The Busy Woman's Garden Book - free ebook by Ida D. (Ida Dandridge) Bennett

THE BUSY WOMAN'S GARDEN BOOK

BY IDA D. BENNETT BOSTON SMALL, MAYNARD &amp; COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1920, BY SMALL, MAYNARD &amp; COMPANY (INCORPORATED)...

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INTRODUCTION

This little book has a very definite aim—a big aim too, though two little words or even one will serve to define it—To help, or better still, perhaps—helpfulness. It does not aim to tell everything there is to tell about gardening; that would be encyclopedic and quite out of the scope of a small, practical work on gardening, but it does aim to give, in plain, everyday language sufficient and clear directions for caring for an ordinary kitchen garden in a way the least exhausting of time and stre

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CHAPTER I PLANNING THE GARDEN

The favorable location of the garden is the initial step in its planning. The kitchen garden—always an important auxiliary of the kitchen—is now, in these days, something more; it is becoming more and more a part of the domestic routine; it is a woman's garden, to be planned for and cared for by the women of the family, and in that relation must be considered from all its points of view. Location, then, becomes of first importance. It must be accessible, that its care may demand as little extra

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CHAPTER II HOTBEDS, COLD FRAMES AND FLATS

So important is the preparatory work performed by a well started and conducted hotbed that its use cannot be too insistently recommended. The smallest, least ambitious home garden is dependent upon the use of artificial heat in the starting of such plants as cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes and the like, either in hotbeds on the home grounds, flats in the windows or plants grown in commercial greenhouses; these, owing to the long season required to bring them into bearing, cannot be start

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CHAPTER III PLANTING SEED IN THE OPEN GROUND

Is important for it is just the form that most of the garden sowing will take. The sowing of seed in hotbeds and flats in the house is of much interest and importance, but the garden, for the most part, will go directly into the open ground, and upon the care and judgment with which the planting is done will depend the success of the season's work. The ground should be in as good condition for sowing as possible—neither too dry nor too wet. It should, and this is of much importance, be warm. The

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CHAPTER IV TRANSPLANTING

Transplanting is one test of a good gardener, another is the care of the plants after they are gotten into the ground—the careful cultivation that forbids a weed to show its head above ground, or a crust to form on the soil after a rain; these two successful operations spell success in the garden—their absence failure. For several days before the young plants in the hotbed are to be put into the ground they should be hardened by leaving the sash entirely off and by occasionally withholding water

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CHAPTER V GARDEN TOOLS

Are so important in the proper care of the garden and for the ease with which it may be worked that only the best should be considered; the best, however, need not be the most expensive, but they should be the best adapted to the work to be attempted. It is not necessary that their number be large, indeed, the number of tools really indispensable is relatively small, but definite. A good steel garden rake will be one of the first tools required and this should be of the steel variety, neither to

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CHAPTER VI HOLDING AND INCREASING THE FERTILITY OF THE SOIL

There is no one thing that the gardener so needs to keep always in mind of more importance than that the soil needs additional fertility; it does not matter how good it may have been originally or how good it was last year; this year it must have returned to it the food that was taken from it last year by the crop that was grown upon it. Any soil that is not virgin soil—soil that has never been used, and that sort of soil is not available in towns and villages if, indeed, it is anywhere in an ol

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CHAPTER VII ASPARAGUS

Is one of the garden assets. Once established an asparagus bed is good for a lifetime, almost; certainly it is a permanent feature of the garden, showing little if any deterioration if well cared for and kept free from weeds. The starting of an asparagus bed is not the serious undertaking it was a few years ago, as the deep planting then thought so necessary is seldom practised now; instead it is thought sufficient to open a furrow—with the plough, if the planting is large, with the spade, if sm

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CHAPTER VIII EARLY SPRING VEGETABLES

May be classified under two heads: those that remain in the ground over winter and are ready for use as soon as the frost is out of the ground and those vegetables that, owing to the short time required to bring to maturity, are first available from the present year's planting; among the first may be cited such forms as asparagus, parsnips, salsify, parsley, kale, onions and a few others. The latter class include such vegetables as beets, lettuce, radishes, endive and early peas, all of which ma

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CHAPTER IX MID-SEASON VEGETABLES

BEANS Being somewhat tender, should not be planted until the ground is warm in spring. Corn-planting time will do for the field and navy bean, but the white podded string bean and the lima bean should not go into the ground until all danger of frost is past and the ground is in growing condition. At the present advanced cost of seed—fifty-five cents a pound for the string and lima sorts with postage added by some dealers, it will not do to take any chances by being in too much of a hurry to get

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CHAPTER X VEGETABLES OF THE VINE FAMILY

CUCUMBERS For main crop or pickle cucumbers should be planted in the open ground from June until the middle of July; at this season there is less danger of damage from the striped cucumber beetle and the stink bug, both serious enemies of the vine family; but even so late in the season it will be well to take the easy precaution of strewing tobacco stems or dust on the hill about the plants. For pickles plant in hills four to six feet apart each way and keep the entire surface of the ground clea

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CHAPTER XI VEGETABLES LESS COMMONLY GROWN

There is a considerable number of vegetables that are seldom encountered in the general garden, many of which are well worthy of acquaintance. Many of them are familiar to the city housekeper through the medium of the fruit stores and the delicatessen stores; more of them appear in the gardens of the foreign residents and might be adopted for general cultivation with good results. ARTICHOKES Which appear as an especial delicacy on the menus of the big hotels and restaurants on special occasions

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CHAPTER XII QUANTITY OF SEED REQUIRED

For those vegetables of which only a small quantity is grown the packets will be ample, most packets giving from one to two hundred plants, when started in the hotbed....

