Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-12-26
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A Garden Talk.
MelronolItan and Rural Homo.

Metropolitan and Rural Home.
At first thought it would seem
more appropriate to write about gar
dening in spring than in the fall |
believe, however, that no man ever
has a good early garden who does
not begin the work in the fall, and
plan for it in winter, and if l can at
this time interest and enthuse your
readers in the subject, l have little
doubt that an article read now will
bear fruit next summer.
AS believe that one reason why
there are so many poor gardens on
the farm, is that the farmers do not
realize how valuable it can be made,
| will first give few facts as to what
even fourth acre can be made to
produce. would not limit the farm
er's garden to fourth acre, but it so
happens that have just that amount
of land in garden near my house, and
grow other crops, such as sweet pota-
toes, tomatoes, sweet corn and berries
in a truck patch more remote.
have found, after many years ex-
perience, that blowing my garden in
the fall in lands, twelve to sixteen
feed wide, and cleaning out the dead
burrows, so as to give perfect surface
drainage, gives me the best possible
seed bed at the smallest outlay OF
money, and enables me TO plant har-
dy vegetables from one to two weeks
earlier than otherwise. | believe
that a majority of farmers do not
know what vegetables are hardy, and
know that many of them think that
frost will kill peas, but here is list
Of hardy vegetables, which may be
planted as early as the land can be
worked, and that will bear to have
the ground freeze after they are up
Peas, beets, lettuce, spinach, onions
radishes, cabbage, and celery. l have
had all these up and the land freezt
hard enough to bear man, with M
injury to most of them, although oc
casionally some of the beets, radishe
and cabbage would be killed (bu
usually enough left,) and the other
entirely uninjured.
At this earliest planting l put il
three kinds of peas, early, medium
and late, and this prolongs the sue
cession. We mix our cabbage see
with the radish seed, and SOW togeth
er, and then as soon as the radishe
will do to use, we pull first those nea
the the best cabbage plants, and b.
the time the radishes are past use W
have thrifty row of cabbages, whic
as plants grown in the open groun
are very hardy and grow rapidly
and furnish cabbage just about q
early as can be had from hot be-
plants.
To give some idea of what a sma
garden can be made to furnish, wi
give some notes from my fourth-acr
garden this season. My garden slope
gently to the east, is protected by
wire fence on the west ard north, an
is eight rods long and five rods Wild
Across the north side are two rows
rhubarb and asparagus, which are tn
only perennials allowed in the ga
den. Everything in this garden
planted in rows running the lengt
of the garden, so that the hand {
horse cultivator can be used fc
cultivating it. For several yea
| have kept record of II
dates of planting, and when we b
gan to use each variety of vegetabl
The average date at which we hay
begun to use asparagus for sever
years is April Goth, and we have
every day until peas are ready Fl
use, which is about June 1st, wee
earlier in forward seasons and a wee
later in backward seasons.
l have the dates at which our ca
liest planting has been made for
years past. The earliest was in 1877
when 1 made gaden the 25th of Fe
ruary, and the latest in 1881, whe
on account of wet weather, we cOu