My Vegetable Werewolf

The amateur gardener will almost invariably be in too great a hurry to begin gardening operations in the spring. But a few warm days are not sufficient to put the ground in proper condition for seeding, or even for plowing and spading. The frost must be allowed to get out of it, and after that an opportunity must be given for surplus water from melting snows and spring rains to drain away before work can be done to any advantage. As a general thing not much can be done in gardening at the North before the first of May.

It is an old saying that "haste makes waste," and the gardener who is in too great a hurry often learns the truth which underlies the saying by the failure to germinate of the seed he puts into the ground very early in the season.

Another old saying that should be kept in mind is that "one swallow does not make a summer." Read "warm day" for "swallow" and you will get the force of the statement. It is not advisable to do much at gardening until you are reasonably sure that warm weather has come to stay. Even if early-planted seed comes up, spells of cold weather, and often of frost, which we are likely to have at the North until about the first of May, will have such a debilitating effect on comparatively hardy plants that those grown from later sowings, when all conditions are favorable, will come to maturity ahead of them. Therefore it will be seen that it is poor policy to be in too great a hurry, and good policy to wait for what the farmer calls "growing weather" before doing much work in the garden.

If very early vegetables are wanted it will be necessary to start them in the hotbed. In another chapter I will give some directions for the making and management of this very important adjunct of gardening.

The first thing to do in making a garden is to plow or spade it. Plowing is not admissible on small grounds, but where there is room enough to allow a team and plow to operate I would advise it in preference to spading, because it will save a good deal of hard work, and greatly expedite matters. Before plowing some system of manuring should be decided on, as whatever fertilizer is used should be worked well into the soil, and this the plow can do most effectively. Barn-yard manure, if old and well rotted, is better than anything else I have any knowledge of for all kinds of vegetables, but unfortunately it is seldom obtainable by those who do not live in the country. There are many commercial fertilizers on the market, but not all kinds of them are adapted to all kinds of soil. In order to secure the best results it is advisable that the amateur gardener should consult some dealer in these fertilizers in his immediate vicinity, or some one who has had personal experience in their use, with a view to making sure that he is getting just the kind best adapted to the soil in his garden. It is absolutely necessary that he should do this, in fact, for if he buys at random he runs the risk of getting something that will fail to answer his purpose.

While it is always advisable to apply whatever fertilizer is used before plowing, commercial fertilizers can be applied later with good effect; but it will be necessary to apply them in such a manner that they do not come directly into contact with the seed, as many of them are so strong that they kill it.