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MY

Handkerchief Garden.

CHAPTER I.

ROm IT BGGAO.

LONG the edge of the
Sound, from Stamford to
New York, we had looked
everywhere in the hope that
we might find a small house,
a little garden, and a low
rent. These things seldom
grow together. Houses with
no land, land enough with
big houses, and both land
and houses in plenty at high rents. At last it was
found ; a six-room house with a mere handkerchief
of a garden, measui ing about one-tliirtieth of an acre,
or about as big as a city back yard. The soil was
a wet, heavy clay, full of stones, and shaded by a
number of tall trees growing on the next lot. In
March, 1887, we moved to the place, and on the
twenty-first we paid twenty-five cents for one ounce

(I)

2 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

of Tennis Ball Lettuce seed. So it was the scrap
of a garden began, and thereon does hang the
more or less learned remarks that make this book.
There are people so constituted that they cannot
see anything remarkable in a paper of seeds. A seed
is potential wealth — bran new wealth that does not
exist, but w^aits the partnership of nature and the
gardener. Seeds are about the cheapest thing in the
world. At wholesale a cent will buy a hundred seeds
of lettuce. An acre of ground, if managed by a
man who knows his trade, will produce in one sea-
son 40,000 heads of lettuce. New York will calmly
eat every head at three cents each and cry for more.
You would probably pay at the store five cents a
head or $2,000 for the lot.

Oh! Figures can be made to say anything.

Think so?

All the same, you and I and the rest of the folks do
pay $2,000 to somebody for that yield of lettuce many
times over every spring.

It's quite true the actual grower may not get it all.
He seldom does and thereon might be written a
tale of woe that would move the world to tears had it
not, poor world, been listening to the gruesome story
for about seven thousand years. There are problems
in social economies so old that they have lost the
power of speech. This is one of them, and it was in
our handkerchief garden we dug up a great truth that
may help to solve this very problem. It was a dusty
old truth and smelled of the earth, yet, by decking it
out in a few sprigs of pungent parsley, and framing it
with the enticing lettuce, the persuasive pea, and the
inspiring cauliflower, I hope to set it forth as a dish
worthy the intelligent reader's grateful digestion.

A garden is a queer place. You can dig up facts
and greens with the same hoe — provided you know a

HOW IT BEGAN. 3

fact when you see it. Therefore, it happens that in
presenting this dish of greens I may add sundry facts
for dressing, the same facts being duly dug up in the
same handkerchief garden. Persons of a romantic and
expansive frame of mind have written about gardens
without regard to the facts growing therein. One
particularly aggravating person even wrote a tearful
account of one sad summer in a garden, and the world
has been delighted to read it many times over. My
handkerchief garden is on a plane of more solemn im-
port, and its great moral lessons are not addressed to
persons of a light and sportive nature. They appeal
rather to those finer instincts of the heart that cluster
round the dinner table and the green-grocer's bill.

A pinch of seed in a paper bag is about as useless a
thing as you can find. The seed must be joined to
three great facts in nature — heat, moisture and light,
if new wealth is to reward our labors. Lettuce seed
will sprout in a temperature ranging from 60" to 70° by
day, and not less than 40° by night.* Our room had
a west window and was warmed by a small stove.
Here were the elements of horticultural success.
There was no gas in the room. This is most import-
ant— for in my experience it is difficult, almost im-
possible, to raise plants of any kind where gas is
burned. A single gas-jet will spoil the air as fast as
six men. Plants must have pure air, and as they can
not go out for a walk every time they have a head-
ache, they give up in despair in a room where a gas-
lamp has ruined the air for breathing purposes. The
moral of all this is just here; if plants will not thrive
in bad air, how can we ? We do not. There is, it is
true, no authenticated record of a death by reason of a
gas-light, yet it is also true that we are hurt in greater

* All temperature records here are by Fahrenheit's scale.

4 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

or less degree by every lamp that burns in our houses.
The real moral is — ventilate your rooms.

To secure the union of the three facts, heatj light,
and moisture, and bring them to our lettuce seed, we
procured a six-inch flower-pot, worth, perhaps, ten
cents at retail. By dint of digging in the garden I
managed to get a few lumps of half frozen soil, and
put them to dry on the floor by the fire. In a few
hours the soil was soft enough to break up into dry
mould in the hand, and I filled the pot nearly full,
scattered the lettuce seed on top, sifted more soil
over it through the fingers, and gently pressed it
down firm. A sprinkle of water shaken over the soil
by hand, wet the seed, and then the pot was placed
in a warm corner behind the stove, and covered with
an old newspaper. Two factors were thus provided,
heat and moisture. The third could be added after-
wards, as soon as the seeds began to stir with young
life. For three days the flower-pot garden was
examined night and morning, and, if the soil was dry,
a little more water was added. On the fourth day
the surface was broken by tender young things just
poking their green fingers up to reach the light and
air. The pot was at once placed in the window, and
there it stayed about six weeks, and was then com-
pletely filled with young lettuce plants about three
inches high, and hanging over the sides of the pot in
a luxuriant, pale-green mass. So it was my handker-
chief garden began in my study window.

.^^'4.
/^

WHAT iVAS DONE WITH IT, 5

CHAPTER 11.

UJBAT mA$ Done ojitb it.

HEN the snows of March melted away,
the garden came into sight. The former
tenant had apparently regarded the
garden as the proper place to deposit
the waste of a generation. Bones, clam-
shells, rejected shoes and cans, were
plentiful. Added to this, it had not
been dug over since the last crop, and corn-stubble
covered half the space. The carpenters at work on
the house had tramped the soil down hard, and in
a corner under the trees were the remains of count-
less weeds nipped by last year's frost.

A very slight examination showed that the soil had
one great merit. It was strong. A mass of rocks,
weathered by the storms of a iiundred years, and
grey with moss, had sent down their fertilizing dust,
and the tall trees had every year carpeted the place
with their leaves. There had also been hens and pigs
on the place, and these, too, had done what they
could to contribute to the future crops. Rumor also
had it that in the previous year it had been heavily
manured, and had borne a large crop of corn and
beans. Here was the problem. The place measured
about eighty feet on one street, and seventy-five on
another. The house stood just south of the center,
near the street. A rocky cliff behind the house, while
very picturesque, was, of course, valueless for any
purpose, being too steep for a foothold, and too bare
to produce anything save mosses and lichens. What
could we do with it. The most simple way to treat

6 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

the place would be to sow grass seed over all the
ground, and keep it in grass. Merely to let it run up
to grass would be cheap but ugly. If in grass at all,
it must be kept as a lawn. A lawn would certainly
look well, save all care and expense, except the
weekly clipping to keep the grass in order. That
means a lawn-mower, costing ten dollars. It means
labor in pushing it over the grass, not less than fif-
teen times every summer. It is doubtful if this could
be done for less than fifteen dollars. Some of my
neighbors tell me it costs $1.50 a week for five months
each year to keep a small lawn in order. The cost
on this place, including the mower, would not be less
than twenty-five dollars the first year. The cost of
preparing the ground and sowing the seed would not
be less than four dollars more, and each spring, fer-
tilizer to the value of two dollars would be required.
It began to look as if the cheapest thing that could
be done would be pretty expensive. Of course, the
place could be left to take care of itself, but this
would be morally wrong. There were gardens on
every side kept free from weeds at a greater or less
expenditure of time, labor and mone3^ To suffer
weeds to bloom and scatter their seeds over these
gardens, and thus to injure the neighbors' property,
would be inexcusable. No man has a right to propa-
gate weeds near any cultivated land. It is simply
unjust to permit weeds of any kind to grow on
your land while others are trying to keep them out
of their land. A lawn is, therefore, a moral measure,
as it checks the growth of weeds, and by its beauty
enhances the value of the estate, and of all those
near it.

That settled the matter. Something must be done
with the ground. It must be either laid down to
grass, or cultivated as a garden. The chief cost of a

WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT, 7

lawn is the labor. There was my own labor. Could
I not push the lawn-mower myself? Many of the
gentlemen near by did so. Why could I not do like-
wise ? No reason whatever why I might not in this
way save part of the expense of a lawn.

Now a lawn-mower is very well in its way. It's not
very hard work to use it, and it keeps a man out in the
air and sunshine. The chief objection is that it is not
work enough. It pays to work out of doors. For
every man who works a part of the day in the house
there should be several hours devoted to exercise in
the open air. A garden is a sanitary measure. It
takes you out on the sweet, healthful ground. A gar-
den is a good place to bury headaches. That settled
the matter, and I decided to use all the available land
for a flower and kitchen garden. There were two
other reasons, beside the sanitary advantage, for
having a garden. In suburban tovynsand villages
the rent is for the house, and the lot of land on which
it stands is practically thrown in free. It costs no
more to have the house without the land than with it,
for as soon as the land becomes too valuable, the
houses cover all the land as in a city. If the land is
used for a garden it will make a solid financial return,
while a lawn pays nothing beyond the doubtful value
of looking pretty from the road and the Christian
grace of doing as you would be done by in the matter
of weeds. All this had been settled when the lettuce
seed was bought, and on the seventh of May, 1887, I
put spade in the new venture.

It wasn't really a spade, for a digging fork is better.
On that seventh of May I bought a digging fork, hoe
and steel rake at a total expenditure of $1.38, and the
handkerchief garden began. I had previously bought
for $1 60 ten plants of the "Jessie" strawberry, and
they had been kept in a friend's garden while absent

8 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

from home during a part of April. By May seventh
all were dead save five, and the first work done was to
fork up a little spot in the garden and set out those
five plants. On the same afternoon the pot of young
lettuce plants was brought out to the ground and a
place, four feet square, was forked up and made
smooth. On this little bed was set out, about five
inches apart, a few dozen lettuce plants. There were
some left which were given away to a neighbor — the
first crop for the season.

The soil proved to be very tough and stiff, and one
Italian man spent one day in trying to spade it ever
and nearly perished in the attempt. After that I •'Ud
all the work myself, forking up the ground in little
beds as it was wanted. This labor, with the tools a'ld
more seeds, brought the expense of the garden on the
first cf June up to $5 88. On the thirteenth of June
the first lettuce and radishes were placed on my table,
and the garden was credited with the first return, five
cents for a fine head of lettuce and five cents for a
bunch of breakfast radish.

The price of a fair average head of lettuce in the
village store on that day was five cents. I had had
been paying that sum every day for two or three
weeks, and often paid more. The day I picked that
head of lettuce I saved five cents on the bill at the
store. It was perfectly fair and right to credit the
garden with the retail price of lettuce for that day.

My labor? Oh! yes! It cost labor to raise it, cost
the seed and the flower pot, and all the little proces-
sion of odd minutes spent in caring for the crop.
These were worth money, if my time was worth any-
thing at all. My time is worth something for about
five hours out of the twenty-four. The time spent m
caring for the lettuce plants was sirnply unavailable or
"off time" of no value, except as a time for exercise.

WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT. 9

Exercise then must be, and was it not better to raise
lettuce for my table than to trundle an unprofitable
lawn-mower, or walk the streets in idleness. Beside
this, every hour spent in the garden was a sanitary
gain and therefore a commercial gain that could not be
expressed in money. I am certain that I buried four-
teen distinct headaches in that garden in one summer
at a decided gain in medical attendance. It is cer-
tainly fair, then, to put the labor in the garden as
free, because it would have been spent on something
in any event. Besides this, the crop from the garden
was a real money return for my labor. Within the
next thirty days we used on our table or gave away
thirty-five heads of lettuce at an avarage price of five
cents, or $1.75. Some of the plants were transplanted
twice and the space occupied by the mature crop was
about twelve by three feet.

I knew from former experience in the business that
a garden could be made to pay. How much I resolved
to find out, as soon as may be, and for this purpose
opened an account with my little plot, which account
was duly made up and balanced at the end of the
year. Herein is set forth the pros and cons of the
whole business.

