Make Your Garden Feed You
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When the various plots are being cleared it will be found that there are two different kinds of refuse. Some of it, like cabbage stumps, does not rot down, but much is soft and succulent and decays rapidly. The former should be consigned to the bonfire—the resulting ashes are extremely useful—but the latter should be stacked. There are two ways of doing this. A heap can be formed on the ground surface, or a hole can be dug and the soft material thrown therein. A 6 ft. by 5 ft. area provides a suitable place, and it is suggested that as there is usually a considerable quantity of refuse to deal with, a pit should be dug.
As the refuse is gathered—surface-rooting weeds, turnip and carrot-tops and the like—it should be deposited in the pit, and now and again a few shovelsful of soil should be scattered on top. In the ordinary garden it is possible to improve the compost greatly by throwing on all the household “ slops,” including soapy water, but this is not a practical suggestion when the allotment is some distance from the house. To obviate any unpleasant odour a little lime may be scattered over the refuse occasionally.
SUBSTITUTES FOR FARMYARD MANURE
One of the best substitutes for farmyard manure is hop manure. There are numerous proprietary manures of this description; all have spent hops as the basis (these supply humus) together with various chemicals. They are excellent, while they are easy and clean to handle and apply. They should be used at the rate advised by the vendors.
Many different kinds of organic refuse are converted into manure. They include shoddy, leather dust, damaged cattle cakes, rape dust, cotton-seed dust, feather waste, hair waste, hoof and horn waste, and so on. The amateur gardener should make inquiries in his own district concerning whether any of these are obtainable. If so they should be applied and dug into the soil in the autumn or winter in the same way as natural manure and at the same rate—three barrowloads to the rod.
Those who live near a large town or in a city may be able to obtain regular supplies of sewage. The solid matter is extracted and usually mixed with lime, alumina, and other chemicals and disposed of to agriculturists. It is usually obtainable in two forms—sludge which is something like soft clay, or dried and ground into a fine powder. The former is the better. It should be applied at the rate of 4 cwt. to the rod and dug in during the winter, preferably after it has lain on the surface for a short time and been subjected to a few frosts.
Gardeners living at the seaside may be able to collect seaweed. This is excellent and about equal in value to farmyard manure. It should be stacked up and allowed to rot down. Apply and dig into the soil in the autumn or winter.
GREEN MANURING
Green manuring is a highly satisfactory way of increasing the fertility of the soil and increasing its humus content. It can, however, be practised to only a limited extent in the garden or on the allotment, since it implies leaving the ground vacant for eight to ten weeks. If you are making a new allotment, however, where the ground is not particularly rich and planting or sowing is not to be carried out for a while, green manuring is recommended.
The surface of the area should be reduced to as fine a tilth as possible, mustard seed broadcast thickly (this must not be confused with the mustard of mustard and cress, for it is the agricultural variety), and in seven or eight weeks the resulting crop should be rolled or trodden flat and then dug well down into the land and covered with a good layer of soil.
ARTIFICIAL MANURES AND CHEMICAL FERTILISERS
Artificial manures can be divided into two classes. Some of them are slow-acting and this necessitates their being dug into the soil in the autumn or winter, while others are quick-acting and these are applied during the growing period.
Among the slow-acting chemicals basic slag, steamed bone-meal, and bone-meal provide phosphates, and kainit and sulphate of potash supply potash. These chemicals should be scattered over the surface of the soil after digging is completed and then pricked in with a fork so that they are mixed with the top two or three inches of soil.
Of the. quick-acting artificials, superphosphate of lime supplies phosphates, sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda are nitrogenous foods, and guano is a good fertiliser.
The rate at which these chemicals should be applied and the crops for which they are most suitable, together with general mixtures which can be prepared at home, are detailed later under the various crop headings.
SOOT DETERS INSECT PESTS
Soot is valuable as a plant food, is a grand deterrent to insect pests, and is also a heavy-soil lightener. It contains a fair quantity of potash, and it may be dug into the soil in the autumn or used as a top-dressing during the spring and summer. Fresh soot should not be used, however; it should first be stored for a couple of months.
TO MAKE AND USE LIQUID MANURE
Liquid manure is beneficial to a number of vegetable crops. This does not refer to the liquid excreted by animals, but consists of a solution of the soluble ingredients of different natural manures. Horse droppings, cow and pig manures, poultry and rabbit manure can all be used. A bushel of the available natural manure, or a mixture of them, is placed into a sack and suspended in a barrel of water. In a few days the water may be used, but it must be diluted first so that it assumes the colour of weak tea. As some of the liquid is taken out plain water should be added. After a time, when the strength of the manure water is becoming weak, the sack may be squeezed against the side of the barrel. This extracts the remainder of the soluble plant food.
Soot water can be made in the same way, but if the garden is only a fairly small one it is usually more practical to use one-half natural manure and one-half soot together.
LIME AND LIMING
Lime must be present in the soil; it neutralises acidity or sourness, it helps to break up stiff clay and to bind very light soil. It is a plant food, but it plays a much more important part than providing nutriment. It sets free food matter from the humus and it helps bacteria in their work of converting insoluble plant food into a soluble form. It is also a soil tonic, for it makes the land a healthy place in which the plants can grow steadily, and helps to prevent disease.
As a general rule lime should be applied every third year, but never at the same time as natural manure.
Lime can be obtained in many different forms. The following are all satisfactory :
1. Chalk, broken into small pieces and dug in at the rate of 1 lb. per square yard.
2. Gas lime. This should be weathered for three or four weeks by exposure to the air, scattered on the surface at the rate of 1 lb. per square yard, and dug in.
