Home Vegetable Gardening - F. F. Rockwell (nice books to read .txt) 📗
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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,
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