I paid out for labor, seeds, tools, etc., just $6.61.
There was sent to my table, between June thirteenth
and November first, vegetables of all kinds to the
value of $25.82. Besides these vegetables there were
produced sixty-four strawberry plants ( Jessie ) worth
at the time, as the Jessie is a new variety, at least two
cents each, or $1.28. This made a total return from the
ground of $27.10. Deducting the cash paid out there
was just $20.49 l^^t as the final result of my summer's
work.

Pitiful little tale, not worth recording.

Think so ?

10 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN,

It is small — only a trifling matter of $20.49. ^^ ^^^
same time, $20.49 ^^ $20.49 ^^^^ most of us would ac-
cept it with a cheerful heart. No one was the worse
for my partnership with nature. It was bran new
money and came out of no man's pocket. Our table
was supplied with vegetables for over four months, so
that no purchases (except one quart of onions) were
made at the stores for this time. Besides this, not-
withstanding a rather poor season, the vegetables
were of a far better quality than could be purchased
anywhere. As an illustration of this I may confess
without a blush that I ate nine cucumbers a day for
several weeks in entire safety and complete satisfac-
tion. To buy so many for one person would demand
considerable moral courage, not alone for the price,
but from the doubtful character of cucumbers two
days old. Mine often reached the breakfast table in
less time that it took to make the coffee — hence their
beautiful innocence.

Did it pay ? Would it not have been better to lay
the lawn to grass, and to trundle a lawn-mower or
toss the light tennis ball ? Can't say. I am not a
Tennis Courtier. But I do know that out of the ground
comes health and wealth. Will you bring the children
up forever on canned goods, when they might pull
peas and good times out of the same ground. A home
garden, even if it be only a patch like an extra large
handkerchief, may in many a man's life-accounJ
make all the difference between profit and loss
between a dish of greens and a lot in the cemetery.

From a recent report of the Bureau of Labor Stalls
tics in Connecticut it appears that forty-six families,
representing twenty-nine trades and living in differen:.
parts of the State, were, at the time of the report,
financially unhappy. The total income of the forty-
six families amounted in one month to $2,475.36.

WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT. 11

-f heir expenses for the same time reached $2,760.39 —
an average loss for each family of about six dollars.

Income, $2 a day ; expenses, $1.98 — happiness.

Income, $2 a day ; expenses, $2.01 — misery.

There is a fine flavor of the Casianea vesca about this
ancient joke, yet under its humor is a grim truth.
May not the truth about these Connecticut families
and many another in like unhappy plight be found— in
the garden? The report does not say that these forty-
six families had gardens, yet it must be observed that
Connecticut is a State of small towns, and that a very
large part of the population live in houses having
more or less ground. The report does state, on the
other hand, that one of the large items in the expenses
of these families was for vegetables. These people lost
$1.50 a week for each household. Could not that
amount have been taken out of their gardens?

It will be said that even if the people had a bit of
ground it would not pay to cultivate it, that there was
no time for the work in the garden, and that the in-
terest or rent of the land would be too high to admit
of profit. Is that so ? No. It is just the other way.
In small towns where a house and ground are leased
the rent is for the house, and the land is practically
free, because if the value of the land becomes too high
the houses cover the entire ground or a large part of
it, as in a city block. Besides this every house must
have space for light and air, and this space is or ought
to be a garden. Certainly if a man has space round
his house, and he suffers it to go to waste when it
might produce food, he is morally responsible for the
less he puts on other men by reason of his unpaid
debts. As for the time, it is only a question of get-
ting up earlier or dropping the paper to tickle the
ground with a hoe — and better business any day.
Seeds, tools and fertilizers are cheap, and if there be a

13 My HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

will, there m^y be both time and a way. All of these
families depended in part for their support on the labor
of Lheir women and children. Any twelve-year-old
boy or girl could have put something from the garden
on the family table and been all the better for it. As
wages go it may be a question whether any young
woman staying at home and minding the garden for
three months would not earn more money than she
could get in a mill or store. Her house would be her
market, her family her customers, and she would reap
all the profits.

There are the young folks. Let no young man or
young woman fancy their education complete with-
out some knowledge of the growth of plants. Garden-
ing is an accomplishment worth far more than the
ability to struggle through a sonata on the piano —
more worthy of a lady too. Labor with the hands, in
partnership with nature, on the sweet and honest
earth, is worthy any gentleman. If there be any
among you having a boy or girl, halting between their
school books and a wish to climb the Golden Stair, let
him consider whether it be better to have hands
browned in the glorious sunshine, a face freckled by
the blessed winds, clear eyes keen for out-of-door
sights and pleasures, a little dirt, beads of salt perspir-
ation, perhaps with a touch of the backache, a jolly
appetite and a grand power of sleep, or white hands
folded under a coffin lid.

It is the sum of these things that moves me to here
set forth how any man, woman or child having a bit
of ground may use it for their best health and the
greater gl;)ry of their dinner table and pocketbook.

TIMES AND SEASONS.

13

CHAPTER III.

cimes AHD ^GAsons

HE moment we begin to
study the lives of plants
we are brought face to
face with the universe. We
cannot consider the very-
small without considering
the infinitely great. The
life of every plant in our
garden hangs on the laws
governing the movements
of the planets. Every mel-
on vine that lifts its yellow cups in the warm air looks
to a star for inspiration, and its fruit claims acquaint-
ance with the sun by the blushes in its melting heart.
The roll of our planet to the east divides the day into
light and darkness, wherein plants grow and sleep,
work and rest. The swinging of our old earth around
the solar spaces divides the garden into a time for
birth and a time for death. These things we must
understand before we plant a single seed.

In all our country the year is divided into two
parts, the growing season and the season of slower
growth or of complete rest. On the twenty-first of
December the sun casts its longest shadows at noon.
After that day the days slowly grow longer and the
nights shorter until the twenty-first of June. Then
the shadows are shortened at noon, the days at their
longest, the nights very short. Soon after there is,
in the Northern States, a perceptible shortening of

14 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

the day, which continues till the longest nights late in
December again.

All plants, whether out-of-doors or in the house,
are susceptible to these universal changes. The spring
or growing season begins on the twenty-first of De-
cember. The winter or season of reduced growth,
maturity, and sleep or death begins on the twenty-
first of June. During the growing season the amount
of light steadily increases and the plant thrives, be-
cause, as it grows, it demands more light. When it is
going to rest or approaching maturity, or death, it re-
quires less and less light. The lives of all plants are,
therefore, dependent on the changing amount of
light resulting from that motion of the earth that
gives us the seasons.

At first sight it may seem that this cannot be true.
In the latitude of New York nothing begins to grow
out-of-doors before April, and all the garden plants
are dead or asleep long before December begins.
This, too, is true, yet I hope, in treating of certain
of our common vegetables, to show you a number of
experiments that will prove that this division of the
year into two parts is correct. In California the
growing season begins in November and ends in May.
This, it is easily seen, is merely a variation, depend-
ing on local causes, of this same law of plant growth.

To get the best results from our garden vegetables,
we sow the seed in the growing season and let the
crops mature in the resting season, and this holds
good, both under glass, where, as far as temperature
is concerned, we are independent of the climate, and
in Florida where there are no frosts. After the " re-
turn of the sun " we can sow any seeds, provided it is
warm enough either naturally or in a greenhouse
or sunny window. The days are growing longer,
there is more and more light, and the plant finds its

TIMES AND SEASONS. 15

growing stature met by increasing light and (out-
of-doo,rs) increasing heat. Seeds of certain plants
can indeed be sown in the fall or under glass as late
as December, yet they are struggling against the
solar tide and are never so thrifty as when the " young
flood " of the year sets in. Peas, that are short-lived
plants, may be sown out-of-doors in August, and will
mature a crop before frost, yet they do not display
the vigor shown by plants of the same class planted
in April or May.

In the garden and out-of-doors the growing season
is, of course, dependent also on the temperature. The
spring, even in Vermont or Michigan, begins with the
turn of the season, yet it is practically delayed out-
of-doors for several months, or till the increasing
light and sunshine raises the air to temperatures
suitable for growing plants. In like manner the end
of the growing season is forstalled by the return of
cold weather many weeks before the actual end of
the season at Christmas week.

The first thing we have to decide is this : — Can
we take advantage of the actual beginning of the
growing season without regard to the beginning of
spring out-of-doors ? If we can do so, we shall find a
very great gain in the matter of early vegetables.
Our object must be to get the greatest possible result
from our garden, and to do this we must begin the
spring work as soon as the season really opens. For
instance, the tomato is a native of a tropical climate,
where the warm weather begins early and ends late.
In the latitude of New York the season out-of-doors
is not long enough to bring its crop to maturity.
We, therefore, gain time by starting seeds in the
house soon after the season turns. The plant being
sheltered from the cold and finding the spring really
at hand, grows rapidly, and by the time the warm

16 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN,

weather has arrived out-of-doors, is several inches
high and well advanced in its natural life. In May
we remove it from the house to the garden, and it
thus reaches its full maturity even in our short out-
of-door season. Cultivated in this way it produces
its crop in August and September, whereas, if its seed
were planted out-of-doors, it would be cut down by
October frosts with only half a crop on its branches.
It might be thought that the seed could be sown in
the house in November and the crop thus be made to
mature in June. This would not work, for until the
spring really begins, it is nearly useless to attempt to
sow seeds in even the warmest house. The young
plants would be struggling against the solar tide and
wasting their lives for nothing.

These facts in regard to the divisions of the grow-
ing year point to the first lesson in all horticultural
work. Whatever we do, much or little, whether our
garden be large or small, we must be forehanded.
We must always look six months ahead, always lay
out our workweeks in advance. If we wish tomatoes
in August, we must plant the seed in March, and this
means soil to put the seeds in, and to have good soil
in March we must piiepare it in November. Fore-
thought and forework are essential to success in
home gardening.

To show what is meant by planning the work in
advance, I may from my journal give a few notes as
to what was actually done to prepare for the season
of 1888. By the first of November the last of the
celery in the garden had been taken up, and the
ground was left clear of all perishable crops. At odd
moments the soil was spaded up and left rough, thus
exposing it to the frost and rain to kill the eggs of
insects and the seeds of weeds, and by December the
out-of-door work was fairlv over. The five straw-

TIMES AND SEASONS. 17

berry plants had increased to over sixty, set out in
rows about a foot apart each way. The garden was
so exceedingly small that it was necessary to crowd
them together to gain room, the intention being the
next year to allow no runners to grow. On the
twenty-first of November the ground was frozen hard
and the strawberries were covered with dead leaves.
Over this was laid some boughs and sticks to keep
the wind from blowing the leaves away. A friend
had given me in October a hundred currant cuttings,
half Red Dutch and half White Dutch. These had
been carefully set out in a bed by themselves, and
were covered with leaves and brush about the twen-
tieth of November. A few dozen grape cuttings, also
a gift, were placed in a wooden box and buried two
feet deep in the ground. Meantime I had sifted two
barrels of good soil, mixing it with bone-meal, wood-
ashes and guano, and stored it in the cellar. Then
the snow came and the season was at an end.

18

MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

CHAPTER IV.

PLAn$ FOK moRK.

