File:Beckert's garden annual - 1949 (1949) (20333171616).jpg

Title: Beckert's garden annual : 1949
Identifier: beckertsgardenan1949beck (find matches)
Year: 1949 (1940s)
Authors: Beckert's Seed Store; Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection
Subjects: Nurseries (Horticulture) Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Catalogs; Nursery stock Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Catalogs; Flowers Seeds Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Catalogs; Bulbs (Plants) Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Catalogs; Grasses Seeds Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Catalogs
Publisher: Pittsburgh, Pa. : Beckert's Seed Store, Inc.
Contributing Library: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Digitizing Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library

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QJ23^S3 HOME GARDENING GUIDE Where? Why? Poor Soil DON'T plant in water-logged or poorly- drained soil. If your garden doesn't drain readily, find another plot or pro- vide tile drainage. No soil will grow good root crops that dries out hard and compact. If the cost of conditioning such soil is too high, as in plots to be used only one year, omit carrots, beets, etc., and concentrate on leafy vegetables and those that produce above ground, such as tomatoes, peppers, etc. You can re- make such soil by adding well-rotted organic matter. This may be old manure, spent mushroom manure, peat moss, rotted compost, etc. If ashes have weather- ed for at least a year, they will help break up clay also. So will an application of lime or gypsun. Light sands can also be improved by adding liberal amounts of organic matter. Extra Feeding DON'T DEPEND on organic matter only for feeding your vegetables. While it has some fertility value, it won't provide enough. Remember that vegetables grow- ing in a garden are in an artificial en- vironment. You don't want natural growth; you want crops to mature as soon as possible, and this means extra feeding with suitable fertilizers. Properly used, chemical fertilizers furnish plant food at lowest cost in most readily avail- able form. Make provisions for extra feedings through the summer. Correcting Acid or Alkaline Soils Acid soil conditions may be corrected by the use of lime, preferably as ground lime- stone, which has a longer effect. However, do not apply lime unless it is really need- ed. A good check on the need for lime is the way your beets grow. Usually a soil that will grow good beets contains enough lime. If you have trouble with beets, and clovers do not grow well in your vicinity, it will pay you to have your soil tested. (We have soil test kits that will show you the right amount of lime to apply.) Alkaline soil conditions may cause bleach- ing and stunting of plants. This can be remedied by using soil sulphur or gypsum Here, again, caution should be used to find out, by soil tests, the right amount to use for your particular soil and crops. Most garden plants do best in a soil that is neither strongly alkaline or acid but nearly neutral. A soil test of pH 6.0 to 7.0 is ideal, for most crops. Spading the Garden The average home garden can be dug easily in five or six days, if done in stages. Usually a hand-dug garden is in better condition than one that has been plowed. Start by digging a trench the depth and width of a spade. Wheel the dirt from this trench around to the other side of the garden, where you plan to finish digging. Throw the dirt from succeeding rows into the trench made by the the previous spade cut. The last cut is then filled with the earth wheeled from the first. Spading vs. Plowing Many a garden plot has been ruined by a heavy tractor that worked it too wet. Be sure your soil passes the mud pie test before you allow a plowman to touch it. Too often, regular farm equipment is too heavy for working garden soils. DON'T work your soil too much. Re- member that after you finish digging or plowing your soil has been fluffed up and loosened, so plant roots can grow through it easily. Every time you go over it you are packing it down, making it less suitable for growing plants. Most inexperienced gardeners overdo surface preparation by trying to work the surface into a fine dust. Clods should be broken up, stones raked off and trash removed, in sensible limits. If the soil was dug at the right mud pie point, most lumps should break up without too much addi- tional cultivation. Use a cord or garden line stretched across the garden in laying out rows. Crooked rows increase the work needed. Also, they waste space. Open furrows fcr sow- ing seed by running the end of a hoe handle along a taut cord. For most seeds this should not be more than 1/2" deep; 1" deep for peas, beans, corn, etc. Fine seeds should not be covered more than W in the furrow. If your soil cakes or crusts badly, use clean sand, or a mixture of 50-50 sand and leaf mold, or peat moss, to cover the seed. This loose mixture does not cake and allows the tender seedlings to break through readily. Where it is important to catch light rainfall, corn, peas, beans, etc. can be sown at the bottom of a 3" to 4" fur- row, but should not be covered with more than 1" of soil. CUCUMBER, Straight Eight
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SQUASH, Table Queen KOHLRABI, ^ Early White Vienna BEANS LIMA, Burpee's Improved Bush"

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