Evening star., 1945-01-28


In 1914 did your crops meet yo
each crop to supply the table or
were there shortages? Did you
plant too much Of anything so that
when served it was tough and lack
ing in flavor? How about the crops
that you grew for canning? Did
you have enough or too much? Were
the succession paintings too close or
so far apart that there were tempo
rary shortages? These are i'm
portant notes and if you can answer
them you will have the most i'm
portant information to guide you
in planning the 1915 Victory garden.
Did the plot you had last summer
meet your needs? If it was in the
backyard the chances are that you
had to make mighty good use OF
every foot Of space. The gardener
who won first prize in the Victory
garden competition in 1914 had his
beans planted next to the garage
and trained on string against the
walls. Parsley, lettuce and other
small crops were used as edgings
along the walks. Some folks found
their backyards so small that they
grew the larger crops on COM
munity plot.
This use of the backyard and
community plot has much to COM
mend it. The small crops, ones that
are used most frequently, were
handy to the kitchen and could be
harvested as needed while they were
fresh and tender. The larger grow
ing crops were harvested as trips
were made to the community plot
for cultivating, planting. ETC. Can
ming supplies can be raised on the
community plot and thus insure an
ample supply for next winter.
With the notes ready and with
pencil, ruler and cross-section paper
trial plans can be made. Early
spring planted crops come first
onion sets, cabbage, lettuce, rad.
ishes, parsley, spinach, beets, broc-
coli, spring turnips, peas and spring
kale. Which of these will be used
to supply the early harvests? The
leafy ones are important since they
are rich In vitamins and health-pro-
tecting minerals, but don't plant
them unless you will use them. A
foot or two of radishes for each
member of your family is enough
for the first planting. A second
planting can be made in 10 days
or two weeks to keep up the supply
of tender radishes. An overplanting
means wasted seed and space, for
radishes quickly get hot and pithy,
The second group of crops to con-
slider are those that may be planted
just before the danger of late frosts
is past-carrots, dwarf bush beans,
khol-rabi, parsnips and chard. The
beans may be ruined by late frost,
but 1t is worth while to take a
chance with 20 or 25 foot row for
the sake of having an early harvest.
With the danger of frost past
(about April Is in the suburbs, ear
lier in the city, beans, tomatoes,
peppers, eggplant, sweet corn, Gu
cumbers, squash, lima beans and
other tender crops may go into the
ground.
With so many crops to choose
from it is small wonder that most
gardeners fill their plots at the first
planting. leaving little or no space
for later paintings. One way to
go around this is to carefully eval-
uate the amount of each crop to be
planted at any one time. We men
toned above that one or two feet
of row of radishes is sufficient for
one person. Put it another way
one person can usually use the
produce from 2-foot row of car
rots, beets. chard, radishes and New
Zealand spinach; a 3-foot row of
lettuce, kale and broccoli; a 5-foot
row of bush beans and onions; two
hills of squash. three pepper plants
and two tomato plants. OF course
some of these crops will need to
be replanted several times during
the season to insure continuous
narvests. The length of the rows
given above indicate the approxi-
mate quantity that can be useo
while the crops are tender ana
nutritious.
If In planning the garden the
early spring maturing crops are
grouped together it will facilitate
the soil preparation for the fall
garden. Speaking of fall garden,
there are some Is or 20 crops that
can be planted for fall harvests
in this area: Beet, carrot, parsnip.
satisfy, peas, radishes, kale, endive,
Chinese cabbage, mustard greens,
turnips, broccoli, kohl-rabi, peas,
lettuce, spinach, celery and Brus-
sells sprouts.
Many Victory gardeners neglected
to plant for fall harvests last sum-
mer, consequently their gardens
were bare long before freezing
weather. Let's plan now and make
the fall garden a part of the plan
so that these crops may be planted
at the proper season to insure a
good supply OF these late crops,
especially the root crops for winter
storage
No one gardener will want to
plant all of the 40-odd crops men,
toned above-even if his garden is
large. The well-planned garden
will not need more than Is or 20
to give wide variety of vegetables
for the family table. One or two
summer greens besides cabbage, a
spring green or two and two or
three fall greens. Beans, tomatoes
and cabbage, a few peppers, three
or four root crops and, if space per-
mits, some sweet corn, cucumbers
and squash.
Lawn mowers garden hose and all
of the other acce ssories are expected
to be in about the same supply posi-
ton as last year. There were not
enough to meet the needs of the
home gardeners and there seems lit
tie likelihood that this situation will
improve for some time to come.
\
81 .A1