T is curious to note how quickly,
after the season turns, there are
visible signs of spring. No mat-
ter if the snow does fly in the
north. Far down in the south the
spring has landed on our coasts.
The wave of green grass will cover
the land, creeping up the Missis-
sippi Valley, and stealing along the Atlantic Coast
The snow that covers the northern half of the coun-
try will retire slowly, sometimes pausing, sometimes
advancing far down south, only to retreat farther
than before. The buds soon begin to swell along the
Gulf, and hints of spring are in the air. In the north
we can only watch the slowly lengthening twilight
over the snow-clad hills. By the tenth of January
there is a perceptible lingering in the sunset colors,
and, if we mark the spot where the sun goes down,
we see he is already well started to the left, or south.
My home is in the neighborhood of New York
City, and these notes from the journal of my hand-
kerchief garden refer to the out-of-door seasons
there. If you live south of Washington or Cincin-
nati, the work would come about ten days earlier.
If farther south, still earlier. The best plan is to
observe nature yourself. If the spring begins in your
neighborhood in March, then you must be getting
ready in January. The out-door season here begins
in April, so my work begins in February.

First of all — books. There is no greater pleasure

PLANS FOR WORK. 19

in midwinter than to think over and plan for next
summer, Nothing better for guide and companion
on long winter evenings than a good book. Buy if
you can, borrow if you must. Next to a good book,
and, in some respects, better, is a good horticultural
paper, and The American Garden is one of the best.
If nothing better can be afforded, get the seedsmen's
catalogues. Some of these can be obtained on appli-
cation, others cost from ten to twenty-five cents, and
are worth the money. Some of them are positively
delightful. The descriptions of the seeds are so ap-
petizing, and the pictures so inspiring, that we long
for summer to come that we may enjoy these entic-
ing heads of lettuce, these phenomenal beans, and
gaze in awe upon our own monster squashes. The
wise home-gardener will, of course, read the seeds-
man's catalogue with a dignified reserve in regard to
some of the more bewildering pictures and their
legends, yet he will read to learn, for nearly all these
books are well worthy careful study, for the fund of
valuable information they contain. At the same time,
don't read less than three, each from a different city.
Philadelphia, Boston, and New York, for instance, and
read to compare opinions on the various standard
sorts of vegetables.

Of books, I would recommend the following: The
*' Home Acre," a series of eight articles, by the late
E. P. Roe, and published in Harper's Magazine, be-
ginning in March, 1886. As a handkerchief garden
should include some fruit, " Success with Small
Fruits," by the same author, should be procured. It
is a fine book, and beautifully illustrated ; price, $2.50.
" Harris' Gardening for Young and Old " is a good
book for general purposes ; price, $1.25. Bailey's new
" Horticulturists' Rule Book " is full of valuable rules,
recipes, methods, etc., for gardening folk; price, fi.oo.

20 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN,

Henderson's books are all first-rate, "Gardening for
Pleasure," for your purposes, being perhaps the best.
" Gardening for Profit " is also very good, though de-
signed more for market gardeners than for handker-
chief gardening. If possible, I would also have Mrs.
Treat's "Injurious Insects of the Farm and Garden."
It's a handy book to have in the house, in case
of war within your borders. These books, and all
others on gardening and rural life, may be pur-
chased of the Garden Publishing Company, New
York. Reading, selecting varieties to plant, and
planning out the work, may well fill the first six
weeks of the year. By all means make a map or plan
of your grounds, drawn to scale, so that you can see
exactly what can be done. I did this in January, and
laid out on paper every row of plants I wanted, be-
fore ordering the seeds. Afterwards the plan was of
great value as a guide in using all my garden space
to the utmost economy. It was also useful in econo-
mizing seeds, and in serving as a guide as to the
quantities of each kind to be bought. It is also a
good idea to preserve these plans to compare with
the actual results when the crops are gathered. We
are almost certain to plant too much of some things,
and the plan will be a guide in next year's purchase
of seeds.

There is also another advantage in making a plan
of the future plantings. To get the greatest possible
return out of the soil we must produce two crops each
year, or three crops in two years. Suppose your
garden is the usual city back yard, 25 feet wide and
60 feet long. Out of this bit of ground you must
wring in one season all it is capable of producing.
The ground must be stuffed with plants — not a foot,
not an inch being wasted. If lettuce plants will ma-
ture when planted 12 inches apart, radish or some

PLANS FOR WORK.

21

short lived
plant must
grow between.
If a cucumber
vine covers 6
inches at one
time and 6
feet at another
time, spinach
must occupy
the space not
used by the
vine while it is
small. If the
early pea vines
bear fruit in
July, then
white turnips
must mature
in the same
ground in Oc-
tober. Like a
circular race
track, a gar-
den to pay
must consist
of a series of
"laps," one
crop overlap-
ping another
and the soil
bearing two
crops between
frost and frost.
To make this
clear the ac-

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11X11

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21X

J 6 Aau/^

23 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

companying diagram shows how the first lap is
made. The entire space, 25x60, is laid out in three
beds, with two footpaths, 12 inches wide, between
them (and a good plan is to make these paths of
plank). One bed, 11 feet wide in the centre, and
two of 6 feet on each side, enables you to reach
every plant with a hoe from the paths. On the plan
these three beds are divided off into smaller beds,
each for one or more crops. Beginning at the upper
left hand (northwest) corner, the first bed is to con-
tain six rows of the first planting of bush beans.
(The area of each bed is marked in the beds.) Next,
south of these, are eight rows of early beets; next
come five rows of early carrots. These three beds
are planted as early as the weather permits. The
next bed. No. IV., is left empty till ten days after the
first sowing of beans, and makes the second planting
of beans. No. V. is planted thickly with spinach, in
rows I foot apart. As soon as the plants are three
inches high pull half of them out and send them to
the cook. The little, half-grown plants make an
excellent dish, and the plants left behind have more
room.

I tried this plan last year, sowing spinach very thick
and making the first thinning when the plants were
very small. It took 500 plants to make a dishful, but
they were delicious. Two thinnings and one final
picking of the half mature gave a very large return
in a very few weeks from a small space.

Bed No. VI. is to have four rows (north and south)
of cabbages, the first row i foot from the path, the
next two 3 feet apart and the last within i foot of the
other path. Between each row is a single row of let-
tuce plants, and between lettuce and cabbages can be
planted six rows of radish or spinach. Don't be
afraid ; you cannot have too much. Pull it up as

PLANS FOR WORK.

28

soon as it
crowds the let-
tuce, and pull
up the lettuce
as soon as it
crowds the
cabbage. In
both cases the
crops will be
ready for the
table. Bed No.
\I\\. is arrang-
ed in the same
way, except
that cauliflow-
ers stand be-
tween the rad-
ish and let-
tuce. BedVIII.
is to contain
six hills, first
planting of cu-
cumbers, and
the whole
space is filled
up,exceptnear
the young cu-
cumberplants,
with spinach
and radish.
Bed IX. is the
same idea ap-
plied to late
cucumbers. If
it is prefer-
red, summer
squash can be

~w w w.

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XI

34 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

used in the same way in place of the cucumbers. Bed
No. X. is for potatoes that have been forced in the
house. Bed No. XI. is for the first planting of peas,
ten rows. No. XII. may be used for onion sets, six
rows, and No. XIII. will carry early turnips, six rows.
Bed No. XIV. is to be kept about ten days^ for the
second planting of peas. The little square at the
north end of the plot is a seed bed for celery.

In sketching out in winter such a plan of work for
the summer, you must look beyond the early spring
and arrange for the crops that are to follow the early
spring plants. With this is a plan of the same garden,
showing what should follow in the various beds.

For instance, bed No. I. may be followed by late
sweet corn as soon as the peas are gathered. Bed
No. II., in like manner, may be used for the second
planting of sweet corn, the beets to be consumed as
soon as half grown. The little bed of celery plants
is to be cleared out before the tomatoes begin to
crowd them, and the young plants moved to beds III.
and IV. The tomato plants are shown in a row at
the upper end of the lot. There will be ample room
to get them in there, and if not, you can well afford
to sacrifice a plant or two of the first crops in beds
Nos. I., VI. and XI. All the beds are plainly marked
with the second crops, and you will find it well worth
while to compare the two plans, as they show how
crops may be made to " lap " and how to get the
greatest possible return from the ground.

My own garden was of a somewhat different shape,
yet I made careful sketches of the proposed crops,
and in the summer of 1888 actually carried out, with
some varieties, the succession of crops shown on these
two diagrams.

STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 25

CHAPTER V.

STARTinG T6G GARDGH ID TBG f)Ca?G

O get the greatest possible return
out of a handkerchief garden, we
must forestall the growing season,
is the early potato that costs. We must
gather our crops when they are high-
priced in the stores, and thus credit the garden
on a "bull market." It is better to stop buy-
ing lettuce when it is seven cents a head than have
to wait till it is down to three cents. The market
gardener's chief profit isalways in these forwarded and
high-priced crops, and we must be equally sharp after
every early penny that grows in the garden. It is often
thought that only those who have green-houses and
hot-beds can thus hasten their early crop. Glass is
always a great help, and it pays to use it, yet for a
small home garden it is not necessary. Every house
has one or more sunny windows, and these make the
advanced garden where the early crops may be started.
Can't have troublesome plants making a slop and
dirt in your parlor ?

Not the slightest need of it — if you know how
Besides, a neat box filled with young cauliflower
plants is rather pretty and suggests the spring, long
before the snow has gone. Even a box of young
potato plants, thrusting up green fingers towards the
light, may be quite a picture. Visitors will be sure
to look at the cheery bit of greenery and ask in all
innocence the name of the odd looking plants.
Spoil your carpet and fade your curtains ?

26 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

Spoil your children too ? What's the use of carpets,
if the grand sunshine full of health and cheerfulness
is to be shut out ? Better burn your old carpets and
let the sunlight fall on bare floors. Better a row of
plants in your parlor window, and delicious summer
cabbages in July, than a best room shut up dark while
the pale-faced children mope in your stuffy north
kitchen. These things are not for fun. Its simply
good business to hasten the handkerchief harvest and
thus reap the big profits. Besides this, you have been
carrying the children for weeks on canned goods. A
taste of the first salad from the garden will save the
doctor's bill and tone up every little stomach in the
most encouraging way.

Our house faced south-east, and this gave us four
sunny windows down-stairs, two facing south-east and
two south-west, in rooms warmed by a furnace. There
was also one sunny window up-stairs, in a room part-
ly warmed by a chimney, and the spare heat from the
hall. In the two kitchen windows shelves were put
up, and in the parlor and dining-room small narrow
tables covered with cretonne were used. A good idea
in putting up shelves for plants in the lower part of
a window is to have a piece of shelving made to fit the
window and about eight inches wide. On the edge of
the window seat screw two small brass hooks. Op-
posite these, on the upper side of the shelf, fix two
screw-eyes. On the under side of the shelf in the
middle fasten a single iron bracket. To fix such
a shelf in place, put the screw-eyes over the hooks
and the bracket prevents it from falling. Such a
device saves all nailing into the wood-work and the
shelf can be unhooked and removed at any time in a
moment, in case the maid wants to wash the windows.
I first saw this little notion carried out by my friend
and neighbor, Bronson Howard, who is as clever with

STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 27

tools as with the pen. Two shelves are enough in
eachwindow, and I found a lath, covered with cretonne,
as a concession to the aesthetic, and nailed across the
window frame, on a level with the top of the lower
sash, made a good support for light window boxes.

Flower pots will be needed for the windows, and it
is well to have a few of different sizes for some of
your work. It is, however, very much cheaper to use
wooden boxes. In my own experience I found there
is nothing better than a bundle of laths. It cost de-
livered only 30 cents, and out of it I made dozens of
plant and seed boxes of all shapes and sizes.

The accompanying sketch shows one of my window
boxes. It was made by cutting ten laths into lengths

of 2 feet 10 inches, and nailing them together in two
sets of three each (placed side by side) and one of
four laths. They are fastened by the short crossbars
and then the three sets are nailed together and the
ends filled up and all made secure with small wire
nails. To prevent splitting I keep the laths in a
damp place till ready to be used. Such boxes are of
a convenient length for the window and will just fit
into a cold frame measuring 3x6 feet. For small
seedlings I made boxes four laths wide and two laths
high, and as long as the window sash, so that they
would rest on the bar in the middle of the window
and the top of the sash. If you wished, the side
next the room could be covered with cretonne or
painted some dark color, and then filled with the

38 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

pale green of young lettuce plants, they would look
well in the best room of any home.