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CHAPTER XIII SWEET, POT AND MEDICINAL HERBS

Are a very welcome addition to the kitchen garden, giving just the often needed touch to the achievement of a successful dish, a touch that will change an everyday vegetable or meat course to something unusual and fancy in cuisine, and with no trouble or added expense to the cook—just a little pinch of this or that, and what a difference it makes! In most households sage is depended on for the flavoring of poultry dressing, sausage and the like, in spite of the fact that it may be anything but p

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CHAPTER XIV PLANT ENEMIES AND INSECTICIDES

The well-tended garden does not suffer materially from inroads of insect pests especially in favorable seasons; cool, damp weather, and hot, muggy weather are conducive to fungoid diseases which sap the strength of the plants and make them less resistant to any kind of assaults, whether of insects or disease, but with normal weather and bright dry air a part of each day at least, little trouble should be experienced from insect pests; especially should this be the case if precautionary work has

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CHAPTER XV WINTER STORAGE

It is in the late days of fall that one begins to realize substantially on the summer's investment of seed, time and labor in the garden. Previous to this one has watched the maturing of the summer vegetables with an eye to their immediate use; now one sees before one rich stores of food that shall tide one safely through many lean days when the price of food goes soaring and the visible supply temporarily disappears. If one is putting into cellar storage an abundance of such sugar producing veg

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CHAPTER XVI CANNING THE GARDEN SURPLUS FOR WINTER USE

The fullest measure of benefit from the garden has not been obtained unless one has preserved for future use the more succulent forms of vegetables that are not susceptible to preservation through winter in the usual form of cold storage. Those early vegetables which are so keen an incentive to the planting of a garden—young beets, spinach greens, string beans, limas, peas, tomatoes and the like must be preserved in a cooked form, hermetically sealed from the air to preserve them from spoiling.

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CHAPTER XVII FALL WORK IN THE GARDEN

If the garden has been well tended during the growing season there will not be much rubbish to clear away and the absence of weeds will make the harvesting of the winter vegetables a pleasure. A bright, sunny day is best for digging all root vegetables, especially potatoes which should be allowed to lie on the ground until dry enough for the dirt to shake off, leaving the tubers clean and sightly. After frost has killed the vegetables so that no further good will be derived from them they should

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CHAPTER XVIII THE ANNUAL GARDEN

For the busy woman who has but a modicum of time to spare for the growing of flowers, but is loath to relinquish entirely their cheerful presence about the grounds and house, the annual garden with its wide diversity of color, season and charm affords the greatest possible returns for the outlay required. A few packets of seed, most of which may be purchased for from five to ten cents, will lay the foundation for sheets and sheets of bloom and the labor of planting and caring for them will be le

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CHAPTER XIX THE HARDY GARDEN

Is a permanent investment, possible only in the permanent home. It adds dignity and charm attainable from no other form of planting. It is to the outdoor life of the home what the possession of colonial furniture and family heirlooms is to the indoor life, and yet is neither expensive nor tedious in its inception. It may be acquired fully grown, as it were, by an order to the florist for ready grown plants of blossoming size, ready to give seasonal bloom, or it may be developed in a few months,

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CHAPTER XX THE PLANTING OF FALL BULBS

The time for planting of hardy perennials and shrubbery is optional with the gardener, many things doing quite as well when planted at one season as at another, but in the planting of spring blooming bulbs less latitude exists; these must be gotten into the ground in fall if any measure of success is desired. The handling of this class of plants is one of the luxuries of gardening, as they come all ready to commence root growth, but in a perfect dormant condition, and may be gotten into the grou

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CHAPTER XXI ECONOMY IN THE PURCHASE OF SHRUBBERY

May often be achieved by a wise selection of varieties. Any extensive planting runs up into dollars fast, especially if the larger sized shrubs are selected. Fortunately successful planting depends as much upon a number of plants of one variety as upon the size and distinction of the sorts. A dozen plants of one variety of spiræa, for instance, is far more effective than one plant each of twelve varieties—try it and see if I am not right. If, therefore, one has several strips of lawn to embellis

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CHAPTER XXII A CONTINUOUS SUCCESSION OF BLOOM IN THE SHRUBBERY

HOW TO SECURE IT The planting of shrubbery about the home is so important that it may well take precedence of the flower garden proper or even the grading of the lawn itself. Indeed, if one owns the site of a home and the building is yet in the future, no better expenditure of one's spare time and dollars can be inaugurated than such initial planting as shall insure the presence of blooming shrubs about the home at the time of its completion so that all may be beautiful and perfect together, rat

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CHAPTER XXIII GARDENING FOR SHUT-INS

There are possibilities in the indoor culture of flowers, though it may seem to the casual observer, that only open air culture would justify one in undertaking the growing of a flower garden on any extended scale; but open air gardening, while it certainly makes for unlimited area of flower beds and a great variety of sorts has still its drawbacks of inclement weather, insufficient or too much moisture, much humbling of one's physical self on bended knees and a summer-long fight with the myriad

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CHAPTER XXIV THE POSSIBILITIES OF A CITY FLAT

The possibilities of the city flat will depend upon just how much window space the flat affords and how much sunlight the windows receive, for upon the amount of light will depend not so much the quantities of flowers which may be grown, as their character. It may be possible that, in a restricted area, but one window can be devoted to the growing of plants during the winter season and where that is the case one will wish to realize as much pleasure as possible from that one window. If it is a s

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