The Redwood gazette., 1918-03-27
A. f. Carr Talks
War Gardens
BELIEVES EVERY SMALL PLOT
CAN BE MADE TO PRODUCE
$50 OF VEGETABLES

A. f. Carr was particularly sue
cessful last year in growing large
quantity of vegetables on a small
space of ground. At the request of
the editor Mr.. Carr has written, for
the benefit of other amateur garden
ers. something of his experience.
| [ have been asked to give my ex-
perience regarding the best CROP
grow on small city lot. | belleys,'
that the first item TO consider is econ
omy of space. In the old fashioned
country garden of my youth the rows
were spaced 3 feet apart, so cultlva-
tion could be made with horse culti-
vators. With our modern hand cul-
tivators and gardening tools, we can
get better results by making our
rows half closer, or less than two
feet apart. AS we must make use
of our extra hour of day light we
will have plenty of time for hand
cultivation.
In my experience good method
! is to plant Early Ohio potatoes three
| feet, 8 inches apart, as early as pos
sible and cultivate until about June
l. Then plant early sweet corn or
navy beans between the rows. Cornt
and beans, planted at that time, start
quickly and will get above the pota-
t. tops before the potatoes shade the 1
grouIa. The potatoes should be dug
early in July to strike the best mar
ket and give room for the corn and s
beans to develop. Transplanted to-
matoes and cabbage work equally as I
we'll.
Seed onions should be planted by
themselves, preferably on very clean i
ground, and require careful wedding
and very shallow cultivation. | be- <
lieve that shallow cultivation is to H
be preferred, in a dry year, on all X
garden crops. Another point | wish q
to mention; do not plant too much B
lettuce and radishes at planting. q
We find a very good method is to 4
plant a small plat to lettuce and rad 8
ishes and replant between the rows i
as the first crop is used. A fresh II
supply will be at hand nearly all
summer, if this is done. One criti-
cism of the children's war gardens
(Which / consider a splendid success)
is, that too much space was occupied
by radishes and lettuce, planted at
one time and maturing when it was
drug on the market.
My idea of good practical crops to
plant are Early potatoes, Navy beans,
Early sweet corn, popcorn, tomatoes,
onions, celery, cabbage and cauliflow-
er. Do not expect as large yield
from your early potatoes as from
some of the yields from late pota-
toes in a good potato year. But early
potatoes are almost a sure crop and
the price is invariably good in Ju'
so that the net returns per acre M.@
average far better than many other
crops. There is, however, very much
to be desired in marketing vegetables
at this point. This situation could
probably be improved by co-opera-
tion of the gardeners, by planting
standard crops and arranging ship
ping facilities to consumers. | be-
lieve that every good city garden lot
can be made to produce at least $50
worth of produce, if proper atten-
tion is paid to the crop. Before clos
ing will say that received bule-
tin from Ames Qowa State College,
advising against planting sugar beets
for syrup as sugar substitute, as
they have not yet found satisfac-
tory method of converting the syrup
on small scale.