From my experience with such window boxes, six
boxes, occupying three sunny windows, would be
sufficient to supply all the early cauliflower, cabbage,
lettuce and tomato plants needed in a home garden
intended to supply a family of three adults and two
children. Supplemented with cold frames, covered
with either glass or protective cloth, they would easily
carry one thousand plants, or more than enough for
a dozen handkerchief gardens. My experience is
that, even without frames, all the plants you need for
your home garden can be raised in your windows
without a single cent's extra cost in the way of fuel.
Your home must be warmed in any event, and the
same heat will bring on a crop of young plants with
only the cost of the* seeds, the boxes, and a little
rather entertaining work at odd moments for about
six weeks in the early spring.

My journal of work records that Early Jersey Wake-
field cabbage and Extra Early Erfurt cauliflower seeds
were planted in boxes on February 22d, and the
Early Snowball cauliflower planted March 9th. The
first lot of plants were transplanted into other boxes
by the middle of March, and were removed to the
cold frame early in April, and were set in the open
ground April 27th. The second plantings came a
little later, and the first cauliflowers were placed on
the table on July 4th, while the last were eaten on
July 22d. The first cabbages were cut on July 15th,
and they lasted well into August. To those who have
never tried it, early summer cabbage, just beginning
to head and fresh from the garden, will prove a new
dish. You may have eaten something so-called and
thought it very good. You haven't really been there,
unless you have a garden of your own.

STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 29

On February 28th I cut up a few choice po-
tatoes and placed the pieces in soil in a window-box
by a south-east window in a room up-stairs where
there was no fire. On very cold nights the box was
placed on the floor near the chimney and covered
with a newspaper. On April i6th the plants, now six
inches high, were transplanted to a sunny corner in
the garden, and the first potatoes were sent to the
table on June 27th.

Lettuce was planted on March 7th, and set out in
the garden on April 3rd, and the first heads eaten
June nth. Tomatoes with me were a failure, owing
to damping off at the time of the blizzard in March.
Still, plants from seed planted March 8th made good
plants, and would have been set out in the garden in
May, had it not been for an accidental upsetting of
the box that compelled me to buy plants of the near-
est florist. I did enough, however, to prove that
tomato plants can be raised in the house without the
slightest trouble. Among other things, I found that
peas can be forced in the house by sowing in boxes
the last week in February, and transplanting to the
ground when about four inches high. The crop
from these transplanted peas came in about three
days before peas planted in the ground, as early as
the weather permitted. The gain was slight, yet in a
favorable season I think it would be even better and
would pay to do, if you want extra early peas. The
plants were set out quickly and with no particular
pains, and not one died.

Not having any material for a hot-bed or even
glass for a cold-frame, I made a frame on the south
side of the house protected from the north-winds, and
for sash used frames made of two old screen doors,
covered with a heavy grade of protective cloth.
Under this frame I forwarded potatoes, cabbage,

30 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

cauliflower, tomato and lettuce plants, that were
afterwards transferred to the garden. The frame
measured about 2 feet 8 inches wide and about 18
feet long, and held many hundred plants, in fact far
more than the garden would contain, and two-thirds
of them were given away or sold to the neighbors.
On very cold nights the frame was covered with old
gunny bags as an extra protection, and on all sunny
days the frame was left uncovered, except in high,
dry winds. While not as good as glass for some pur-
poses, this protective cloth answers very well for
forwarding early plants. Cabbage, cauliflower, pota-
toes, peas and lettuce under it did very well. Toma-
toes not quite as well, and another year I would keep
tomato plants in the window or under glass sash.
The frame cost for lumber 50 cents and for the cloth
$2.16 =- $2.66.

Another advantage of such a frame is the protec-
tion it affords to young squash, melon or cucumber
vines. Seeds of squash planted in the frame came
up among the other plants, and as soon as they
needed more room, the nearest plants were removed,
and finally the frame was wholly taken away and the
vines spread naturally over the ground.

These things were easily carried on at odd moments
through February and March, and in April the reg-
ular out-of-door work began. By May 7th the fram"
had been taken away, and its contents had been
transferred to the garden. None of the work in the
house or about the frames took more than an hour
or two at any one time, and usually the time spent
over the work did not exceed fifteen minutes twice
each day, say once early in the morning and once
towards night. Often it was very much less. None
of the work required much strength or skill — onl^ %

STARTING THE GARDEA^ IN THE HOUSE. 31

little patience and the right hand's turn of work at
the right moment.

Among other notions for forwarding early plants
is a plant-hood or folding-tent to put over small
plants. The device received the name of The Ameri-
can Garden Cosey, and as it may also prove useful to
others, a few directions for making one or more may
be given.

The materials of the cosey are protective cloth,
common laths or other light wooden sticks, and com-
mon carpet tacks and any stout twine or small cord.
The first one made by the inventor was made out of
four laths and 67 inches of a heavy grade of the cloth.
Spread open on the ground to cover plants it pro-
tected a space 4 feet long and 14 inches wide, giving
ample room for a mature lettuce plant or strawberry
plant in bearing, or any young plant not over 18
inches high. When shut up it could be put in a space
4 feet long, 18 inches high and i y^ inches wide. A
dozen would be a light load for one hand.

To make a single cosey for protecting a few plants,
cut a piece 19 inches long
and from this cut two tri-
angular pieces, each 17
inches wide at the bottom.
There will also be material
for one more in case another
cosey is made. The dotted lines in Figure i show
how the cloth is cut, the fabric being 36 inches wide.

These two pieces will make the end pieces. To
make the cover, cut a piece of the cloth i '/g yards
long. For the frame, use four good straight laths.
Place them in pairs and join each set with a crossbar
at the end, 18 inches long. Nail firmly at the corners
and put in a short brace at two corners to keep the
frame in shape. Figure 2 shows one of these frames.

■■■■ A^— -

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/ \

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\

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i

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\ '^^
\

/

n- .

\/ ,^

\

83 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

Place the cloth on a table and then lay the two
frames, with the crossbars together, one over the
other on the cloth near one edge of the cloth. Then
fold the cloth over the two frames and tack the edge
to the lower edge, leaving about half an inch of the
wood exposed. This is to prevent the cloth from
touching the ground. Leave the ends (for a couple
of inches) free till after the end pieces are put in.

This done, turn the
two frames over,
stretch the cloth
tight and nail it to
lower edge of the
other frame as be-
fore. Then tack the cloth to the upper bar of each
frame, placing the tacks on the wide part of the bar.
Lastly, put in the two end pieces, lapping them over
the frames and leaving a loose flap 2 inches wide at
the bottom. When the ends are tacked on, finish the
cover by drawing the ends over the edges of the end
pieces to make a neat join and tack the ends down.

When finished the cosey can be opened and will
stand alone, making a rain-tight hood 4 feet long and
14 inches wide. It can then be placed over plants,
gently pressed into the soil to fit tight round the
sides, aad a little soil can be thrown on the flaps at
the end to exclude the air. This is a single cosey for
a few plants. To cover more, say a space 8 feet long,
make two coseys and close up only one end of each
and then place them end to end, the two open ends
meeting and thus making a continuous hood of the
two coseys. To cover the crack between the two
coseys, let the cover of one extend 2 inches beyond
the open end. Set the first cosey in place over the
plants first, then place the other in position, letting
the flap cover the crack all round. In this manner a

STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 33

long line of coseys can be used, each one having a
flap to fit over the next with only the two end ones
having the end pieces. Where the ends are left open
in this way a stout string must be secured across the
ends to keep the frames from spreading, in fact, act-
ing as a tie-rod to hold up the roof. Figure 3 shows
two coseys placed together.

The cosey is one of those little notions that often
prove of great value in many ways. It can be used
to forward early crops in the spring and to protect
late crops in the fail. It is wide enough to cover two

rows of early beets, carrots or radish, or to protect a
row of strawberry plants from the birds or to keep
insects away from young melon vines. Such protect-
ing hoods could, of course, be made of other shapes
and sizes, but this size uses the cloth without waste,
and the hood is easily picked up, carried away and
packed snugly in the barn when not in use. The
C/oth will shed any rainstorm and will not mildew or
decay in wet weather. It is also a protection against
frost and is better than glass and only one-tenth its
cost. Such a cosey, or even a long line of them, can
be easily ventilated in bright sunshine by putting a
block of wood or a stone under the edge, or, where
two or more are used, by pulling them apart and
leaving a small space between them through which
the hot air can escape.

The " protective cloth," above mentioned, is made
especially for such purposes, and is sold by seedsmen.

34 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

CHAPTER VI.
(fLCSG (fROPPIDG.

COMMON objection raised to a
home garden is the expense and
labor in planting and caring for it.
My little patch, which measured
a trifle over one-thirtieth of an
acre, was a tough, hard clay, and
yet, in addition to one man's labor
for one day, it required only nineteen half days' work
in April and ten half days in May. This included the
preparation of the ground and planting all the early
crops. In no instance was a whole day's work given
to the place, and the time spent was usually from
four to six in the afternoon. I think the entire work
could easily have been done in ten working days.
The entire outlay, aside from my own labor, includ-
ing new tools, seeds, lumber, cloth and fertilizer was
$14.79. The heaviest expense was for 200 pounds
Mapes' fertilizer, $5.05 (delivered), and this was
enough for the entire season, no other manure of
any kind being used. Fourteen dollars and seventy-
nine cents would buy quite an assortment of vegeta-
bles, canned and otherwise, at the stores. Did it
pay? Was it worth the expense, labor and trouble?
It csrtainly did pay, as I propose to show at the sum-
ming up of the season's work. Meanwhile it may be
well to see what was obtained for the money. By
the first of June the following vegetables had been
planted at different times : four kinds of peas, four
kinds of radish, upland cress, chicory, leeks, potatoes,

CLOSE CROPPING. 85

two kinds of spinach, two of onions, two of squash,
carrots, parsnips, two kinds of beets, two of bush
beans, four of lettuce, four of cabbage, two of cauli-
flower, one variety each of tomato and turnips, and
three kinds of celery. Quite a bill of fare for a small
place. There was, beside this, a small strawberry
bed, a cutting bed of currants, and one of grapes,
both of which received a part of the labor and fer-
tilizer. In addition to all this there was a good flower
garden, that demanded more or less attention, and
produced a very large crop of flowers from the first
of June till frost in October. The object of having
this great variety of vegetables was twofold. In the
first place, it is important to find out something con-
cerning the character of the soil in a garden, and the
only way to do it is to try many kinds. For instance,
I learned that turnips and radishes were unsuccess-
ful, lettuce and celery very successful, showing that
the soil was best for the last, and that in the future
it would be better to have more of one and less of the
other. In the second place, to get the best return
from a garden, attention must be paid to the daily
bill of fare in the house. The selection of seeds and
the planting must be so arranged that there is always
a succession of things for the table, and not too much
at any one time. Even with this great variety, we
had in July eighteen heads of cauliflower ripe at one
time, far more than could be used, and a dozen heads
were given away to the neighbors. It was the same
with summer cabbage, nearly two dozen ready at one
time, a bigger crop than the home market could ab-
sorb. Other things came to perfection in about the
right quantities, and the table was usually supplied
with three kinds of vegetables every day through the
summer. After the first of June no vegetables, ex-
cept potatoes, were bought, and after the thirtieth of

86 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN,

June nothing whatever was purchased in the way of
vegetables for many weeks, and had late potatoes
been planted, the garden would have carried the
house till December.

