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Show U-6ardens on Home Front Sufficient Vegetables Can Be Raised for Entire Family on Small, Fertile Sites Beginners Told to Plan Plots Before Starting Seeding However Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini may be kept guessing about Allied offensives offen-sives on the fighting fronts of the world, they can just as well be told right now that there is no secret about one of America's great drives on the home front. It's the Victory Vic-tory Garden campaign, already al-ready under way and expected expect-ed to set a national record for home food production. When a national poll late last month reported that 54 per cent of the citizens interviewed inter-viewed were intending to grow gardens this year, newspaper readers of the country became be-came aware of the proportions propor-tions of this home-front offensive. offen-sive. By January, however, it was no news to the government's govern-ment's garden promoters that a 1943 bumper crop of home gardeners was in sight. They were already swamped with popular demands for how-to-go-about-it information and were meeting them with news releases, radio programs, pro-grams, photographs and a special 1943 edition of a publication pub-lication called "Victory Gardens." Gar-dens." The gaiden authorities had seen . what happened in 1942 when an estimated es-timated 15,000,000 Victory Gardeners Garden-ers shouldered spades and hoes. Since then they had seen the national nation-al food situation change until by the beginning of 1943 the department of agriculture was saying: "The nation na-tion needs the help of everyone who can grow a good garden." Will Educate Gardeners The department of agriculture, it may be reported, was precise in making its appeal to everyone who can grow a good garden. Getting good gardens from inexperienced i' gardeners thus became one of the department's war concerns. Fortunately, Fortu-nately, its bureau of plant industry, in the agricultural research administration, admin-istration, has been dealing with this same problem in normal dimensions for many years, and was all set to meet the demands for information as they might arise. . It is impossible, of course, to avoid thinnings of some vegetables. Small seeds like those of carrots, collards, onion, parsnips, spinach, and turnips tur-nips must be sown three or four times as thick as the plants will eventually grow, because many i seeds fail to grow well. Surplus seedlings then have to be thinned out before the plants crowd each other. When the inexperienced gardener begins to worry about not planting I his seed too deep or too shallow, too early or too late, and realizes the many other details that have to be kept in mind, he will appreciate truly the helpfulness of such publications publi-cations as the department of agriculture's agri-culture's "Victory , Gardens" and the other free bulletins that can be obtained from the government and from state agricultural colleges and extension services. Most valuable of all to him will probably be the one published nearest to his home, for from it he can obtain most specific information on the times of planting ' and on the varieties of vegetables best adapted to his locality. With such aids, 18,000,000 Americans Amer-icans and their helpers are this year expected to plant Victory Gardens Gar-dens 6,000,000 of them on farms, the rest in their backyards, on vacant h T- ' - .... .-. . .-..a . - I Run Rows Long Way. i t v , "5 Variety for Everybody. lots, or in community Victory Gardens. Gar-dens. With the seed sown and the tomato and cabbage plants set out, they will still have to face the Axis agents known to gardeners as weeds, insects, and diseases. But they will know at least that their own home-front home-front offensive is under way and that the seeds of Victory are in the ground. The gist of garden fundamentals has by now been reduced to terms so simple that they make gardening seem easier than it really is so easy in fact that a great emphasis has been put on perseverance. No one reading how-to-do-it garden instructions, in-structions, it is pointed out repeatedly, repeat-edly, should set his foot to the spade unless he is determined to stay by his job without wasting seed, fertilizer, ferti-lizer, or effort. The first requirement that the new gardener will find in the specifications speci-fications written by the experts is for a garden spot that is both sunny and fertile. And for his help .in judging fertility he is given the rule-of -thumb : "If the weeds grow rank, the soil is fertile." Good soil, moisture and sunshine are three essentials. If they are missing, no gardener can expect to grow enough crops to justify his use of seed, fertilizer fer-tilizer and effort. The home gardener this year is advised to grow just as nearly all the fresh vegetables for his family as he possibly can. A garden 50 feet by 100 feet tended and kept growing all season is, for example, expected to produce enough vegetables vege-tables to give each member' of a family of five at least three servings a day, which comes about as close to providing the needed four to seven daily servings of fruits and vegetables vegeta-bles as many gardeners can come. Smallest garden size for which a garden plan is suggested by the department de-partment of agriculture is 30 by 50 feet, but even smaller areas will grow a worthwhile crop of tomatoes and a few other crops, if greater space cannot be