Evening star., 1948-01-04
THE SUNDAY STAR, Washington, D. G.
JANUARY 4,
y. Residents
Urged
BetterGardens
By w. H. Younemon

Very few Washington gardeners
need to read Secretary of Agricul-
ture Anderson's request for Freedom
Gardens. Certainly, they do not
need the stimulus Of this national
appeal to produce home foodstuffs
30 that the staples may be shipped
overseas. They are already con-
scious Of the prices being charged
for fresh and canned vegetables and
will do the one thing that they can,
namely. grow their own.
Secretary Anderson's program
calls for 100000 Freedom gardens
this year. With our wartime ex-
perience in gardening we will all try
to produce the necessary fresh vege-
tables, plus a sizeable quantity for
canning, so that we may cut down
on the ever-mounting food bills.
Not only will we produce better
gardens, but they will have the right
quantities of the desired kinds of
garden crops. During the War we
made many mistakes, but we will
profit from them now. We will
plant so as to have succession of
harvests of the highest quality
products. We will not waste land
with over paintings of some crops
and run short of others that are
most used In our household.
January is the month in which
we should work out our plans in de-
tail A well planned garden is likely
to be a successful garden. Our plans
should show the planting dates, the
kind and, preferably, the varieties,
the length of row and other infor-
nation that will make planting and
other rush work as orderly as pos
sible. A piece of cross-section pa
per is ideal for this purpose, except
for the larger gardens when it may
be desirable to paste two or three
8x10 inch sheets together. If the
plot is less than 80 feet in width or
100 feet in length a scale Of inch
to 10 feet may be used. This is very
convenient with this type of paper.
May Follow European Method.
If the space in the garden plot
Is limited we may follow the Euro
pean practice of inter-cropping. tt
is not uncommon for Europeans to-
plant their vegetable crops very
close together, the earliest maturing
crops, such as lettuce and radishes,
being harvested and out of the way
before such crops as carrots or par
ships need the space. One garden
er planted two rows of lettuce and
a row of peas between his rows OF
carrots. The lettuce was harvested
in about As days, which left space
tor the peas and carrots. Before
the carrots were large enough to
need the full space, the peas were
mature and harvested. You may
not want to go into the planning
of your garden on such detailed
scale but 1t does indicate how one
may make the very best use of his
land.
Not only should the garden be
carefully planned at this season of
the year, but we should determine
the quantities of seed, fertilizer and
insecticides and fungicides that will
be needed, as well as new tools, and
place the orders now. If we wait
until planting time to get all of
these items, we are likely to be-
disappointed. especially if we wish
to order some of the newer kinds
of vegetable seeds. Vegetable seed
harvests in 1947 were not too good
in the United States and in Europe
many were exceedingly short. Thus
the United States is having to di--
vide its small vegetable seed sup
plies with several European coun-
tries. Better order enough to meet