The labor spent through the sumrr.er was very
light. Spreading the fertilizer, transplanting and
raking over the soil to keep down the weeds, made
the whole of the work, and none of it took over two
hours on any one day. The crops were gathered
every day, just before or after breakfast, and took
only a few moments, when a little turn in the fresh
air was more a pleasure than a task. The system of
overlapping crops already described worked perfectly.
On a plot 6xio feet I planted Savoy-leaved spinach,
and when well up set out very close together between
the rows three dozen early Jersey cabbages. Six
pecks of spinach were taken off the plot, the two first
pickings being "thinnings." The spinach com-
pletely covered the ground and yet it was all
cleared off before it interfered with the young
cabbage plants. The final picking was like a
transformation scene, the dark green of the
spinach bed being in a few moments changed to the
pale green of a cabbage patch. On another part of
my grounds I planted spinach in long rows, and as
soon as the plants appeared set rows of cauliflowers
between the rows. The spinach was gathered as
soon as the plants began to touch the cauliflowers.
In another place a row of early cabbages was set out
and on the same day spinach seed was planted be-
tween each plant. The spinach came up and was
gathered before it troubled the cabbages. By using
the spinach when about half grown I had an excellent
crop of early greens on the same ground occupied
by other plants. Afterwards, as the cabbages were
removed, late sweet corn was planted, so that

CLOSE CROPPING. 37

the ground actually produced three crops in one
season.

To still further carry out the plan of close cropping
I planted summer squash between the rows of peas
(second planting) and found no trouble from inter-
ference, the peas being pulled up before the squashes
wanted the room. I had also under way a trial of
peas and beans (Laxton's Early and Early Mohawk),
the beans being planted in hills between every other
row of peas and the peas trained away from the
beans. The experiment worked well. The beans
were planted just as the peas began to flower.

Another experiment in crowding the land was to
plant onion sets in rows and quite thick in the row,
and to plant cauliflower plants between the rows
when the onions were about six inches high. The
demands of the table gradually used up the onions
by pulling up every other plant, and the open foliage
of the onion did not seem to annoy the cauliflowers.
Finally the onions all disappeared, and then the
cauliflowers ripened and were pulled up and made
room for celery plants in August.

Lettuce plants set out from seed box in window
were planted in April between young strawberry
plants and were well headed before the strawberry
plants began to run. Among other stray bits of in-
formation I picked up the fact that if bush beans are
injured, as mine were, by early cold rains, it is per-
fectly easy to transplant the young plants to repair
broken rows. In a home lot space is too valuable to
allow broken rows to mature. It's better to trans-
plant and use the space with something else.

Another bit of crowding was arranged in this way:
Two rows of spinach were sown (east and west) near
the fence and parallel with it. As soon as well up,
early cabbages were set out between the rows. The

88 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

spinach was pulled and eaten before it troubled the
cabbage plants, and then tomato plants were set next
the fence and trained up against it, and before the
tomatoes were ripe the cabbage had headed and,
when pulled, left all the space for the tomato plants.
None of these crops seemed in the least degree in-
commoded by the others, nor did they fail to give
excellent returns three times during the season. In
ordinary garden planting the plants would have
been set in different places at a loss of space and
labor in caring for them. The ground occupied by
this experiment measured just 19x3 feet, and it pro-
duced two pecks of spinach, twenty heads of early
cabbage, and carried six large tomato plants that
produced a fair crop of tomatoes. It is only by this
system of close cropping that a handkerchief garden
can be made to pay large profits, and it is the only
plan I would ever employ in my own garden. If you
mean to garden at all, do it in this way and wring
from the ground all the return it can possibly give.
Make the garden tell.

^iV9(S

A DISH OF SALADS.

80

CHAPTER VII.

A DISf) QF SALADS.

OU have a little space at the
back of the house. It is very
small, so small indeed that it
seems hardly worth while to
use it. There's nothing in it,
save a few rank weeds. The
sun only shines there a part
of each day. If weeds will
grow, something better will
grow. The actual surface may
be only a bed along the fence,
say 25x4 feet. Small as the
border is, it can be made to
keep your table in salads four months out of every
twelve.

First of the soil. Dig it up and see what it is like.
As nearly all our cities grow outward into the coun-
try, it often happens that the yards about the houses
contain very fair soil. If it is thin and sandy, good
garden loam should be procured. Two one-horse
loads should be enough. The florists can usually
provide it for about $2 a load. If it is very heavy and
is wet for sometime after a rain and cracks when dry-
ing in the sun, it has too much clay, and this defect
can be easily cured by the addition of about a barrel
of sand from the mason's yard. If weeds grow, the
soil is pretty nearly right, and can be made just right
by the addition of manure from barn or stable. If
this cannot be procured, use one of the standard fer-
tilizers, together with ground bone or bone-meal and
wood ashes. These things can be procured at the
seed stores by the pound. If possible have the soil

40 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

spaded up roughly and left in that condition all win-
ter. In the spring the fertilizers can be spread over
the surface and forked in as soon as the ground is
dry. Four pounds of commercial fertilizer, one pound
of bone-meal and half a bushel of wood ashes will
make a good mixture. There should be about five
pounds more of the fertilizer on hand for use at inter-
vals during the growing season.

The thing to grow is lettuce. It is the most useful
crop we can have, one of the most simple and easy of
culture, and it is always acceptable on the table. If
you can raise but one crop, let it always be some
variety of lettuce. If you have a sunny window, you
will be 'surprised to find how many dozen heads of
lettuce can be gathered from this mere ribbon of
ground. The cost, including the fertilizer, will be
very small, and the only labor of any consequence
will be* in spading up the ground. This ought not to
exceed one hour's labor about six times each season
and the few moments* attention once or twice a day
from the first of March to the last of October. Much
of the time, however, there will be nothing to do for
weeks beyond the gathering of the daily crop. The
entire time spent in caring for the lettuce will proba-
bly be less than the time required to go every day to
the store to buy your lettuce.

The first planting in a flower pot or small wooden
box should be about the first of March. These plants
should be set out in the little bed by the tenth of
April, setting the young plants in three rows one foot
apart each way. One-quarter of a ten-cent package
of seed will be ample for this first planting. A six-
inch flower pot will easily hold it, and if three dozen
plants are set out in the border, it will be enough for
the first crop. One of the best varieties to use is the
''Boston Market" (or Tennis Ball).

A DISH OF SALADS. 41

•

About the twentieth of March make a second sow-
ing of the same quantity of seed in a box or pot in
the window. The young plants will be ready to set
out in the garden in about thirty days. As the first
crop is still in the ground, set these new plants in a
small bed by themselves about three inches apart.
They will stand in this bed till there is room made
for them by the maturing of the first crop. As fast
as a head is ripe, pull it up and send it to the table,
and stir up the soil and set a new plant from the
small bed. Leave none of the space idle and keep
transplanting at every opportunity that offers. It
will be found that the crop will mature faster at
times than it can be eaten. In this case the heads
can stand for a day or two without injury. Small as
the bed is, it will carry in various stages from four to
seven dozen or even more through the early summer,
and will easily give one head a day for the larger part
of the season. With care it will be quite possible to
have a head a day from June first to October first, or
even later. If there is any gap in the supply, it will
come in July or August, when the warm weather
causes the plants to run up to seed.

The third planting should be in the open border
about the middle of April, transplanting three inches
apart as soon as the plants crowd each other, and a
foot apart when the young plants again touch each
other. For the fourth planting, which will be out-
of-doors, use the " Hanson " lettuce, and this should
be sown by the tenth of May. Plant the " White Rus-
sian " on the first of June and twentieth of June. To
extend the season, plant the " Tennis Ball ' variety
again on the first of August, and for the last time
about the fifteenth of August. These last two plant-
ings will carry the crop well into October and keep
up the supply till the frost cuts the plants down.

42 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

•

The work of attending this series of crops is very
simple. On the day following every rain, break the
surface of the soil round the plants by raking it
lightly. A small steel rake, such as is often sold in
"children's sets" of tools, will be found useful. This
raking will also keep the weeds down, but if weeds
do appear, rake them up as soon as possible. In this
way all the hard work of hoeing will be saved. About
every two weeks through the season sow some com-
mercial fertilizer thinly over the surface of the ground
just before a rain, and rake the soil gently to cover it.
If very dry weather comes, shower the plants thor-
oughly on a bright sunny morning about twice a
week.

It will be seen that this is very high as well as
small culture, and it will be found to be very profit-
able. Such a little border should carry four crops of
at least five dozen heads each, and even at three cents
a head, should save $3.60 on your grocer's bill. Tri-
fling little return you think ? It is small, but the bed is
very small. It may cost a few moments' trouble, and
a little something for seed, soil, fertilizer, pots, etc.
It may even cost more than you get the first year, but
another season you should do much better. Try it
and you will be convinced that it will pay, because
the lettuce, with care, will be superior to any heads
you can buy at any price in the stores. Fresh lettuce
is one thing, store lettuce quite another.

If a little more space can be used, say one or two
square yards more, sow in the early spring seeds of
parsley. It will be very welcome to the house-mother
all through the latter half of the summer. To ex-
tend the season take up some of the best plants in
September, and they will grow in pots or boxes in a
sunny window well into December, and furnish flavor-
ing for soups, or dressing for fish. Another good

A DISH OF SALAD. 43

plan is to buy a package of any good celery seed
and to sow it thickly in rows about a foot apart. As
the young plants come up pull the larger ones as
you may wish them for the soup-pot. Even when the
plants are only a few inches high they make excel-
lent flavoring for soups. Another very useful plant is
the new Upland Cress. Sow half a paper broad-cast
in a little bed, and as fast as you want it for dressing
a dish of fish, pull up the larger plants. A little later,
cut off the larger leaves as wanted, A few of the plants
set out in the border in a row, and about eighteen
inches apart will extend the supply. The first sowing
should be in April and a second sowing late in May.

If the family is small and less lettuce is needed, it
will be a good plan to omit one row of the lettuce
next the fence, and to set out in April a pint of onion
sets. Plant them quite thickly, and by the first of
June they can be pulled as fast as wanted for soups
and stews. Pull every other one along the row, and
then every other one again. In this way, in the course
of a month, they will be slowly consumed, and those
that remain longest in the ground will have room to
grow. In crediting your garden with these small
"stew-greens," parsley, cress, onions and celery, find
out the price at the stores. They are usually sold in
mixed bunches, several kinds in a bunch, at from two
to five cents a bunch. These may seem trifles, yet
they will save many a trip to the store, and many an
odd penny that goes to make up a dollar, and help
wonderfully in piecing out a " picked-up dinner."

Another useful plant is the Fetticus or Corn Salad.
It can be sown early in the spring, and is ready for
the table in about six weeks. Another plan is to sow
it in rows a foot apart in September. When the
ground freezes it must be covered with leaves or straw,
and on approach of severe cold weather it must be

44

MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

covered six inches deep. It is uncovered early in the
spring, and is ready to cut in a very few weeks.

CHAPTER VIII.

OJBAT TO DO UJITf) A (fITY YARD.

1

1

m:

■■:A

IVEN a city lot and we have an
area of 25x100. The house occu-
pies usually about 40 of the 100
feet, leaving an open space in the
rear of 25x60. Here the weekly
wash must dry, and for this pur-
pose there must be grass. The
maid, when in the garden hanging out the clothes,
would be heavy of foot on lettuce or roses, and so it
usually happens the back yard produces nothing but
grass. The usual plan is to stretch the lines across
the yard from the fence, and, if the wash is large, the
whole of the line is occupied close up to the fences
on each side. This makes even a narrow border
round the edge of the yard almost useless, and neither
flowers nor vegetables are ever attempted. A better
way would be to measure off the first six feet of the
yard, next the house, for the whole width, and lay it
with brick or stone for a walk or out-door sitting-
room for summer evenings. Then lay off a space for
grass in the center 17x48 feet. This would leave a
border four feet wide on each side, and a border six
feet wide at the opposite end from the house. The
space in the center would be for the use of the maid
on Monday, and for a pleasant play-ground for the
children on other davs. It would be also a lawn and

WHAT TO DO WITH A CITY YARD. 45

a walk, from which to tend the borders. Instead of
carrying the clothes line to the fence, have a post at
each corner of the grass plot.

