One way to save space is by means of succession crops. On our plan we use the letters "f.b." meaning "followed by. For example, the first row at the west end of our garden this year will produce an early crop of peas to be followed by a late summer crop of beets and carrots. The earlier crop of beets and carrots will be grown near the middle of the garden where no succession crop will follow them because, by the time they have been pulled and eaten, the vines of the squash and muskmelon in the adjacent row will be spreading over the space they occupied.
Although it has not been shown on the plan, a third sowing of beets and carrots will probably follow either the potatoes or the earlier planting of sweet corn. Companion crops afford a third means of conserving space. They involve nothing more complicated than raising two or more crops simultaneously in the same row. The classic example practiced by many generations of our ancestors was growing pumpkins in the cornfield. In our plan, we intend to raise radishes between the cucumber plants.
There will be several successive sowings of the radishes in that row because we do not use many at a time. In the row reserved for parsley, lettuce and peppers, we shall be able to use the portion of the row intended for peppers for a very early crop of 'Bibb' lettuce since the lettuce will have matured and been eaten before it is safe to set out the pepper plants in early June. In our third of the row actually reserved for lettuce, we shall make several sowings at different times. When we thin the lettuce we shall, as usual, transplant many of the surplus little plants to available open spaces in any other rows, as between cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts plants or even between strawberry plants and almost certainly in one of the early potato rows.
Companion Crops
Perhaps the best example of companion crops shown on the plan is the one devoted to pole lima beans and tomatoes. The hills of pole beans will be planted six feet apart to leave space for one tomato plant between each two bean hills. The tomato plants seem to be benefited, rather than otherwise, by the slight shade cast by the vine clad bean poles in mid-summer.
People seem to be obsessed by a sort of mania for setting out too many tomato plants without even doing a little garden planning. Whether it is because, having successfully started 30 or 40 plants indoors or having bought a bundle of 25, they cannot bear to discard any of them, I do not know. Like everybody else, we used to plant a couple of rows in addition in our vegetable garden. But gradually we have cut down until last summer we had only ten plants. This year we shall have just six, yet I expect we'll still have too few tomatoes at the start of the season and a surplus from then on!
The best way to eat tomatoes is right out in the garden while they are warm from the sun. Don't smoke while working around tomato plants and, if you have been smoking, wash your hands before touching the vines to avoid the possibility of introducing a mosaic disease. Also, do not plant tomatoes within 40 or 50 feet of a black walnut tree.
Another method we have used to conserve space is to plant double rows of beans. By sowing two rows just far enough apart to permit hand cultivation between them for two or three weeks not over ten inches but leaving the customary 30 inches between each pair of rows, quantities of beans can be produced on a small area. Presumably the same method could be applied to dwarf peas, although we have not tried it.
Although it has not been shown on the plan, a third sowing of beets and carrots will probably follow either the potatoes or the earlier planting of sweet corn. Companion crops afford a third means of conserving space. They involve nothing more complicated than raising two or more crops simultaneously in the same row. The classic example practiced by many generations of our ancestors was growing pumpkins in the cornfield. In our plan, we intend to raise radishes between the cucumber plants.
There will be several successive sowings of the radishes in that row because we do not use many at a time. In the row reserved for parsley, lettuce and peppers, we shall be able to use the portion of the row intended for peppers for a very early crop of 'Bibb' lettuce since the lettuce will have matured and been eaten before it is safe to set out the pepper plants in early June. In our third of the row actually reserved for lettuce, we shall make several sowings at different times. When we thin the lettuce we shall, as usual, transplant many of the surplus little plants to available open spaces in any other rows, as between cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts plants or even between strawberry plants and almost certainly in one of the early potato rows.
Companion Crops
Perhaps the best example of companion crops shown on the plan is the one devoted to pole lima beans and tomatoes. The hills of pole beans will be planted six feet apart to leave space for one tomato plant between each two bean hills. The tomato plants seem to be benefited, rather than otherwise, by the slight shade cast by the vine clad bean poles in mid-summer.
People seem to be obsessed by a sort of mania for setting out too many tomato plants without even doing a little garden planning. Whether it is because, having successfully started 30 or 40 plants indoors or having bought a bundle of 25, they cannot bear to discard any of them, I do not know. Like everybody else, we used to plant a couple of rows in addition in our vegetable garden. But gradually we have cut down until last summer we had only ten plants. This year we shall have just six, yet I expect we'll still have too few tomatoes at the start of the season and a surplus from then on!
The best way to eat tomatoes is right out in the garden while they are warm from the sun. Don't smoke while working around tomato plants and, if you have been smoking, wash your hands before touching the vines to avoid the possibility of introducing a mosaic disease. Also, do not plant tomatoes within 40 or 50 feet of a black walnut tree.
Another method we have used to conserve space is to plant double rows of beans. By sowing two rows just far enough apart to permit hand cultivation between them for two or three weeks not over ten inches but leaving the customary 30 inches between each pair of rows, quantities of beans can be produced on a small area. Presumably the same method could be applied to dwarf peas, although we have not tried it.
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