The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1916-03-12
Little Indoor Gardening is a
Big Help, Say Government
Agricultural Experts.

WASHINGTON. Mar. 11.-Ptan
your back yard gardens on paper in
advance" is the advice OF the vege-
table garden specialists Of the United
States Department OF Agriculture. A
little indoor gardening OF this sort
will enable you to have fresh vpge-
tables throughout the season and will
make the same ground, with little ex-
ira labor and expense, yield two or
three crops instead of the single crop
commonly raised in small gardens.
Where two or three crops are grown
instead OF one, comparatively small
garden will supply the average family
with
Fresh Vegetables
all season. Moreover. such planning
in advance will enable you to get the
ground ready in time for planting and
to secure your seeds and plant them
at the dates which give each variety
its best growing conditions. For ex-
ample, II you will thus plan the plot
TO be devoted to peas, by the time
your first crop Is harvested, the sec
ond crop will be in bearing, and the
plants OF the third well advanced.
All the tools that are necessary for
indoor gardening, which can be made
an interesting recreation for the whole
household, are large sheet OF wrap
ping paper, ruler and pencil. Az
ter looking over tho garden and se-
lecting the plot Of soil best suited
FnTs vntTE py1rnnan +1nnuuvyrn +IJa nuA
outline 1t on paper on scale of one
fourth to one-eiEhth inch to the foot.
Next, study your garden bulletins
or books on horticulture and the seed
Catalogs to determine what can be
grown in your climate under the IN
dittons Of exposure, soil and drainage
in your back yard. This study may
lead you to plan bitches to improve
drainage, show you that your soil
needs finely sifted ashes to break up
its sticky character, or that you must
add rotted manure, dried blood, bone
meal. wood ashes, lime or other fer
tilizers to make 1t suitable for vege-
tables.
The Family Consultation.
Then comes the consultation with
the family to determine the sorts OF
vegetables the different members like
and which, therefore, they personally
will be interested ii raising. Contine
your selections to the standard we'll
tried sorts. Finally, and this Is the
most important, is the conference be-
tween the garden force and the house,
wife as to what vegetables really are
worth raising in the back yard.It
will hardly pay to raise in small
space potatoes. corn, cucumbers.
or melons, which occupy q
large area in proportion to yield, and
which can be bought cheaply in nearby
markets.
In general. the aim Of the back yard
gardener should be to raise those
vegetables which are either expensive
or in which the flavor of quality de-
ponds Importantly on absolute fresh
ness. Peas and string or lima beans
to be at their best, should be cooked
almost Immediately after they are
gathered. Peas kept even for day
lose their delicate bloom and sweet
ness. Consequently as much space
as possible should be devoted to such
vegetables, and other vegetables in
which freshness does not count so
Importantly should largely be used
as filters to keep the ground at work.
Effort also should be made in a gar
den to have special vegetables, such
as okra. of which the family is fond
and which are difficult to obtain in
local markets or are commonly high
priced. The housewife probably will
want a little bed OF parsley. chives.
or other herbs. not because they are
expensive to buy, but because OF the
convenience of being able to pick a
sprlg just when 1t Is needed.
Interesting for Children.
The profit from gardening, however,
comes not alone from the vegetables
that are produced. The healthy out
door recreation and exercise and the
educational value of q garden in train
ing children manually, and in incul-
eating in them habits OF order and
industry must not be overlooked.
Fathers and mothers will find that the
preliminary planning OF a garden will
do much to arouse the interest of
the young people and encourage them
to do their share in cultivating and
wedding 1t. This will be particularly
true il the owner hires laborer to
do the first heavy spading and lets
the family begin its gardening not
with heavy. disheartening drudgery,
but on patch ready for the lighter
work Of making the seed bed.
Having decided what is to be plant
ed, the indoor gardener draws lines
or symbols on his outlined plan to
indicate the different crops. inserting
the date when each is to be planted.
Where a second or third crop is to
follow the same row or occupy the
same ground. this may be written in
red or blue, which indicates that 1t
is to be planted when an earlier crop
Is over. In laying out the plan, the
owner should consider the amount of
each vegetable necessary for a serv-
ing for his family. He also should
bear in mind the habits Of the plants
so as to allow space enough between
the rows for their proper growth, for
the interplanting Of later crops. and
for easy cultivation. The cultivation,
OF course, is easier when the rows are
one and half to two feet apart, rs
this permits the use OF wheel cult
vators. Plants which make high
growth and cause heavy shade nat
urally should not be located where
they will interfere with sun loving
small plants. Perennials. such as rhu-
barb and asparagus, which are not
cultivated, should not be grown among