Too much trouble for a few heads of lettuce.
Think so ? Try it and you'll be glad you did try it.

Such an arrangement of a city yard would give
three borders, one 6x25, and two, each 4x48 = 534
square feet. If the wash '' is sent out," more space
could be gained by making the two side borders each
two feet wider. It would not be well to make them
wider than this, as six feet is about as far as you can
conveniently reach with a hoe or rake while standing
on the grass. Many city yards that I have seen in
New York are arranged in this way, except that there
is a stone-covered walk eighteen inches wide around
the grass plot, and leaving a very narrow border,
often only a foot and a half wide, next the fence or
three sides. Such a walk is a waste of room, for the
grass plot can be used for a walk at a wonderful gain
in comfort. No man has yet invented a carpet equal
to grass for feet weary of city side-walks.

City yards are often used for flowers or for a few
vegetables, and sometimes with ill success. There
are two reasons for this. One is that the soil is usu-
ally poor and thin or stiff with clay. You must have
good soil, and this is neither very difficult nor ex-
pensive to obtain, as is explained elsewhere between
these covers. The other reason is the want of sun-
light. The tall houses on every side cut off the direct
sunlight for a portion of the day. This is not a fatal
objection, if the right kind of plants are selected.
There are plants that will flourish in partial shade,
and by using these very nearly as good results can
be obtained as in the best country garden.

The first thing to consider is the aspect. Which is
the sunny end of the place, which the shady part ?

46 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

If the house is at the south end of the yard, its shadow
will be on the walk antl the warm sunny corners
will be at the opposite end of the yard. The plants
needing the most light will therefore go to the north
end. As the morning sun is better than the after-
noon sun, the west border (facing east) is the next
most valuable place. The aspect is, therefore, of
value in this order : First, the north border ; then the
west border, and, lastly, the east border. The north
border is best for tomatoes, cucumbers or melons,
the west for beets or carrots, and the east border for
celery or lettuce.

In such a very limited garden it will not be worth
while to attempt a great variety of plants. It is too
small to carry all that would be needed in a family of
live, and the best that can be done is to have a few
kinds only, and of these only those that will thrive in
partial shade. One of the first things to set out in
spring should be rhubarb. Six good roots planted
near the north end of the west border will be enough.
This is in the nature of a permanent plantation, and
once set will last for years. The roots must be bought
quite early in the spring when the rosy tips of* the
leaves are just showing above ground. The roots are
usually cut into small pieces, and they should stand
in the center of the border three feet apart. The
soil should be made as rich as possible before plant-
ing, good barn manure being best. If it cannot be
obtained, use commercial fertilizers at intervals dur-
ing the summer, as the plants grow. Set the roots in
the ground with the growing point just under the
surface. As the plants grow let them spread as they
will. Do not cut any of the stalks the first season.
When the flower stalks appear cut them off, as they
only tend to weaken the plants. Rake the soil round
the plants after every rain, or as often as weeds ap-

WHAT TO DO WITH A CITY YARD. 47

pear. The first crop of stalks can be taken off the
second spring. Pull them off with a sideways twist
to break the stalk close to the root. If convenient
cover the roots in the fall with coarse stable manure
and rake it off clean in the spring, as soon as the
frost leaves the ground.

If your space is crowded, a single row of lettuce
might be put in front of the rhubarb plants in the
spring, before the leaves begin to spread.

For the north end of the plot tomatoes will be use-
ful. Buy the plants already started in pots. Six or
seven plants can be placed at equal distances across
the end of the bed next the fence. As they grow, it
will be found a good plan to give them a large trellis
or guard for support. One good way is to support a
barrel hoop on three small stakes and to put the hoop
over the plants so that the heavy branches will spread
over and lean upon it, and carry the fruit above
the ground. Another good idea is to get two light
wooden strips and place one on each side of the six
plants and support them at each end with stakes
driven cross-wise into the ground. Several of
the seedsmen advertise a very good tomato trellis
hinged at the top, and ready for immediate use in
the garden. The main thing is to keep the heavy
branches off the ground, and a few sticks and a lit-
tle gumption will do it.

Tomatoes are very cheap and it might be said that
there are more profitable plants for a city lot. This
is true, and yet it will be found an advantage to cul-
tivate tomatoes, as the fruit is best when quite fresh.
In the early spring, while plants are small, the first
three feet of this border, next the grass, can be used
for lettuce, spinach or radish.

If preferred this warm border can be used for
cucumbers or melons (not both.) The cucumber is a

48 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

vine that can be easily trained on a trellis, and in a
garden where space is so valuable, it will be found a
good plan to set up a trellis of galvanized wire fence-
netting. It is about a yard wide, and only enough is
needed to reach across the lot. It should be sup-
ported on blocks from the fence to leave a few inches
clear space behind it. When the posts are on this side
of the fence it could be nailed to the posts. Six hills
of cucumbers planted close to the netting would fill
the space, and the young vines, when they are once
led up to the trellis, will quickly run all over it, bear-
ing their fruit and flowers in the air, instead of on
the ground in the usual way. The fruit will hang
from the vine and ripen on the fence just as well as
when lying on the ground. If there are more vines
than will fill the trellis, let them spread over the
ground in front of it.

The culture of the cucumber and its cousir.., the
melon, is very simple. Have the soil made rich and
soft, and sow about twent}' seeds in an open ring or
a circular patch and cover thinly with soil pressed
down firmly. As they appear, pull the weakest ones
out. Wait a week or ten days and then pull up all
except six in each hill or group. In this way the ex-
cess of plants serves as insurance against insects.
Some will be sure to be destroyed, and by having too
many the crop can be saved. The after-culture con-
sists in keeping the ground raked after rains till the
plants become so thick that nothing more can be
done. The vines should be examined every morning
and all the ripe fruit removed, as a single cucumber,
left to mature and ripen its seed will injure the
vine far more than two dozen cut when half grown.
The White Spine Cucumber will be found a good
standard kind.

It seems to be a law in plant growth that, if any

WHAT TO DO WITH A CITY , YARD, 49

plant is allowed to mature its fruit and perfect its
seeds, it iscontent and will make no special exertion
to bear more fruit that season. If its flowers or half-
ripe fruits are removed it endeavors to produce more.
If those in turn are taken away it will again flower,
and seek to produce fruit and seeds. This is very-
marked in the case of annuals, like the cucumber and
sweet pea. If the flowers are constantly cut, the
vine will bear a great many flowers and keep in
bloom for several weeks. If the first flowers mature,
and pods and seeds are allowed to ripen, the crop
of pea-blooms will be very small and the time of
blooming short. The more cucumbers you cut, the
more you will have. Better cut your cucumbers
every day and give them away, for the more you give
the more you will have to keep. Selfishness never
pays as a regular crop.

For the east or most shady border the best things
to grow are lettuce and celery. Two crops of lettuce
(see Chapter VII.) can be taken off the border before
the celery is put in. Buy the dwarf kinds of celery
plants of your seedsman, and set out the plants in a
single row, about ten inches apart, placing the row in
the middle of the border. The culture is very easy
when the one idea on which it is based is understood.
The celery is a plant that is greatly improved by
growing in the dark. The tough, green stems become
crisp and brittle in the shade, and any method by
which the stalks are protected from the light will
give good celery. A bunch of plants growing thickly
together in a mass, will so shade each other that
those in the center will be blanched naturally. The
most simple way to secure the blanched stems is to
cover them with earth. This is called "earthing" or
" bunching up," and it is nothing more then piling
the soil against the plants as they grow.

50 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN,

The young plants should be set out between the
sixteenth of July and the first of August, and for the
first month the culture consists in keeping the ground
loose and free from weeds. If the soil is very dry
and there is little rain, copious waterings twice a
week will be found useful, as the celery is by nature
a swamp-haunting plant and a great lover of water.
In ordinary seasons and in a clay or peaty soil water-
ing does not seem to be necessary. I have raised on
a clay soil fair crops without it, though I cannot say
how much better the result would have been if a hose
had been brought to help the hoe.

For about a month after setting the plants they
appear to stand still and to make no growth. They
are really extending their roots, and as soon as cool
weather comes in early October they grow rapidly.
As soon as this growth begins the first earthing-up
must be done. One way is to tie all the stems of a
plant together in a bunch, by tying a string just under
the leaves. Another plan is to simply bunch the
stems together with the hand while the soil on each
side is pulled up against the plants, to bury them
about half their length. Two weeks later more soil
is pressed up against the stems till only the tops are
visible, banking it up into place with the back of the
spade. The plan of tying together with a string is
best, as it can be done by a boy very quickly and
once tying saves all further handling of the plants,
and causes the center stems to blanch even before
covered with earth.

Another plan is to tie all the plants in a row and
then to set boards on edge close to the plants, one on
each side, and thus to exclude the light v/ithout earth-
ing up. The boards are easily kept in place by stakes
driven in the ground, and the boards tend to make
the plants taller as they stretch up to find the light.

WHAT TO DO WITH A CITY YARD. 51

The boards should lean against the plants, and may
be kept in place by simply piling the earth against
them. White Plume and Boston Market are good
white kinds, and New Rose a good crimson variety.

Another crop useful in such a small garden would
be spinach. Two sowings in the spring and one in
the fall would be best, as city yards are apt to be in-
tensely hot in the middle of the day through the
summer months. Either of the borders would do,
and the first sowing should come as early as the
weather will permit and the soil is dry. Make shal-
low drills in the soil with a hoe and scatter the seed
quite thickly. Cover it lightly and press the soil
down firm. The rows can be as close as the width of
your hoe. As soon as the plants are three or four
inches high, pull out the larger plants and send to
the cook. Two weeks later all can be gathered as
fast as wanted. In my garden in 1888 the first plant-
ing was made April i6th and the first crop was gath-
ered May 26th. Two crops of spinach can be taken
off before it is time to set out the celery. A fall crop
should be sown in any spare place that can be found
about September ist. This crop, too, can be planted
quite thick and two gatherings made, one to thin out
and the second to clear off what is left. Of course it
may happen that more can be gathered each time
than is wanted. The idea is simply to pick the
spinach twice during its growth, at such intervals
and in such quantities as may be needed. My fall
crop in 1887 was planted September 6th, and was all
consumed before the ground froze hard in November,
being gathered in all six times, giving about a peck
at each picking. In such a city-lot garden the whole
of one of the side borders would not be too much
space for fall spinach, two sowings being made, one
about August 15th and the second September ist.

53 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

Another good plan would be to plant in September,
thin out the plants and then to cover them over with
old hay or straw for the winter. The only objection
is the difficulty of getting suitable material to cover
the plants, and the litter it would make in a place
that the house-mother would prefer to see kept ex-
quisitely neat. You can't run a city lot like a market
garden, and the best plan is to consume the fall
spinach and not attempt to carry it over the winter.
The best variety to use here is the Savoy-leaved
Spinach.

In addition to these varieties of vegetables, rhubarb,
cucumber, tomato, celery, lettuce and spinach, some
space should be given to the small green crops, pars-
ley, cress, onion sets, etc., described in the preceding
chapter. These crops will pretty closely fill the three
borders, particularly as a liberal quantity of celery
and lettuce will be needed. One of the side borders
entirely devoted to celery will not be too much, as a
family of five can easily dispose of the six dozen
heads it will contain. The crop can be stored in the
cellar and kept for use through the early part of the
winter. With a little care the spinach crop can be
made to fill all gaps left by the removal of other
crops. Judicious crowding and double cropping are
essential in such a doyley garden as this.

