New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-04-29
The Back Yard
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the latest editions Of the seed catalogues and
admiring with the eye of a connoisseur, the
pictures of tomatoes, beets, onions, squashes
and other photographic creations of the vege- =
table kingdom, you and the rest of US would
NOW be dreaming of a hammock swung on the
shady part of the porch. That's what we'd
be doing. instead Of measuring and marking :
off spaces on a sheet Of paper, laying out beds
for kitchen garden.
II the Germans hadn't nvaded-but what's :
the use? 1t was because Of the Teutonic in
yasion Of ancient Britain that many plants
such as the cabbage, leek, lettuce, onion, rad
ish, parsley and the cherry and other fruits
were lost in that dark age, just as the fruit .
trees and plants of Northern France were de- :
stroyed during the recent so-called strategical
retreat; and it was years before these grow
ing things were again introduced into Eng
land. %
The Germans to-day will tell you that the 70
names of vegetables in England were derived
from the German. but on the contrary, the
Germans took the names from the Saxon mis-
sionary monks. who travelled forth to convert
their Teutonic brethren The old Saxon name
for garden was 1ryrtzerd, which signiies a
plant nclosure," and from the word cyrt or
,Curt we get the modern suffx to the names OF
many plants as st Johns wort
But, here! Wen be swinging in the ham,
mock on the porch, after all, if we don't get
busy with that garden.
First of all, let US be practical, because
gardens first were planned for practical USE
long before landscape architects were born.
In the early days monks made their gardens
pay principally because they liked to eat
SO, if we start garden this season, We, too,
want to make it pay for similar reasons. How
much of farm have we in the backyard? Oh,
say. Is by 20 feet. OF course, the clothes
posts are in the way, especially when table
cloths and sheets are Tutoring in the breeze.
But what's the odds. We hang out clothes only
once week, and why can't the laundress or
the hired girl be trained to sidestep the beets
and other things?
Please don't say we can't do anything with
a little bit Of ground like that, for we can.
With that much space we can raise enough
vegetables between the 18th Of June and fall
to supply two or three people Make three
beds each a trife less than six feet wide, with
spade you bought the other day and begin to
dig. Dig good and hard. 1t may make your
back ache the first time, but it's good for your
back and it won't hurt the spade if you have
a real one Break the ground up thoroughly
1t may be you'll strike heavy clay. If so, dig
in some ashes and cinders and plenty of straw
manure-or, if you can't get that, buy some
fertilizer from the seed store. Mix it all in,
Just like you've seen your grandmother stir
up shortcake. Plant your rows of seed from
eighteen inches to two feet apart-the cultural
directions are printed on the back of the paper
bags in which your seeds come
Well. you ask, what are we going to plant
so as to get the best results from our dwarf
farm? No one who is practical would think ,
of adopting the French method Of intensive
farming, for that means, to begin with, that
you must be scientific farmer, plant very
thick and very fast and use very warm fer
tilizers. The amateur who tried anything like
that would be burned out Of seed and garden.
But there is a happy medium which may be
acquired by the knowledge of planting in
proper rotation as the season advances. The
first planting should be radish smooth peas,
lettuce, onion SETS carrots and spinach. These
should be planted now. Along about the mid
die of May beans should be planted. This is
also the time for planting corn, but it is obvi-
Gus that one cannot raise much of corn crop
on Is by 20 foot farm. Here, for instance,
is about the way we might utilize our garden
space:
Sow rows of beets, radishes, spinach and
lettuce from April 20 to June / sow several
rows of smooth peas from April 20 to May /,
followed by wrinkled peas; sow bush beans
from May 10 till July Is. In the mean time
beans may be planted between the rows Of let
tuce and radish, because these early crops will
be soon exhausted, and by that time the beans
will have developed.
We should be careful not to go into this
scheme to help solve the food problem too OPP
timisticaly, because if we do we will not get
anywhere. We should remember there will be
uphill work as we'll as beanhill work, and that
there the insects! But, courage, brother!
They are using sprayers now with bordeaux
mixture, and it is part of the farming game.
Whenever your courage begins to WAIVER, read
the appeals that the National Emergency Food
Garden Commission is sending out from Wash
ington. That commission is urging the plant
ing of one million food gardens in the United
States this season, and it predicts that these
gardens can add $3.50, 900 to the food prod
ucts of the country and release thousands of
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