Home Vegetable Gardening - F. F. Rockwell (nice books to read .txt) 📗
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made at least three feet square, and slightly raised. This method is
also of use in planting the other vine crops.
Melon, water:—In the warm Southern States watermelons may be
grown cheaply, and they are so readily shipped that in the small home
gardens it will not pay to grow them, for they take up more space than
any other vegetable, with the exception of winter squash. The one
advantage of growing them, where there is room, is that better quality
than that usually to be bought may be obtained. Give them the hottest
spot in the garden and a sandy quick soil. Use a variety recommended
for your particular climate. Give the same culture as for musk melon,
except that the hill should be at least six to ten feet apart each way.
By planting near the edge of the garden, and pinching back the vines,
room may be saved and the ripening up of the crop made more certain.
Okra:—Although the okra makes a very strong plant—and
incidentally is one of the most ornamental of all garden vegetables—
the seed is quickly rotted by wet or cold. Sow not earlier than May
25th, in warm soil, planting thinly in drills, about one and a half
inches deep, and thinning to a foot or so; cultivate as with corn in
drills. All pods not used for soup or stems during summer may be dried
and used in winter.
Peas:—With care in making successive sowings, peas may be had
during a long season. The earliest, smooth varieties are planted in
drills twelve to eighteen inches apart, early in April. These are,
however, of very inferior quality compared to the wrinkled sorts, which
may now be had practically as early as the others. With the market
gardener, the difference of a few days in the maturing of the crop is
of a great deal more importance than the quality, but for the home
garden the opposite is true.
Another method of planting the dwarf-growing kinds is to make beds of
four rows, six to eight inches apart, with a two-foot alley between
beds. The tall-growing sorts must be supported by brush or in other
ways; and are put about four feet apart in double rows, six inches
apart. The early varieties if sown in August will usually mature a good
fall crop. The early plantings should be made in light, dry soil and
but one inch deep; the later ones in deep loam. In neither case should
the ground be made too rich, especially in nitrogen; and it should not
be wet when the seed is planted.
Pepper:—A dozen pepper plants will give abundance of pods for
the average family. The varieties have been greatly improved within
recent years in the quality of mildness.
The culture recommended for eggplant is applicable also to the pepper.
The main difference is that, although the pepper is very tender when
young, the crop maturing in the autumn will not be injured by
considerable frost.
Pumpkin:—The “sugar” or “pie” varieties of the pumpkin are the
only ones used in garden culture, and these only where there is plenty
of ground for all other purposes. The culture is the same as that for
late squashes, which follows.
Squash:—For the earliest squash the bush varieties of Scallop
are used; to be followed by the summer Crookneck and other summer
varieties, best among which are the Fordhook and Delicata. For all,
hills should be prepared as described at the beginning of this section
and in addition it is well to mix with manure a shovelful of coal
ashes, used to keep away the borer, to the attack of which the squash
is particularly liable. The cultivation is the same as that used for
melons or cucumbers, except that the hills for the winter sorts must be
at least eight feet apart and they are often put twelve.
Tomato:—For the earliest crop, tomatoes are started about March
1st. They should be twice transplanted, and for best results the second
transplanting should be put into pots—or into the frames, setting six
to eight inches each way. They are not set out until danger of frost is
over, and the ground should not be too rich; old manure used in the
hill, with a dressing of nitrate at setting out, or a few days after,
will give them a good start. According to variety, they are set three
to five feet apart—four feet, where staking or trellising is given, as
it should always be in garden culture, will be as much as the largest-growing plants require. It will pay well, both for quality and quantity
of fruit, to keep most of the suckers cut or rubbed off. The ripening
of a few fruits may be hastened by tying paper bags over the bunches,
or by picking and ripening on a board in the hot sun. For ripening
fruit after frost see Chapter XIV.
A sharp watch should be kept for the large green tomato-worm, which is
almost exactly the color of the foliage. His presence may first be
noticed by fruit and leaves eaten. Hand-picking is the best remedy.
Protection must be made against the cutworm in localities where he
works.
All the above, of course, will be considered in connection with the
tabulated information as to dates, depths and distances for sowing,
quantities, etc., given in the table in Chapter IV, and is supplemented
by the information about insects, diseases and harvesting given in
Chapters XIII and XIV, and especially in the Chapter on Varieties which
follows, and which is given separately from the present chapter in
order that the reader may the more readily make out a list, when
planning his garden or making up his order sheet for the seedsman.
BEST VARIETIES OF THE GARDEN VEGETABLES
It is my purpose in this chapter to assist the gardener of limited
experience to select varieties sure to give satisfaction.