A CITY FRUIT garden:

53

CHAPTER IX.

A CITY FRUIC GARDCn.

i

HERE are many small home
lots with excellent soil and
a good sunny aspect, where
the tenant or owner would
gladly have a garden were
there time to attend to it.
This spring work of plant-
ing, this weeding, raking,
re-planting and frequent
harvesting demands more
time than can be afforded. You are busy in town all
day, and it is only once in a while that half a day can
be spared for the garden. The 25x60 yard is there,
but it must be laid down to grass, because that
requires only one planting in several years, and the
mowing need only take an hour or so twice a month.
The grass is a cheap carpet on which to spread the
clothes, or it is the children's play-ground, and it is
not necessary to have it kept like a lawn.

Still, if it could be made to pay a return, it would
help wonderfully in the little matter of living ex-
penses. There are crops that would just meet your
wants, crops that require only one planting in two or
three years, and some that will even last half a life-
time. There is asparagus and rhubarb, and perhaps
some of the small fruits. In such a small garden it
would not be well to plant all the small fruits, be-
cause some kinds require too much room and show
an unruly spirit in the matter of running about the
estate. The fruits for your purposes would be the

54 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

Strawberry, currant and grape. These would give
something for the table from early summer till late in
the fall, excepting for about three weeks in August
and September._ This gap might be filled by rasp-
berries and blackberries, but these plants would be
unsuitable for so small a place.

In order to utilize your space to the utmost advan-
tage and to place 3'our crops in the best aspect, they
should be arranged in the following order : First
(supposing your plot to lie north and south) comes
the rhubarb at the north or warmest end, as it is the
first thing to start in the spring and needs the benefit
of the sun and shelter. Next, the asparagus, then
the strawberries, and, lastly, at the south or shady
end, the currants, as they will submit more gracefn.lly
to the shadows than any of the others. The grapes
will extend along the fence on each side. The ac-
companying diagram shows how the different crops
may be mapped out. At the northern end next the
fence is a bed three feet wide the whole width of the
lot. This will contain five plants of rhubarb. Two
paths, each two feet wide and placed three feet from
the side fences, give access to the other beds. Be-
tween the paths and next the rhubarb bed is a space
15x15 feet that may be set out as a permanent aspara-
gus bed, the plants standing in rows three feet apart.
Next to this is a space 15x25 feet that should be set
out with strawberry plants, placed one foot apart
each way, there being room for three hundred and
fifty plants. South of these is room for a dozen cur-'
rant bushes, in three rows of four each. At the sides
are the grape borders, three feet wide the whole
length of the lot, there being room for sixteen vines,
eight on each side.

This arrangement of the lot will give the greatest
space to the plants and the least trouble in caring for

A CITY FRUIT GARDEN.

55

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them, with
readyaccess
to all the
beds. Once
planted, the
rhubarband
aspa r agu s
will remain
for m a n y
years with-
out replant-
ing. The
grapes will
not require
re- planting
for at least
ten years,
and the cur-
rants will,
with care,
keepinbear-
ing about
six years.
The straw-
berries will
last two
years, and
with care
three years,
without re-
newal. By
using these
fruits we get
rid of a large
part of the
constant re-

56 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

planting of the vegetable garden, and the investment
once made pays its little dividends year after year.
Of course the first cost will be much greater than for
seeds, but this is offset by the fact that the invest-
ment is made for years instead of weeks. At the
regular catalogue rates the rhubarb will cost about
$i.oo ; 75 asparagus plants, $i.oo ; 350 straw^berries,
$10.50 ; 12 currants, $1.50, and 16 grape vines, $8.00.
This would be $22.00 for the whole. The labor of
planting, fertilizers and tools would be the only addi-
tional expense, and once set out all expense would
cease for at least two years, except the very slight
expense of keeping the place in good order. From
November 15th (in latitude of New York) to April
15th there would be absolutely no outlay whatever.
On the other hand, we must forego all returns till the
second year, and even then be content with only par-
tial returns from a portion of the in^^estment. On
the third year everything would pay a dividend, and
with the exception of the strawberries continue to
pay every year for at least three years, and for the
grapes, asparagus and rhubarb for from ten to twenty
years to come. It costs more at first, yet in the long
run the fruit garden pays as well, if not better, than
the kitchen garden.

The care and culture of such a handkerchief fruit
garden is simple and inexpensive, and when once
planted consists chiefly in keeping the ground clean
and open to the air. As in building a house, the first
care is to get a secure foundation, so in our fruit
garden the first consideration is the soil. It must be
good and it must be dry. A clay soil, where the rain
lingers on the surface after every shower, will never
do, and if there are little pools to be seen for an hour
or two after the rain has ceased to fall, the place
must be drained, or it is better not to plant anything.

A CITY FRUIT CARD EAT. 57

How your lot is to be drained depends on so many
things peculiar to your soil and location, that you
must trust wholly to yourself or some competent
neighbor who is familiar with the lay or slope of your
land and its immediate neighborhood. However, as
nearly all our city lots are carved out of fields and
orchards in suburbs and "additions," there is usually
no need of drainage. Besides, water in the soil is quite
as bad for you and your babies as for your plants, and
it is not to be presumed you would consent to buy
or build a house on wet land. As for the soil itself,
if not good, it can usually be made good by carting
in good soil from some field or pasture. Commonly,
in newly made districts in the borders of our towns
and cities, the soil is good enough for all practical
purposes. All that it will probably need will be
plenty of manure. Twenty-five dollars' worth will
be little enough, and if you can afford to spend twice
as much, it will not be too much. We are planting
now once for all, and by a liberal expenditure now,
money will be saved in the future. If you have pos-
session of the place in the fall, by all means have the
soil carefully spaded up and left rough through the
winter. By so doing, the soil is exposed to the frost
and air and broken up fine, and eggs of insects are
destroyed. All the plants, except the strawberries,
can be planted in the fall, but as there is a certain
amount of risk from injury by ice, it is better to
plant in the spring. The only advantage of faU
planting is the time gained, as every one is in a huri y
in the spring, and unless you give your orders early,
the plants may arrive late or in bad condition.

Let us look at each crop in detail for a moment.
The rhubarb will be the first thing to start in the
spring, and the roots must be set out as early as pos-
sible after the frost leaves the ground. For thi*^

58 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

reason it is perhaps better, if just as convenient, to
set this crop in the fall. The soil should be forked
up and made free from stones, and heavily manured.
If spread over the soil two or three inches deep, it
will not be too much, as this plant has a tremendous
appetite, and the bigger the dinner you give it, the
bigger the rhubarb pies it will give you. The plants
are mere clumps of fleshy roots and should be set at
equal distances across the end of the lot, and just
deep enough to have the top or crown covered about
three inches. Spread straw or manure over the surface
after the planting, and leave the bed till spring. If
planted in the spring, the roots must be obtained
very early and set in the ground with the deep red
buds just under the surface. The after-culture the
first year is to merely keep the weeds down, and there
is no better way to do this than to rake the soil over
lightly after every rain. When flower stalks appear,
cut them off as soon as they rise above the leaves.
In the fall spread more manure over the surface
around the plants, as soon as the leaves die and dis-
appear. The following spring the first crop of stalks
can be gathered. Do not be too greedy. Give the
plants a chance and gather only a few from each,
rather than a quantity from one. Two stalks from
each plant at a picking is enough, and once a week
through the season is all you should expect. After
that year perhaps twice as much can be taken every
year for many years to come. Take good care of the
plants, feed them well, and they will care for you and
supply perhaps the best early crop you can give to
the young folks round your table.

The asparagus bed needs a richer and deeper soil
than any other crop. There is little danger of plant-
ing in too rich a soil, for you must remember that
the bed is to be laid down once for all. and need not

A CITY FRUIT GARDEN. 59

bq re-planted for twenty years. Spring is the best
time to plant and the earlier the better, for the
asparagus is among the first to stir with life after the
frosts have gone. The roots should be carefully
plantied in rows three feet apart, taking pains to
spread them out carefully in a shallow trench, about
a foot apart in the rows and with the point of the
root buried about three inches. As soon as the shoots
appear above ground, keep the soil light and open
till the shoots begin to shade the ground with their
tall feathery plumes. The weeds will then die out in
the shade, and the last part of the season the bed will
require very little attention. Do not cut any stalks,
but let all grow as they will. Your object the first
year is to get good strong plants, and you must wait
till the following spring for the first dividends laid
on the dinner table.

Strawberries are also good eaters, and it will pay
well to treat them well. Your object is to obtain the
greatest possible return from the smallest space, and
to do this the best plan is to set the plants one foot
apart each way, covering the entire space between
the walks. As the plants are so near, you must not
trouble them to search for food. Each plant must
be so well fed that it is content to stay in its own
limited spot of soil and not send its roots wandering
off in search of something to eat. Neither must any
plant be allowed to send out runners. In June and
July, when runners appear, they must be rigorously
cut off. If taken in hand early, when the runners are
soft and green, they can be pulled off without trouble.
A girl of ten ought to keep all the runners down, by
going over the bed two or three times a week for
about a month. A narrow rake is the best tool to
keep the weeds down between the plants and to keep
the soil loose after rains. When the ground freezes

60 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

in December, the whole bed must be well covered
with leaves or straw. The following spring it should
be removed as soon as the frost is out of the ground,
and then be put about the plants when the crop be-
gins to ripen and again taken off after the crop is
gathered.

The twelve currants should stand in three rows,
about three feet apart and four in a row. The first
year all that is needed is good rich soil and constant
regular culture. In winter the plants take care of
themselves, and all that is needed is to leave the soil
loose and well broken up the last thing in the fall.
The second year a small sample crop may be gathered
just by way of encouragement. The third year the
bushes will bear abundantly. The bushes are greatly
benefitted by careful training. Cut out each spring
all stems that cross other stems or that crowd each
other, and all stems that show signs of decay or
injury from any cause. The chief object is to have
open, well shaped and rather short bushes with clean,
healthy stems and free from suckers or adventurous
shoots springing up round the roots. A single stem
with a branching head is perhaps the best form.

The grapes should be planted in the spring as
early as convenient, making good large holes in the
?oil to receive the roots, and. spreading each root
out carefully in its proper place. An entire book
might be written on the training of grapes. There
ire as many ways as there are varieties, and it will be
Si good plan to read some good book on the grape
and its culture before planting. The idea on which
ail systems of training the grape vine are based is
very simple. The fruit is borne on green wood of
the present season that grows out of ripe wood that
grew the previous season. Your object must always
be to have good ripe wood from which next year will

A CITY FRUIT GARDEN. 61

come the green shoots bearing the crop. Your young
plant will consist of a short stem with half a dozen
buds (more or less) and a bunch of roots. In the
spring nearly all of these buds will swell and send
out tender young shoots. Wait till all are firmly
started, and then with the fingers break off all but
the largest and best nearest the ground. Do not use
a knife, as the young plant may " bleed " or lose sap
and be injured. Then carefully train this one shoot
straight up the trellis or fence, tying it up as it grows
and letting it grow as long as it will. About the middle
of August pinch off the tip end of the growing shoot,
and the green wood will slowly harden or ^'grow
ripe" through the fall months. If side shoots start
out from this stem, pinch the tips of each as soon as
they appear to prevent them growing any longer.
Better one good, stout shoot or cane, thickly covered
with buds, than six poor, thin shoots with weak buds.
After the leaves fall, this shoot should be cut down
to about three feet from the ground. You now have
a short, stout cane, from which will spring next year
both fruit-bearing shoots and new canes for another
year.

