The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-04-19
THE POSSIBILITIES
OF A BACK YARD

gazine for April.)
| A newspaper article in my home city
! (Pittsburg) recently stated that while
tomatoes in the fields but few miles
out of town were rotting in excessive
abundance on the ground, Il was al
most impossible for the middle-class
man TO scrape up money enough to buy
enough Of them for a good meal
And yet very many city jewellers can
grow quite 2 lot of vegetables I'm their
own back yards. Take my case, am
a professional man, aged 90 years.
know OH ever so much. but nv in
come seldom runs over s.. 800 per year.
As a professional man 1 must keep up
appearances, give TO charity and
church, hire help for certain household
work that my wife would gladly at
tend to herself-if it We're not for the
sake Of appearances. That all costs
money so much money that at the end
Of the year there is very little left Of
the salary. But my wife managed TO
save enough out of it, in course of
time. TO pay half on a $4,000 house
When we moved into the house the
back yard was not. like a lovely maid
a cheering sight to see. It was strewn
with cans. and bones. and brickbats
and little ash heaps, and tufts of grass
and 2.111 other things that were out Of
place there. 7 know the exact number
of them. for ] collected them all and
had them carted off. Also there we're
two sections Of clay sewer pipe stuck
upright in the ground. in each Of them
a geTaniUm had been planted. their
flaming red flowers blazing out like
signals of distress.
But Dimples only smiled when she
saw It all. Just wait till next year
she said, "and Wen have yard that
viii be the envy of the ward. You just
go out and dig and delve as I tell you.
it's good. healthy exercise for you. and
other rewards VIII come next summer"
So I Dig and ] delved. then I did it
some more; every morning during
July. August and September I passed
an hour before breakfast, and the same
time before supper. at it. Our yard IS
about 25X40 feet and I dug Il all up to
the depth of q foot and removed
enough odds and ends of bygOne DAYS
to lower its level apprecis bly,. Down
the middle l ran a three-foOt brick
walk, laid the bricks myself say, that
was more fun than a little Every
morning I'd lay about one or two feet
of brick, pound them down into their
sandy bed. put spirit. level on them
and then pound some more until they
were on the dead level for sure. Then
came breakfast and I was ready TO
tackle my days work. When the walk
vas finished ] laid out a flower bed
two feet wide, along its entire length.
on each side. Then in the wide space
to right and left l built up nice little
round mound, each four feet in dame
ter.
Then We invested about S15 in peren-
mails, and we got a whole store full for
that sum-hydrangeas foxgloves iri-
ses. peOnies. golden glows. evening
primrOses. HIBISCUS, lilies. heliopsis.
pinks. aster and a while lot more It's
only the initial expense that counts
here; once planted they keep on conf
ing up year after year. finally they'll
crowd you out Of your own yard n you
don't get after them with d spade.
But now to the point-cheap vegeta-
bles I've been quite a time getting
there. on paper: in the garden it took
me somewhat longer. When spring
came Dimples ordered me 10 bring
vegetable seeds along from the store
but 7 objected. I was perfectly willing
to work in her flower beds. but I drew
the line 1t truck gardening. But what's
the use Of objecting2 We all do it. of
course. but We give in all the same
So I brought parsley seed. and salad
seed. and a pint Of Gentle teentie little
onions. and carrot seed. and one to-
matO plant and radish seed. and a lot
Of other kinds. Then Dimples planted
them. The little onions were strung out
among the gladiOlus and tubercse
bulbs. and their long green stems har-
monized nicely. The parsley gave a
nice ornamental border for four or five
feet along one Of the beds. the feather
spray tops Of the carrots among the
broad leaves Of the hydrangeas and
peOnies were taken for rare plants bv
many visitors. a rim Of radishes was
planted around the edge of one round
mound and q rim OF lettuce around the
other; back Of these were planted rows
Of zinpias in one bed and lady slippers
in the other
In this way we had vegetables
a-plenty all over the garden. and you
really didn't see them.
And then. Of a nice summer morning.
l would 60 out into the garden and get
a big bunch Of crisp little red radishes