OCR Text |
Show Grow Your Plants in Box or Hotbed Gardeners Find It Pays to Have Supply for Their Own Use. Prices of vegetables on the market are always higher in the spring of the year while certain of the most sought-after sought-after kinds are still scarce. This is especially true of the crops classed as greens and salads, because everybody seems to need more of this kind of food in the spring, and, therefore, these vegetables find ready sale. The home gardener can save this much by having his own crops coming on early. To do this it may be necessary to start some of the plants in a window box in the house and to have a small coldframe along the south side of the garage or in some other well protected place where both the early crops and the early plants for setting in the garden gar-den may be grown. Lettuce, radishes and beets can be grown right in the fi-ame while plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, are being prepared for setting in the open. Very little can be gained by starting beet plants in the hotbed or coldframe; however, some gardeners make a fair success of growing early beet plants in the hotbed then transplanting them to the open ground. In the opinion of the United States Department of Agriculture, the important point, however, how-ever, In having an early garden is to have thoroughly prepared the soil In the fall so that it will dry out quickly in the spring and be In shape for planting plant-ing just as soon as the frost is out of the ground. Among the crops that can be planted extremely early in the open ground are potatoes, peas, radishes, beets, onions, spinach and the so-called frostproof cabbage plants, which after all, are nothing more than ordinary cabbage plants that have been grown in the open and well hardened to withstand the cold blasts of early springtime. In some places lettuce, spinach and onions can be properly planted in the fall and will mature very quickly when the first warm days of spring appear. It ls really not safe to plant beans and other of the more tender crops until the soil is thoroughly warm and Tools for Use in Hotbed. all danger of frost is past and yet a small packet of seed costs very little and it is worth the hazarl of planting them early. Every garden of any s-'ze should have in it a patch cf asparagus as the tender shoots of this permanent vegetable vege-table are among the first of the green growth that appears in the spring. In addition, the asparagus bed does not have to be planted but once in 10 or 15 years, if given the proper care and treatment. Early crops in the garden pay best, because they yield a supply of fresh vegetables when most needed and when they cost most in the grocery. |