Having obtained a good cane with a dozen buds,
any system of training may be followed that you
fancy. Permanent canes may be trained along the
bottom of the trellis, or spread over it in a fan-shape,
or in any other way you please, provided always there
is space between the canes for the new crop of wood
that bears the fruit crop. In such a small fruit garden
perhaps the best plan is to train up a single straight
cane to the top of the fence, and to keep it there year
after year. The bearing shoots will spread out three
feet on each side, and the eight vines on the fence
will cover all the wall space you have. The training
gf grape vines is an accomplishment well worth study-

63 AfY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

ing. It demands very little labor and gives an ad-
mirable chance to show that you are skillful at artistic
effects. Nothing is more pliable than a grape vine,
and with taste and a little patience your fence can be
made to produce a beautiful effect, to say nothing of
big crops. A neglected or ill-trained vine is simply
ugly and unproductive. A well-trained vine is both
a picture and a continued sourrce of pleasure. Even
in winter the well proportioned canes, neatly tied to
the trellis, can be made quite effective as a bit of wall
decoration.

This use of a city yard for a fruit garden costs more
at first than if the lot is used for a vegetable garden,
yet it pays quite as well, as the crops, when they do
come, are worth more and last longer. The whole
plantation is in the nature of a permanent investment
in pleasure and profit. The rhubarb, asparagus and
grapes will produce with care regular crops every
season for many years, and even the currants will not
require renewal more than once in ten years. The
strawberry bed will be the least permanent, as it
cannot be kept in good condition more than three or
four years. On the other hand, it is easily renewed
in one season and by a judicious system of re-plant-
ing not a single crop need be lost, though occasion-
ally only half a crop will be gathered, while a portion
of the bed is being renewed. The best way to do
this will be to dig up and throw away half the plants
as soon as the crop is gathered, and to re-plant the
ground in August. These plants will give a crop the
next year, when the rest of the old plants can be
renewed in the same way. It is the same with the
currants. As soon as the bushes begin to show signs
ot giving out, pull a part of them up and set new
plants. It will be found a good plan to put a few
cuttings in the ground each fall for new plants. In

THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.

63

a year they will be well rooted, and can be used to
take the place of any of the old plants that are worn
out or injured by insects.

CHAPTER X.

Ti)G mwum^vi OF

TRG mf)OLe mATTGR.

tqCTOBER days, and every gar-
den finds its crop of facts,
fruits and figures. My hand-
kerchief garden in this year
of grace, 1888, gave a variety
of good things each in its season, all
of which were eaten with a cheerful
spirit. And herewith are the facts
and figures. There were dry days
and wet, total failures and big suc-
cesses, weeds and bugs, lots of good,
hard work, and altogether a fair return for the labor
and money spent. Once or twice the crops overran
the home market. The Early Jersey Wakefield and
Early Summer cabbages ripened at about the same
time, the first heads coming July 15th and the last
being disposed of August 8th. A family of three can
hardly master twelve heads ripe at one time, and as
the industrious slug was always ready to lend a hand
a large part of the crop was sacrificed on the altar of
friendship. It was the same with cauliflowers.
Eighteen Early Snowballs at one time was a little

64 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN.

too much of a good thing, and the surplus was pre-
sented to appreciative neighbors.

Herein is one of the great advantages of a home
lot — it tends to cultivate a generous heart in the gar-
dener and a thankful spirit in his friends. You are
pretty sure to have at times more than you want, and
there is no better compliment to pay to a friend than
a basket of fresh vegetables, wet with the dew, and
right out of the home garden. People receive it with
an expression that seems to say, *' How very sweet in
you, to be sure," and back comes the basket with a
note of thanks calculated to fill the heart with the
conviction that the world is not all a hollow show
after all. There is one thing you can always present to
a lady, and that's a flower. Why not a cauliflower?
Is not a cabbage a green rose? Pull off the outer
petals till the white heart begins to shine, pack it in
a neat basket and send it to your friend's table. If
she's a housemother with a soul above Kensington
crewel she will say, and say truly, it is beautiful.
Green lawns and shrubbery have their own glory, but
there is also a glory of the cabbage patch and,
though *'the glory of one star" may not be "as the
glory of another star," who shall say which is the
greater glory ?

My home lot account was opened November ist,
1887. There were then on hand in the garden sixty-
four plants of the Jessie strawberry, worth say 64
cents, a lot of currant cuttings worth §1, tools, flower
pots and odd things worth $2, giving a stock on hand
to begin the year of $2.64. There was paid out be-
tween that time and September 5th, 1888, just $14.64.
Of this $4.40 was for 200 pounds of Mape's fertilizer,
$1.10 for materials for a cold frame covered with pro-
tective cloth and $1.75 for labor. Of course, if this
sum had been invested in vegetables it would have

THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 65

supplied the table for our small family for many-
weeks. Did it pay to spend it on the home lot?

The first return from the garden came on May 17th
For the first ten days radishes were the only cheering
thing to suggest the spring. Then the spinach began
on May 26th, and soon came in a flood. By the
first week in June young onions, beet tops and lettuce
began to add a pleasant variety. On the 17th peas
came also, and on the 23d strawberries. On the 24th
the first delicate heads of young cabbage, and two
days later the first potatoes. Beans and cauliflowers
welcomed July, and then there was more than the
home market could absorb. On the first day of
August the total receipts from the garden, at the
retail prices reported by The American Garden and
in the village stores, amounted to just $23.10, or $8.13
in money value over the cash cost.

Through August the crops kept the table supplied
with everything needed. Cucumbers came into bear-
ing on the first of the month, and tomatoes soon after.
On several days there were five kinds of vegetables
served at one meal. There were no days without
one, with two for an average. The crop of early
potatoes was very small — a practical failure — and as
there was no room for more, potatoes had to be pur-
chased again by the last of August. As it was, one
peck of choice potato seed supplied a crop that
carried the house for six weeks, this being a decided
failure. Turnips and beets did not do very well, ex-
cept a small lot of beets on trial Among the best
of the beets are the New Eclipse and the Early
Dewing. The seed was from Philadelphia, and the
beets proved of excellent quality. The Eclipse grew
to enormous size, and were of fine flavor. Of onions
a row of white silverskin onions proved to be of
medium size, but of fine quality ; name not known.

66 A/V HANDKERCHIEF CARD EX.

Cory corn was tried, but proved a total failure. Th
late crops of peas were also complete failures Ot
squashes I tried, at the request of The American
Garden, the Sibley Winter squash. It proved to be
a small smooth, pale gieen squash of superior flavor.
The plants were enormous growers, but the crop was
small and late. The Woodbury squash also proved
to be a vigorous plant, but with me a poor bearer,
one hill of four plants producing only three good
squashes, resembling in appearance a Hubbard squash.
A new red cabbage sent to me grew to a very great
size, with round, compact heads. So much for a few
experiments. A home lot always has its advantage —
it is at once school, experimental station and a source
of amusement. You never can tell how things will
turn out. The beautiful pictures of the seed cata-
logues are even more splendid in reality at times, and
then at times they lead to a high opinion of the lively
imagination of the artists. Even with the losses it
pays to try things, just for the sake of finding out for
yourself. However, if you are looking for profit and
not facts, don't do it.

After the first of June the home lot took very little
labor or time. A good raking of the ground once or
twice a week kept the soil in good order, and fifteen
minutes or less every morning served to gather the
crops. Up to September ist the garden had produced
crops valued at the retail price at $28.64. By the
middle of September, $36.79. There were then on
hand and unconsumed in the garden 200 good plants
of celery, which, at 8 cents each, would be $16, and
sundry other vegetables, including a large patch of
spinach, about $2 more. Among other things pro-
duced were ninety good yearling currant bushes and
about forty grape vines raised from cuttings. The
currants would cost at least 10 cents each were I to

THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 61

buy them for the new garden I propose to plant next
year, and this is a fair return from the garden of $9
The grape cuttings are also intended for the new
place and will save at least 10 cents each, as they are
all choice kinds, thus making a return of $4. These
things are as much a crop as cauliflowers. They save
buying plants next spring, and it is perfectly fair to
add them to the returns from the garden, Had they
not been wanted, of course the ground would have
produced some other crop of less or equal value.
The strawberry bed of sixty-four plants gave also 200
new plants, their value at i cent each being included
in the return from the garden.

The sixty-four Jessie strawberry plants in my
garden gave us, between June 21st and July 7th, just
23 quarts of very fine strawberries. The berries were
uniformly large, some of the very largest berries be-
ing picked in the last quart. The place is too shaded
for the best results, and I think with more sunshine
and a trifle more rain they would have done much
better. The flavor is '' piney," bright and spicy. We
bought no berries at the stores, as these were so fine.
I propagated extensively for a new plantation for
next year. I would decidedly recommend the Jessie
for small gardens and as a rather late crop. My
patch was entirely in hills, one foot apart each way,
and carried a crop of lettuce between the plants early
in the spring. Such close planting is a bit trouble-
some in gathering the crop, yet if you have only a
home lot it must be done where profit is to be re-
garded.

As a whole my particular home lot was a happy
one. Nearly everything bore fair crops, and at dif-
ferent times during the season my table was supplied
with the following fruits and vegetables : Strawber-
ries, radish, peas, spinach, onions, beans, lettuce, tur-

68 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN'.

nips, beets, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower,
Upland cress, chicory, potatoes, squashes, cucumbers
parsnips and celery. From a housekeeping point
of view really cheering ; from a financial point of
view quite as cheerful.

The grand total produced in the garden during the
season was $54.79 for fruit and vegetables actually
consumed. The season began with a stock on hand
of tools, plants, cuttings, etc., of $2.64. It ends with
a stock of ninety currants at ten cents, $9 ; forty
grapevines at ten cents, $4 ; 200 strawberry plants val-
ued at $2 ; tools, etc., $3 ; making a total of $18. This
is real profit, and should be credited to the garden,
for the new stock of plants helps to reduce the cost
of the new garden to be planted next year. My home
lot was a nursery as well as a garden, and returned a
nurseryman's profits, and the whole of his profits, be-
cause the stock if bought must be paid for at retail
prices.

Did the home lot pay? Was the return sufficient
for the labor? It was, and the garden did pay, be-
cause the time spent on it was odd time not available
for other work. Besides this, the work was a pleasure
and a sanitary measure, paying a big dividend in red
blood, sound sleep, a good appetite and a cheerful
spirit. If you have ever been sick and paid doctor's
bills you will know just what these things are worth
in hard cash. The cost in money was $14.64 and
about thirty days' labor between March and Novem-
ber. The entire return, including new stock valued
at $15, was $69.79. Taking cash spent from this leaves
$55-i5> or about $1.80 for each day's labor spent in
the garden. Of course if the labor had all been hired
at the regular rate here of $2 the garden would have
been carried on at a loss.

This brings the whole matter down to a business

THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 69

basis, where you can settle for yourself whether it
will pay you to have a home lot garden. Is your
time worth so much (and it will have to be worth a
good deal more than the average ) that your unem-
ployed minutes afternoons and before breakfast are
worth more than i8 cents an hour? If they are a
home lot will not pay you. If they are not, and if you
consider health, fresh and superior vegetable food
worth anything, then a home lot will pay you, as it
did me, big dividends. For the great majority of
families, particularly where there are young people
who can help out-of-doors, a home lot will make just
the difference between profit and loss, between money
in the savings bank and unpaid bills at the stores.
The home lot is the one reliable asset in your little
property that will neither fail, fly away to Canada
nor pass its dividends — the one partnership in which
you will always hold a controlling interest.

Look at it in any way you will, keep a garden for
pleasure or profit or health, you may set it down as
your personal as well as national duty to make the
most of the land that has been given to you. It is
my belief that every man who has a bit of land is
bound to consider it as a trust whereof he shall ren-
der account and wherewith he should do his best to
make the earth bring forth her increase for the benefit
of himself, his folks and the rest of the republic.

THE END.

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