LAYING OUT THE GARDEN

There will be little "laying out" to do in the small garden. Here the chief aim will be to make use of every available bit of soil; the beds will be narrow, and the paths between them will be just wide enough to walk in, and these will be the only portions of the ground in which something is not grown. Not much chance for planning, you see.

In the larger garden it will be not only possible, but advisable, to do considerable planning.

If a garden-cultivator is used—and this should be done whenever possible—plan for rows that will enable you to run it the entire length of the garden without turning. Beds are no longer in favor with gardeners who aim to reduce the work to be done to the minimum, for in them the cultivator cannot be used to advantage, and weeding cannot be done with the facility which characterizes row-planting, nor can the hoe be used as effectively. There is really no argument that can be advanced in favor of the old bedding system for gardens in which we propose to use labor-saving implements.

If possible, have the rows run north and south. This enables the sun to get at the ground lengthwise of the rows, and between them, which it could not do if they ran east and west, as the plants in them would shade all the ground except that in the first and most southerly row. It is not enough that the sun should get at the tops of the plants. The soil needs its vivifying effect.

Plant with regard to the height and habit of the vegetables you propose to grow. Give corn a place at the side of the garden. Then peas which grow tall enough to require bushing, and then beans, working down through potatoes, tomatoes, and beets and other low-growing kinds to onions, radishes, and cucumbers.

If the garden-cultivator is to be used, leave a space about eighteen inches wide between the rows to work in. This implement can be adjusted to fit any width desired. Its teeth can be set to throw the soil toward a plant or away from it. It can be made to do deep or shallow work, as the case may require. As a general thing, after a plant has attained some size we throw the soil toward it. If the teeth are set to do this we go down one side of the row and back on the other, thus throwing the soil about the plant alike on both sides.

It will probably be necessary to remove some weeds in the row, which cannot be reached by the cultivator. This can be done most effectively by the use of a hoe which is triangular in shape, with the handle-socket in the center of it. One side is a blade like the ordinary hoe. The other comes to a sharp point, with which it is possible to work close to a plant without running any risk of injuring it—something that cannot be done with the ordinary wide-bladed hoe. Weeds that grow up side by side with vegetable seedlings can be picked away from them so easily, and without disturbing them in the least, that no hand-pulling will have to be resorted to in cleaning the rows.

Where the garden-cultivator is used there will be very little work to do with the hoe, as this implement stirs the soil and uproots weeds at the same time. But in the small garden either hoe or weeding-hook will come into daily use. The weeding-hook is a most important tool, though its cost is but ten or fifteen cents. It enables one to do a good deal of weeding in a short time, does its work well, and does away entirely with hand-pulling, which has heretofore been one of the chief arguments that men have advanced against gardening.