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