dinner. | | | | England we find the muskmelons often grown under |
| The cabbage family is a large one. There is the | | | | glass in hothouses. The vines are trained upward |
| cabbage proper, then cauliflower, broccoli or a more | | | | rather than allowed to lie prone. As the melons grow |
| hardy cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi, a | | | | large in the hot, dry atmosphere, just the sort which is |
| cabbage-turnip combination. | | | | right for their growth, they become too heavy for the |
| Cauliflower is a kind of refined, high-toned cabbage | | | | vine to hold up. So they are held by little bags of |
| relative. It needs a little richer soil than cabbage and | | | | netting, just like a tennis net in size of mesh. The bags |
| cannot stand the frost. A frequent watering with | | | | are supported on nails or pegs. It is a very pretty sight I |
| manure water gives it the extra richness and water it | | | | can assure you. Over here usually we raise our |
| really needs. The outer leaves must be bent over, as | | | | melons outdoors. They are planted in hills. Eight seeds |
| in the case of the young cabbage, in order to get the | | | | are placed two inches apart and an inch deep. The hills |
| white head. The dwarf varieties are rather the best to | | | | should have a four foot sweep on all sides; the |
| plant. | | | | watermelon hills ought to have an allowance of eight |
| Kale is not quite so particular a cousin. It can stand | | | | to ten feet. Make the soil for these hills very rich. As |
| frost. Rich soil is necessary, and early spring planting, | | | | the little plants get sizeable say about four inches in |
| because of slow maturing. It may be planted in | | | | height reduce the number of plants to two in a hill. |
| September for early spring work. | | | | Always in such work choose the very sturdiest plants |
| Brussels sprouts are a very popular member of this | | | | to keep. Cut the others down close to or a little below |
| family. On account of their size many people who do | | | | the surface of the ground. Pulling up plants is a |
| not like to serve poor, common old cabbage will serve | | | | shocking way to get rid of them. I say shocking |
| these. Brussels sprouts are interesting in their growth. | | | | because the pull is likely to disturb the roots of the two |
| The plant stalk runs skyward. At the top, umbrella like, | | | | remaining plants. When the melon plant has reached a |
| is a close head of leaves, but this is not what we eat. | | | | length of a foot, pinch off the end of it. This pinch |
| Shaded by the umbrella and packed all along the stalk | | | | means this to the plant: just stop growing long, take |
| are delicious little cabbages or sprouts. Like the rest of | | | | time now to grow branches. Sand or lime sprinkled |
| the family a rich soil is needed and plenty of water | | | | about the hills tends to keep bugs away. |
| during the growing period. The seed should be planted | | | | The word pumpkin stands for good, old-fashioned pies, |
| in May, and the little plants transplanted into rich soil in | | | | for Thanksgiving, for grandmother's house. It really |
| late July. The rows should be eighteen inches apart, | | | | brings more to mind than the word squash. I suppose |
| and the plants one foot apart in the rows. | | | | the squash is a bit more useful, when we think of the |
| Kohlrabi is a go-between in the families of cabbage | | | | fine Hubbard, and the nice little crooked-necked |
| and turnip. It is sometimes called the turnip-root | | | | summer squashes; but after all, I like to have more |
| cabbage. Just above the ground the stem of this plant | | | | pumpkins. And as for Jack-o'-lanterns why they |
| swells into a turnip-like vegetable. In the true turnip the | | | | positively demand pumpkins. In planting these, the same |
| swelling is underground, but like the cabbage, kohlrabi | | | | general directions hold good which were given for |
| forms its edible part above ground. It is easy to grow. | | | | melons. And use these same for squash-planting, too. |
| Only it should develop rapidly, otherwise the swelling | | | | But do not plant the two cousins together, for they |
| gets woody, and so loses its good quality. Sow out as | | | | have a tendency to run together. Plant the pumpkins in |
| early as possible; or sow inside in March and transplant | | | | between the hills of corn and let the squashes go in |
| to the open. Plant in drills about two feet apart. Set the | | | | some other part of the garden. |