Western Woman’s Garden

Mrs. H. M. Woodward of Illinois writes of her profitable garden as follows : ” Our plot of ground is 150 x 165 feet, and we have the use of another lot near by which is go x 165 feet. Nearly half of this lot is used as a chicken park, but we have several plum trees of bearing age planted in it.

As we grow considerable fruit, much of the garden is permanent, but all the vegetables used in the family are grown, with the exception of winter potatoes. Lettuce, radishes, and onions are planted early, a second and sometimes a third planting being made of the first two. As soon as the ground can be worked peas are planted, and as none but those which are planted early area success here, we plant in this way: Three varieties, an early, a medium, and a late sort, are planted at the same time, thus furnishing a succession for a long time. If the season is cold and backward we sometimes make another planting a few weeks later, using only an early sort.

Seed of onion, parsnip, carrot, -beet, squash, sweet pumpkin, water and muskmelon, string and shell beans and cucumbers are planted in their sea-son, while tomato, cabbage, celery, cauliflower, and parsley are grown in hotbed and cold frame until proper time to plant them in the garden. Peas are followed by celery, winter radish, late cabbage, and cauliflower, all ground being made to raise two crops, if possible.

” Sweet corn is planted like peas, three varieties being planted as early in the season as possible, two later plantings being made of two varieties each, and when the strawberry bed is done fruiting it is plowed under and planted to any early variety of corn. The plan furnishes us with sweet corn for the table from July 20 till killing frost, which is due here about October 15.

” Last season the latest corn was planted July 7, and was ready for use in ten weeks, the last of it being frozen on the stalks just before the middle of October. An asparagus bed, clumps of pieplant and horse-radish, and a little bed of parsley furnish what is needed of these things and occupy but little space.

“The seedlings raised in the hotbed, and also seedlings of flowering plants, find ready sale at fair prices, so a little revenue is derived from them. As it is necessary to have the hotbeds to grow plants for our own use, it is but little more work to raise extra plants for sale.

” We have 50 grapevines of over 40 varieties, all of fruiting age, ranging in season of ripening from August 25 to October io; in color, red, white, and black. No idea can be given of the amount of fruit the vines produce, as the grapes were picked for family use and to treat our friends, and no record made of it.

“A new strawberry bed is planted each spring, the other one being plowed up immediately after bearing its first crop. This plan pleases us better than running a bed longer, as we think it less work to plant a new bed than to keep an old one free from weeds and well cultivated.

” Four apple trees of bearing age, Wealthy, Northwestern Greening, Snow, and Whitney No. 20 furnish us with all the summer and ‘fall apples we’ could use, and two trees of Duchess are almost old enough to bear. Although we do not have the figures to show the money value of our garden, we are sure it is a profitable investment in several ways. Besides the value of the produce during the growing season, we have cabbage, carrots, parsnips, beets, squash, and sweet pumpkins enough to last all winter, besides a large supply of pickles, canned fruit, arid jelly, most of which was made from fruit of our ‘own raising.”


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