obtained. Choose Vegetables You Like With the area located, the Victory Gardener's next step is putting the garden on paper, an exercise not only interesting but also especially helpful for the inexperienced. Arranging Ar-ranging the garden properly includes in-cludes attention to a few general principles. Rows, for example, should not run up and down hill if the garden slopes very much, but if the area is level the rows should run the long way for convenience. First plantings are generally best placed along the south or east side of the garden, with later crops being sown progressively across the area, and whenever .possible the tall growing grow-ing plants should be on the west or north side of the garden so they will not shade other plants. The main item in planning a garden gar-den is, of course, choosing what to plant. One thing is certain. There is little to be gained in growing vegetables that the family does not like, but within the family taste there are many garden products from which to choose. Green leafy vegetables leaf lettuce, cabbage, spinach, chard, collards, kale, and turnip greens should be well represented rep-resented in every garden. Tomatoes Toma-toes and beans are also likely to be grown generally. All these are rich in vitamins. Potatoes and corn are among the best energy foods, but they require considerable space and are thus not recommended for very small gardens, which should specialize special-ize on the valuable vitamin, or protective, pro-tective, vegetables. No garden plan, of course, is suitable suit-able for all tastes or all localities, but an example of one balanced garden gar-den is provided by Dr. Victor H. Boswell in his "Victory Gardens." For the 30 by 50 "very small garden," gar-den," Dr. Boswell suggests 13 vegetables vege-tables planted in 14 rows. Those planted in spring include two 50-foot rows of pole snap beans, two rows of pole lima beans, two rows of tomatoes, toma-toes, half a row of lettuce, half a row of chard, and one row each of beets, carrots, turnips, cabbage, onions, on-ions, radishes, and spinach. When these are harvested, the "succession" "succes-sion" crops include two rows of collards col-lards as well as later plantings of the other vegetables. Need Only Four Tools Inevitably, gardening on paper leads to the real thing, and that means tools. Fortunately, however, at a time when metal is scarce, nothing elaborate is needed. There are many garden implements, but four of them will serve all purposes very well a spade or spading fork, a steel rake, a common hoe, and a strong cord. Spading can start as soon as the land is sufficiently dry in spring and the garden has been cleared of debris. de-bris. Eight to ten inches is a good depth for spading if the top soil is deep. On thin layers of top soil experienced ex-perienced gardeners are careful not to turn up too much of the infertile subsoil. To increase the soil's fertility, fer-tility, the spader should mix in some well-rotted leafmold, manure, or other oth-er decayed organic matter if these fertilizers are available. Every 25 square feet of the garden can well take as much as a bushel. Commercial Commer-cial fertilizer will also be needed on most gardens, but its application can best be delayed until after the spaded clods have been broken up and the whole garden worked up with the rake and smoothed out for planting. Then the fertilizer is applied ap-plied in bands along the planted rows. This year Victory Gardeners will have a special fertilizer with 3 per cent nitrogen (about 85 per cent of it organic), together with 8 per cent of phosphoric acid and 7 per cent potash. Described as the best formula for-mula that can be made available to victory gardeners during the wartime war-time emergency, when war calls for so much chemical nitrogen, this 3-8-7 mixture comes in packages of 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 pounds net weight, labeled "Victory Gardener Fertilizer Fertiliz-er for Food Production Only." This fertilizer is best applied along the garden rows in a band about three or four inches wide, about two inches from the line where the seeds will be sown or the plants set. A wide furrow about two inches deep is scooped out with the hoe. The fertilizer is spread uniformly along this furrow, at the rate of 1 pound per 24 or 25 feet or row, mixed with the soil, and covered about two inches deep. It should not touch the seed. Broadcasting fertilizer is easier than applying it in bands, but unless the rows are very close the broadcasting brings less efficient results. re-sults. If the Victory Garden fertilizer fer-tilizer is broadcast, it should be used at the rate of three or four pounds per 100 square feet and then mixed thoroughly with the soil. Don't Sow Too Thick Common to all gardeners at planting plant-ing time is the danger of sowing seed too thickly a mistake that is wasteful not only of precious seed but also of time. For seed that is sown wastefully produces seedlings that must later be thinned at the expense of time and sometimes backaches. Bean and pea seeds should be spaced as the plants are expected to stand, for these vegetables should never be thinned in the rows. Beet and chard "seeds" are really fruits containing several seeds and should thus be sown no thicker than the plants are to stand, although some thinning will be needed. Cabbage and tomato and onion plants and onion sets are also placed where they will remain. Plants Should Be Spaced. |