The Savannah morning news., 1904-12-05
FARM, GARDEN
AND HOUSEHOLD
By S. A. COOK.
Garden Notes-DeeeInber.

Garden NoteS-Deeember.
There is not much in the way of SOW
ing seeds or planting this month ex-
cept in the extreme southern part of
this state and in Florida. In those
sections even there is comparatively
little to be done for most hardy crops
were started last month.
Where such work was neglected or
not accomplished owing to unfavora-
BILE weather it is still in order to do
it now.
Spinach, onions, English peas, sal
sify, asparagus are crops that can be
started with every prospect of sue
cess anywhere below Savannah. Even
in Middle Georgia these crops are US
ually started in December and are on
ly seriously damaged one year out of
three or four. OF course. where the
roots are used asparagus can be set
out anytime from November to
March, when the ground is not frozen.
Where the roots can be had either
from the North or South there is no
better time for setting them out than
during this month.
Asparagus is the greatest of all veg
etables and there should always be a
big bed or a long row of it in every
garden. 1t is the easiest of all veg
etables to grow after the start has
been made. Once well established in
good soil il endures for a number of
years and the trouble of caring for it
is very little. A good top dressing
every other year and keeping it free
from injurious weeds is all that will
be necessary towards maintaining it
in perfect condition.
The English pea is a very hardy
plant when young. 1t can be serious
ly injured only when severe cold oc-
ours when the plant is blooming or
about to bloom.
1t is not well to push the cultiva-
ton of the crop until the severe
freezes are over, but it is well to put
the seed in the ground some time
during this month 1t is a crop, how
ever, that can be planted in January
and February. AS a rule the earlier
paintings give the best crops.
On naturally good soil the best fer
tilizer for the crop is a mixture of
acid phosphate and potash. Fresh
rank stable manure is not a proper
fertilizer for English peas. 1t pro-
duces a dense foliage or vine with few
peapods. The dwarf sorts will stand
high manuring better than the tall or
running sorts that require stalking.
Onion sets can be set out this
month anywhere in the South below
the latitude of Atlanta. But it is
well when set out this late to throw
the soil into high beds and then set
the sets deep into this bed. This
will insure the sets not being heaved
out by hard freeze. The soil can be
worked away from the plants after
hard freezes are over.
The best crops of onions are now
grown from plants that are raised in
seed beds during the fall and winter
and then transplanted in January and
February.
Onions raised from sets" are very
unreliable as to building. Sometimes
nearly every plant will shoot to seed
instead of building and the crop there
by ruined, but when grown from
plants this does not occur. Every plant
almost makes a perfect onion. The
plants have no tendency to throw up
seed stalks like the sets. 1t is a more
tedious plan, but it assures a crop of
perfect onions. Onions that will keep
too. and this is a desideratum.
The Bermuda and Italian varieties
do much better in the South than the
kinds grown at the North.
In Southern Georgia and Florida
cabbage set out in December are not
seriously hurt oftener than once in
three years.
In the small garden it is a very
simple matter to provide a mulch of
straw for several hundred cabbage
plants at least. and thus properly
cared for and protected in due time
need not be affected by the January
freezes A double handful of pine
straw sprinkled over a plant and al
lowed to remain on while cold wave
lasts gives complete protection from
any freeze likely to occur in our lati-
tude.