The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-04-19
GET CLOSE TO
MOTHER EARTH
Little Garden is Better Than None
Small Patch Of Ground Pro-
duces Great Returns.
wHEEL5ARRow, HOE AND RAKE
inexpensive implements and Few
Seeds Cure for High Cost
of Living.

over a strip of land in the sunniest
place you can spare. Let us assume
that it is next to the house and twelve
feet long by four wide. Half this
length will be vastly better than no
garden at all
If the soil is fairly deep and rich,
dig in two wheelbarrow loads of good
manure. If very poor, a foot OF the
soil must be removed and the bed
filled in with good loan and ferN
tilizer. Commercial fertilizer may be
used instead of manure, but it is not
as desirable. With good soil, few
papers of seeds and a few minutes
work each day, after the bed is pre-
pared and planted, Jacks famous beal.
stalk will not seem more OF miracle
than you will witness as the season
advances.
Arrange a trellis four feet high
against the house. This can be made
of four stakes with two rows of stout
wire stretched from each. In front
of this trellis set six tomato plants,
two feet apart, three plants of an
early variety and three of later. The
first year buy the plants and each
succeeding year save your own seed
by drying those from two of your fin
est tomatoes and planting them in
pots in early March. You will have
enough little plants to supply your
self and all your neighbOrs.
Set the tomato plants in the ground
the latter part of May. Put around
the stem a little cornucopia of stout
brown paper, extending half inch
into the ground. This will just cover
that particular part of the stem which
the cutworm selects as his especial
dainty.
AS the plants grow up, nip off the
laterals, letting only two or three
shoots develop on each plant, which
you must train on the trellis, tying
loosely with bits of raffia. If you can
spare room for plants of the yellow
plum tomato, surely do so. The small
golden balls are a delightful and or.
namental addition to the salad bowl.
These plants will supply all the
tomatoes you will need for salad dur
ing a long season. When frost time
comes you can cover them for awhile
and then pull up the plants and hang
them up by the roots in cellar, shed
or attic and you will ripen many
more. If this is inconvenient, pick
all the large green ones, wrap them
carefully in tissue paper, and pack
them in boxes in some dry place;
they will ripen perfectly. have had
them until after Thanksgiving. All
the small green ones may be picked
and used for piccalilli.
Across one end of the little bed
plant row of parsley and at the 9th
er end set two plants of sweet pep
pers with chives between them and
each side of them. You can buy a
small pot of chives at the market and
divide it into several plants; it is
perennial, so will never have to be re-
planted At the end of the season
take up a root of both parsley and
chives to grow in pots in your kitchen
through the winter.
=, If you can spare sunny window
in the house, start your parsley and
lettuce early in the spring; you will
Ssave much precious time.
IA Border the front edge of the bed
with row of radishes; plant these
very near the edge, as they mature
rapidly and will soon be pulled and
out of the way. r
Back of the radishes put lettuce
Let the plants be somewhat crowded,
or shredded into long, narrow strips
with the scissors for salad border
as needed. Back of the lettuce may
go row of carrots and back of this
a row of beets. Plant thick rows of
both the beets and the carrots, thin
ming out the largest each time, when
needed. In this way you have long
season of delicious little vegetables,
just the right size for your soups and
salads, and some will have a chance
to spread themselves" before frost
comes. If you can squeeze them in
put in few onion sets; the tiny on,
ions are most delicious.
Plant more lettuce and radishes as
space is made by pulling up the orig.
inal rows. Two crops will mature
and you will have plenty of seeds left
from the first planting. Perhaps you
will see a place where you can tuck
in half a dozen dwarf nasturtium
seeds. The blossoms and peppery
seeds are delightful and ornamental
additions to any salad
This little bed, if carefully watched