The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1891-09-01
AMATEUR GARDENING.
ATTEMPT OF A CITY MAN TO GROW
HIS OWN VEGETABLES.

Books That Treat of Farming and
Gardening-How He Learned.
Unreservedly l want to give my expert
ence with a kitchen garden. l had never
tried anything Of the kind before and a
more absolutely ignorant person as to
horticulture and gardening generally
never placed a spade in the earth or
turned up a grub worm. | had no one
to lean upon for instruction and there
fore | attempted to make a vegetable
garden of about half an acre, with no
other assistance than that furnished in
the books on the subject.
These books utterly fail to take into
account the fact that city bred people
know nothing whatever about filling the
earth, sowing seed and stimulating the
growth Of plants. was that kind of a
person and rashly attempted to make
my WI garden.
am very glad, however, that l made
this attempt, for l learned, after the
many g~rievous failures in the first sea-
son, that plcse books really did have a
meaning and that most Of them were full
Of sound advice, but they were not writ
ten for absolute beginners, but for those
who understood their technical jargon
and who had also had more or less ex-
perience.
For instance, when | read in my book
that l should plant this seed in drills
and hat in hills | was as ignorant as be-
fore, and did not know what to do. But
did what seemed to me to be i~ntelli-
gent, and in most cases | was wrong.
The greatest mistake | made was in
planting everything too deeply and also
in using too many seeds. And right
here | had as we'll give a rule about
planting which | learnd from Mr.. Bur
net Landreth, of Philadelphia. There
may be exceptions to this rule, but for
the moment do not recall any, except
that Of green peas, and that exception
is only a qualified one.
In planting seeds cover them with
earth to a depth equivalent to -four times
the diameter Of the particular seed plant
ed. In regard to peas, old fashioned
gardeners will insist that they must be |
buried very deeply, else the yield viii be
poor. This is quite true in regard to
peas planted for very late crops, for the
roots Of suchmust be deep enough to with
stand the whitening sun Of midsummer,
but for the early varieties it is q decided
disadvantage to put the seed down so far
that the heat Of the spring sun cannot
readily reach them.
THE GENTLE X OF uUSBANDRY.
But | am way ahead of my story. My
purpose in writing this is to encourage
gentlemen living in the suburbs to cult
Uofa tIIS rnnt1n nrt Of h1chanlrv onl |
make their own gardens. The first sea-
son nearly everything failed, though |
did get some lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes
and cucumbcrs. Indeed, | got all that
we needed Of these. During the succeed
ing fall and winter | literally went to
school to every gardener and farmer | |
came in contact with. From the gar
deners | got as a rule very intelligent ad-
vice, and this l put into my book in the
shape Of marginal notes.
From the farmers | got little informa-
ton worth the having. They seemed to
think that for the likes of me to expect
that garden truck would grow was little
less than presumptuOus. Wen, with this
information, added to my experience
and that set down in the books, | made
a regular plan for my second garden,
and a very attractive map it seemed
when it was finished.
did not attempt to economic space,
because | had more than | needed, and |
therefore laid off beds with paths be-
tween each and broad paths at either
end. These beds were thirty feet long
and four feet wide, the paths between
being a foot and a half wide, and those
at the ends three feet wide.
BETTE RESULTS.
| so apportioned my beds that | should
have all the vegetables l wished in sea-
son. | tried peas, tomatoes, lettuce,
spinach, radishes, squashes, sweet corn,
peppers, bush beans, lima beans, cucuum-
bers, parsley, okra, eggplant, ~caulit1ower,
cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, garlic,
satisfy, potatoes, musk and water mel
n | succeeded admirably with all Of
these ventures except with the melons.
Either the ground is not favorable for
the growth Of these or the season was
bad, or what is quite likely, | have not
learned the knack of c~ultivating them.
The cost was nothing at all. | don't
count the labor | put on the garden as
an outlay at all. It was an income
rather. 1t took the place of Il saddle
horse, a bicycle or a gymnasium, for
during all the time that | was workingJ
in Che garden | put in as many hours at
my desk as it was wholesome for one to
do, and this outdoor work was exercise
which was really needed.
| paid money for manure and other
fertilizers, it is true, and also for seed,
but in balancing my books found that
the ten bushels Of onions and the twenty
bushels Of potatoes | sold more than
paid for my outlay in money. The fact
is that ! was some six or seven dollars
ahead, besides the summer supplies and
winter stores.
Now, what | nave lone any man can
do who can put in an hour and a half
every day with spade and hoe and rake.
The difficulty with beginners at garden
ing is that they are too easily discour-