To the man or woman planning a garden for the first time there is no
one thing more confusing than the selection of the best varieties. This
in spite of the fact that catalogues should be, and might be, a great
help instead of almost an actual hindrance.
I suppose that seedsmen consider extravagance in catalogues, both in
material and language, necessary, or they would not go to the limit in
expense for printing and mailing, as they do. But from the point of
view of the gardener, and especially of the beginner, it is to be
regretted that we cannot have the plain unvarnished truth about
varieties, for surely the good ones are good enough to use up all the
legitimate adjectives upon which seedsmen would care to pay postage.
But such is not the case. Every season sees the introduction of
literally hundreds of new varieties—or, as is more often the case, old
varieties under new names—which have actually no excuse for being
unloaded upon the public except that they will give a larger profit to
the seller. Of course, in a way, it is the fault of the public for
paying the fancy prices asked—that is, that part of the public which
does not know. Commercial planters and experienced gardeners stick to
well known sorts. New varieties are tried, if at all, by the packet
only—and then “on suspicion.”
In practically every instance the varieties mentioned have been grown
by the author, but his recommendations are by no means based upon
personal experience alone. Wherever introductions of recent years have
proved to be actual improvements upon older varieties, they are given
in preference to the old, which are, of course, naturally much better
known.
It is impossible for any person to pick out this, that or the other
variety of a vegetable and label it unconditionally “the best.” But the
person who wants to save time in making out his seed list can depend
upon the following to have been widely tested, and to have “made good.”
Asparagus:—While there are enthusiastic claims put forth for
several of the different varieties of asparagus, as far as I have seen
any authentic record of tests (Bulletin 173, N. J. Agr. Exp. Station),
the prize goes to Palmetto, which gave twenty-eight per cent. more than
its nearest rival, Donald’s Elmira. Big yield alone is frequently no
recommendation of a vegetable to the home gardener, but in this
instance it does make a big difference; first, because Palmetto is
equal to any other asparagus in quality, and second, because the
asparagus bed is producing only a few weeks during the gardening
season, and where ground is limited, as in most home gardens, it is
important to cut this waste space down as much as possible. This is for
beds kept in good shape and highly fed. Barr’s Mammoth will probably
prove more satisfactory if the bed is apt to be more or less neglected,
for the reason that under such circumstances it will make thicker
stalks than the Palmetto.
Beans (dwarf):—Of the dwarf beans there are three general
types: the early round-podded “string” beans, the stringless round-pods, and the usually more flattish “wax” beans. For first early, the
old reliable Extra Early Red Valentine remains as good as any sort I
have ever tried. In good strains of this variety the pods have very
slight strings, and they are very fleshy. It makes only a small bush
and is fairly productive and of good quality. The care-taking planter,
however, will put in only enough of these first early beans to last a
week or ten days, as the later sorts are more prolific and of better
quality. Burpee’s Stringless Greenpod is a good second early. It is
larger, finer, stringless even when mature, and of exceptionally
handsome appearance. Improved Refugee is the most prolific of the
green-pods, and the best of them for quality, but with slight strings.
Of the “wax” type, Brittle Wax is the earliest, and also a tremendous
yielder. The long-time favorite, Rust-proof Golden Wax, is another fine
sort, and an especially strong healthy grower. The top-notch in quality
among all bush beans is reached, perhaps, in Burpee’s White Wax—the
white referring not to the pods, which are of a light yellow, and flat
—but to the beans, which are pure white in all stages of growth. It has
one unusual and extremely valuable quality—the pods remain tender
longer than those of any other sort.
Of the dwarf limas there is a new variety which is destined, I think,
to become the leader of the half-dozen other good sorts to be had. That
is the Burpee Improved. The name is rather misleading, as it is not an
improved strain of the Dreer’s or Kumerle bush lima, but a mutation,
now thoroughly fixed. The bushes are stronger-growing and much larger
than those of the older types, reaching a height of nearly three feet,
standing strongly erect; both pods and beans are much larger, and it is
a week earlier. Henderson’s new Early Giant I have not yet tried, but
from the description I should say it is the same type as the above. Of
the pole limas, the new Giant-podded is the hardiest—an important
point in limas, which are a little delicate in constitution anyway,
especially in the seedling stage—and the biggest yielder of any I have
grown and just as good in quality—and there is no vegetable much
better than well cooked limas. With me, also, it has proved as early as
that old standard, Early Leviathan, but this may have been a chance
occurrence. Ford’s Mammoth is another excellent pole lima of large
size. Of the other pole beans, the two that are still my favorites are
Kentucky Wonder, or Old Homestead, and Golden Cluster. The
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