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Show ; fr Backyard jps,- Gardener : W 1 By PATRICK DENTON Coplty Ns Service rZ Dunr.g this time of the ''ear. as I'm planning our l !J.Tiily's various garden -m ds in rr.y garden journal, -j '. Srd it a great help to lock it ev "idea" pages which xcuji Dotations of pleas-:g pleas-:g plantings that I've seen HI d someone else's garden. id a picture or a display I- ji-dea Then, as Tm drawing or nur.g up the plantings for liferent sections of the - garden. I can incorporate 'srae of these ideas right ' into my plans for this year. . Some of these are: a bed " f light pink astilbes and 3 :e candytuft. Dark Opal tea with white and red fi- brous begonias: a bed of ' ;'psrple petunias, dotted 4 ' r.-Ji red geranium accent l' Plants and edged with Lemon Drop marigolds; t blue salvia edged with ) 4 iarf yellow marigolds; . L sweet peas edged with an-; an-; 'iiial baby's breath. J J-, Of course, a gardener's J choices of flowers is a highly personalized one. I can only say what would please me in such a situation situa-tion and there's no substitute substi-tute for the property owner going out himself and scouting out what sorts of shapes and colors give him pleasure. When drawing up a plan for a vegetable garden, sketch first the area and mark the north, south, east and west sides. Then, alongside the sketch of the bed make a list of the vegetables vege-tables you wish to grow, in order of preference. Now you are ready to sketch in blocks of plantings. plant-ings. If you are starting a new garden, the first thing to think about are the permanent per-manent plantings like asparagus as-paragus and rhubarb. If you wish to incorporate incorpo-rate any of these into your edible garden plan, then they should be sketched in along an edge of the plot, where they can remain un-disturbed. un-disturbed. Asparagus should be given full sun, while the rhubarb will tolerate tol-erate some shade. Plan garden on paper first But as for any permanent perma-nent plantings, the soil where they will be planted must be deeply dug and well enriched with manure, compost, any rich organic matter you can get your hands on. Next, turn your attention to the taller of the vegetables vegeta-bles you have chosen the corn, pole beans, trellised cucumbers and staked tomatoes. to-matoes. These should be placed at the north end of the vegetable bed, where they won't shade the other vegetables. Sketch in a block of short rows of corn rather than long rows, for good pollination pollina-tion and full cobs. If you have a wide plot, you might plant several rows of corn over just half the width, the other half being filled with two or three tepees of pole bean plantings plant-ings (or two rows of staked tomatoes). I like to plant my rows running east and west, contrary con-trary to most directions given in garden books. I feel the plants receive het- ter sunlight exposure when the rows follow the path of the sun as it rolls across the sky from east to west each day. As you move from the north end of your plan down toward the south end, you will be incorporating blocks of your favorite vegetables. Try to keep the root vegetables together, the peas and beans together, togeth-er, and the pabbage family vegetables together, as this facilitates rotation of these crops for best use of soil nutrients. At the southern edge of the vegetable garden you may wish to set the whole thing off with a flower border, bor-der, or a border of herbs, which can also be very decorative. dec-orative. Every year I. plant a good part of my glad collection col-lection in a couple of rows within the vegetable patch and from these I harvest my flowers for indoor arrangements, ar-rangements, rather than stripping an ornamental bed out front. |
