Several readers share how they introduced their friends to gardening. M. Hauber It all began with my transfer from an office with southern exposure and yards of sills to a reconverted attic office with two postage-stamp north windows without sills. By the end of September, when I would have had each window sill banked with … Read more
May is the vegetable grower’s busiest month for most parts of the country. The seeds of the early hardy crops that were sown a month or so ago will have germinated and made sufficient growth to be thinned out—an operation which cannot be postponed without disastrous results. And as the ground warms up and the … Read more
At the outset, if you make up your mind what your interest is in your garden or proposed garden, you will avoid confusion later. Is the garden merely to supply food as easily and cheaply as possible, or is it to provide vegetables of superb taste and texture which just cannot be bought in the … Read more
A casual visitor strolling through my yard may notice only a well-kept lawn and many flowers. An experienced gardener’s eye will spot a row of fern-like foliage just back of a border of dwarf marigolds. Looks like carrots, they’ll think, and be right. Down the perennial row, they’ll notice a plant with huge tropical-looking leaves … Read more
Witloof Chicory, also called succory and French endive and sometimes erroneously called endive in food markets, looks like a corpulent, pallid cigar. But it commands a very high price (and gets it) for it is highly prized by the epicure. The young shoot of Cichorium Intybus is forced into growth during the winter from roots … Read more
Provide your vegetable garden with full sun for at least half the daylight hours. Plant it in well-drained soil, which can be kept moist and free of weeds. Then go one step further. Be sure that your vegetables have sufficient plant food at all times. Of all the unfavorable factors which might spell failure in … Read more
The standardization of vegetables may have gone somewhat too far, and to use an inconsistent phrase, the public has been educated to be ignorant of many good things that grow upon the land. It’s merely because these varieties in shape or color deviate from the common lot. Many folks do not know that there are … Read more
The annual kitchen or pot herbs always have been favorites with home gardeners. In most instances, a few plants of each kind produced from a packet of seed suffice to serve the average family’s needs. There are many annual herbs, but the basils, dill, chervil (the gourmet’s parsley), and summer savory may be considered first … Read more
Every year is a good year to have a vegetable garden, but this is a doubly good one. As President Truman has pointed out years ago in his appeal for Freedom Gardens, every pound of food raised at home will aid in feeding the hungry abroad and make easier the national aim of peace on … Read more
Just east of the Rocky Mountains and one mile high is a section of the country which presents garden problems. We often have cold, snow, and frost until May 15, and then comes summer. Keep The Seed Beds Moist For Germination One of the greatest garden problems is to keep seedbeds moist until the seeds … Read more