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Show Save Work by Planning Layout of Freedom Garden I -vftl V ' C arden Bows Should Be Straight and Parallel for Efficient Production. When vegetables or flowers are g.-own in rows, every five minutes you spend in making the rows straight, parallel, and the whole layout square and precise will save an hour in the work of caring for the garden later on. Payment in pride will be even g.-eater, since an orderly garden is pleasant to work in, and to show your neighbors. An exception to the rule for straight rows may be made in hilly country, where the wash of soil may be checked, by contour planting. Here rows should run at right angles to the slope, but they should still be parallel, though on rounded slopes they will be curved. Serpentine, slanting or uneven rows will double the work of cultivation, culti-vation, and give an appearance of incompetence to the garden. Rows are spaced with varying distances between them, depending on two factors: The needs of the crop, and the convenience of cultivation. culti-vation. In rich soil vegetables may be spaced more closely than in poor; but when spaced too close together, it is difficult to cultivate between the rows. For crops growing twelve Inches tall or less, rows may be spaced 10 inches to a foot apart and cultivated culti-vated with hand tools. For cultivation culti-vation with a wheel hoe, eighteen inches is likely to be found a minimum mini-mum distance, since it is necessary to avoid disturbing the roots of the vegetables, whatever tool is used. Taller vegetables, and those that make vines, large bushes, or have a sprawling habit, must be given more distance between rows. In small gardens, 4 feet will usually be the maximum distance, given ' only for such crops as bush squash and cucumbers. First, decide on the crops you will grow, which should be those that your family likes, or ought to like. Next, determine the quantity of each which you will try to produce, pro-duce, which should be the amount you will eat in the fresh state, plus what you will put up for next winter. win-ter. In the case of the short-harvest crops, plan for several plantings of each, spaced so that one harvest will follow another throughout the season. Having prepared your production schedule, make a simple plan of your garden and proceed to lay it out accurately before beginning to sow. This plan should be kept through the season, to guide you in second plantings, and enable you to note upon it errors in planning you may have committed, and which can be corrected another year. |