Evening star., 1919-03-02

Here are the first steps In planning
your garden. The first step of all Is
to get the National War Garden Com
missions book, which you can have
freely by calling at The Star Office or
by sending two-cent stamp with your
request to the Garden Editor of The
Star.
One of the first questions the gar
dener asks, especially if he is a be-
ginner. is: How much shall | plant?
Here is the amount that snouid pc
planted to keep an average family OF
four or five persons well supplied
with the vegetables named during the
growing season and with some left
over for canning:
One quart bush lima beans should
yield Is to 80 quarts: 4 ounces pole
lima beans should yield 10 quarts; ;
quarter ounce cabbage, 40 heads;
ounces beets, z to 8 bushels; l ounce
carrot, 20 punches; half ounce swiss
chard, $50 to 200 poOnds; half pint
sweet corn, IL dozen ears; half ounce
| kale, 40 plants: half ounce lettuce, l0o
heads; / ounce onion seed, busneis,
or / quart onion sets, rs bushels; half
ounce parsnip. bushels; pints peas,
pecks; 5 pounds Irish potatoes, TO
bushels: 1 ounce radish, rs punches;
/ ounce spinach, l bushel; one-thlrd
ounce tomato, IL bushels: half ounce
turnips, 2 bushels.
You can grow early spinach, lettuce,
radishes, beets, arrots and turnips
in rows between the rows of your
main group of vegetables and nave
them out of the way when the main
crops need all the room. Potatoes,
lima beans, snap beans, tomatoes,
cabbage, onions and sweet corn Will
be in the main group. and they con-
stitute the backbone garden crop.
A small garden intensively cuiti-
waited and with every foot of ground
kept at work all the time will pro-
duce as much or more than larger
patch not worked so thoroughly
Peas, potatoes, onions. kale. lettuce
and spinach will stand light freezing,
and so can be planted as soon as
heavy frosts are over. The potato
plants, however, should be covered
with dirt when frost threatens
Radish seeds sprout quickly and so
are useful to plant in the row with
other vegetables to mark the row. In
this way cultivation can begin
promptly and be continued and the
rapidly. One radish seed every four
or six inches is enough to outline the
row.
Lettuce is cool weather plant and
the seed should be planted as soon as
the ground can be worked into good
condition, which means plowed or
spaded up and cultivated. hoed and
raked until 1t is as fine as an ash heap
Plant lettuce seeds half an inch deep,
one-quarter of an ounce to fifty feet
of row.
Radishes are about the easiest gar
den plant grown Plant them when
frosts are about over. Mark out the
row about three-Quarters of an inch
deep, scatter the seeds one or two
inches apart and cover. Plant some
every ten days SO as to have con-
slant supply until the weather gets
hot.
Spinach should be forced to grow
rapidly so as to be crisp and tender.
Lay off the rows fifteen to twenty
inches apart and sow the seed one
inch apart and one to two inches deep,
using one ounce to 100 feet of row.
Keep it well hoed or cultivated and
growing rapidly. Pull off the largest
leaves when ready for use and allow
the rest of the plant to grow.
1t adds considerably to the ease of
gardening as well as to the looks of
the plot to have the vegetables plant
ed in nice, straight rows instead of
helter-skelter, and in addition it
utiiizes the space better. Where the
space is restricted it is better to have
the rows run the long way OF the gar
dent--north and south If possible
planting several kinds of similarly
grown vegetables like green onions,