3. Ground lime, which should be distributed over the surface after digging, using 1/2 lb. per square yard.
4. Limestone, which should be used as chalk.
5. Quicklime. This must be stacked in small heaps and slaked ; then it should be scattered all over the surface at the rate of 1/2 lb. per square yard, and dug in.
6. Slaked lime. This should be evenly distributed, using 1 lb. per square yard, and dug in.
Do not bury lime deeply. It tends to sink through the soil, so it should just be pricked into the top two or three inches.
If a three-year cropping plan1 is adopted, one plot should be given a full dressing of natural manure or a manure substitute, the second plot a half-dressing and the third plot left unmanured each year. The lime should be applied to the unmanured plot—that is once every three years.
1 See page 77.
2 See page 18.
1 See page 2.
THE VEGETABLE BEDS
NOTE.—For every vegetable there are dozens of named varieties, all of them very nearly equally excellent provided they are properly handled and given the conditions they need. Moreover, every gardener with the smallest experience has his own favourites, knowing very well which varieties he considers give the best results. Particular varieties, therefore, are not, in general, given here, and any gardener desiring information on this point should take the advice of his seed merchant.
SOME vegetables are best sown where they will come to maturity; others should be sown in a seed-bed. The former include the root crops, peas, beans, lettuce, spinach and the like. The cabbage family—a term which comprises cabbages, cauliflowers, savoys, brussels sprouts, broccoli and kale—should always be sown in a special seed-bed and transplanted later when weather permits and space can be found for them in the plot allotted to them.
All members of the cabbage family, with the one exception of kale, are very greedy feeders. They require a large quantity of food and this you have to supply. The plot should be deeply dug and liberally manured. If you can get stable manure, work three barrowloads into every thirty square yards; that is, twelve barrowloads into plot I, but omitting the strip to be planted with kale. You will have to feed the plants somehow or other, so if stable manure is short use well-decayed garden refuse from the compost heap. The plants will require extra nourishment, but the chemicals to use are given under the various crop headings.
In every case the right amount of seed to sow is 1/2 oz. for each 42-ft. row, so how much you have to buy depends upon the number of rows to be planted. To save you figuring this out, the necessary quantity is given for each green crop. You can make do with slightly less, so if your rows are only 25 ft. long, 1/8 oz. of seed will see you through.
FROM SEED-BED TO PLOT
When the seedlings are large enough to handle safely, or when the site is vacant, they must be transferred to their permanent quarters. This planting-out is a simple enough job, but do see that you do it correctly,1 because such a lot depends upon your adopting the correct procedure.
But there is a special task to be performed when transplanting members of the cabbage family. All of them are subject to two diseases—the cabbage maggot and club-root. You must examine every individual root before it is transplanted. If the root is knobbly, one of the knobs should be cut open. If the trouble is due to the presence of a maggot this will be seen—it is whitish-grey in colour. Burn all plants with such knobs and dip the roots of the remainder into a paint-like mixture of clay, water, and a little carbolic acid.
If there is no maggot it is a case of club-root. Again, burn all the plants with knobbly roots and dip the others into a mixture of soot, lime, and clay, mixed with water.
Give the plot a good dusting with lime and fork this lightly into the top 2 in. of surface soil—an excellent preventive.
CAULIFLOWERS AND CABBAGES
BROCCOLI.—This crop may be regarded as a winter edition of the cauliflower because it is in season from October onwards. As some of the summer cauliflowers may not mature so rapidly as the bulk of them, one row of broccoli with its 28 plants (2 ft. apart) is all that should be required. The same quantity of seed—1/4 oz.—is needed, this being sown in the seed-bed during the first half of April.
The soil, as for cauliflowers, should be deeply dug and well manured in the autumn or winter, and before planting out the young plants the soil should be firmed and the top 2 in, loosened. If the soil is poor apply superphosphates, 11/2 oz. and sulphate of potash, 1/2 oz., to the square yard. As a generarule, it is not necessary to feed broccoli during the growing period, as they should be encouraged to grow on steadily without forcing so that large curds are formed by October.
In a normal winter we seldom get any severe frosts before the turn of the year, so the curds are not likely to suffer; but should it happen that there is a very cold spell one or two leaves should be broken over. After Christmas, if there are still some good plants left and the weather is frosty, they should be lifted, roots and all, and hung upside down in the shed, where they will keep until required.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS FROM SEPTEMBER TO MARCH
BRUSSELS SPROUTS.—Brussels sprouts are so popular and their cropping season is such a long one—from September onwards, often right on into March—that it is suggested there should be three rows. As there should be 2 ft. between the plants, 1/2 oz. of seed sown in the seed-bed during the first or second week of April will provide plenty of picked plants for transplanting later on.
The site should be deeply dug and well manured previously, but before planting the soil should be firmed and then the top 2 in. loosened with the fork. If the soil is on the poor side, dress as for early savoys with superphosphates and sulphate of potash, and feed in monthly instalments afterwards with sulphate of ammonia, 1/2 oz. per square yard.
These plants grow to a considerable size and they must be visited frequently to pick the buttons, so there should be 21/4 ft. between the rows.
SUMMER CABBAGES.—If you live in a favoured district and the seed-bed is particularly well protected from north and east winds, you can sow cabbage seed towards the end of March, but it is usually necessary to wait for the first opportunity when soil and weather conditions permit during the first half of April. For the two rows 1/2 oz. of seed will prove ample.
Cabbages, in fact all members of the same family, thrive well on any garden soil, but if yours should happen to be very heavy and rather damp you can improve it greatly by working in some leaf-mould, road grit, sand or other lightening material.
If you have an idea that the soil is not particularly good—if, for instance, the site was not manured or given a dressing of decayed vegetable refuse in the autumn or winter—or if the allotment is a new one, dress the plot with a mixture of basic slag, 3 parts by weight and kainit, 11
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