The Garden by The Commoner

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 19, 1908

The Garden

By The Commoner

HAVE you “made garden” yet? The garden should be done on paper, at the fireside, before the seeds are ordered; but if you have neglected this, send for the seedsman’s catalogue as soon as possible, and when it comes, hold a family council, study directions for preparing the ground, making the beds and selecting the seeds, giving special heed to instructions for planting and cultivating.

Plan your garden so that most of the work may be done by the horse and plow, or the hand cultivator. Select reliable, tried sorts of vegetables and fruits for the main crop, and plant enough to supply the table, with a goodly surplus for canning and drying. For the winter supply, you can sow later.

Try a few seeds of the novelties; if several neighbors should send for one variety each and exchange seeds, a goodly start might be had for a small amount.

If you have not started a fruit garden, begin now. Look over the advertising pages and see the offers of reliable seedsmen, many of whom offer “collections” of plants, mailing size, which are well worth considering. If given care, nearly all these plants or roots will live, and even if a few do die, you will get your money’s worth. A half loaf is better than no bread, you know, and it is just as easy to raise fruit bushes or vines in the fence corners as to raise sumach, wild brambles, and poison-ivy. Even one at a time is a start. Do not delay, for the seed-time is at your door. If you are a village woman, you can

have many things in the way of flowers that your busy country sister must do without; but the country sister may have much if she sets her head to it. Plant perennials, and set out flowering shrubs where you can see the beauty while at your work. Many hardy shrubs can be grown from the seeds, blooming the second year. Fill your life with beauty; plan for the sunshine, and then work for the plans.—The Commoner.