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The best chance a gourmet has of getting delicious fruits and vegetables is to raise them himself and this is the best chance he has of keeping in good health too.
photo credit: Sistak

Good home-grown vegetables are both aesthetically better and more practical in terms of use. These are the reasons people who want to raise vegetables they cannot buy and then cook them in ways that will bring out priceless flavor.

It goes without saying that, just as the most brilliant cook can do only so much with stale and tasteless vegetables, so the most delicious vegetables any man ever grew can be quickly spoiled by bad, or even by merely unimaginative, cooking.

The usual fate of the stale vegetables we now buy is to be overcooked. In short, they never had much life, they lost in shipping most of the life they had, and the cook then cooks all the life out of them.

Now Lets start with your garden

Remember that the spot where you plant must have plenty of sun. You can build your own soil if you have to. But you can, not supply sunlight, except maybe by cutting a branch off a tree to let sunlight through or by taking down a board fence. If you live in a small town or in the open country and have a choice of sites, a good piece of ground is one that slopes just enough to drain easily.

If it slopes south or, better still, southeast so much the better. Dig a hole a foot deep and see what kind of soil you have. Normally the top few inches will be much darker and much more crumbly than what lies below. This is your topsoil: it is dark because it contains “humus” decayed vegetable matter. The subsoil below it may contain minerals but it lacks humus.

Put an ounce or two of each in a small container and find out from your County Agricultural Agent or from the Department of Agriculture in your state capital where to send them for analysis.

The analysis you get will tell you whether you need the three elements plants need most, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Results of the analysis can also show whether fertilizer and rain are significant factors in your garden.

Also it may be able to determine whether your soil is too acid and needs calcium. If it does, you should spread agricultural lime on it, not quicklime. Commercial lawn fertilizers and garden fertilizers are available which combine nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

If you can’t get your flower bed soil professionally tested, there are now on the market inexpensive “soil kits,” which are advertised in garden magazines and at Amazon.

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March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers, so runs the old saying. A little hard work helps, too, and if the first two arrive on schedule the spring work will be well under way.
photo credit: Allie_Caulfield

It also takes good soil to produce flowers but what to add and what not to add to make it good is often a problem. Should it be manure, bone meal or lime?

Every garden needs fertilizer in some form in the spring and when the second crops go into the soil in summer the plant foods need to be replenished. Farmyard manure, particularly cow manure, is still considered an ideal fertilizer by many gardeners.

For flower and vegetable gardens it should be fresh manure, not rotted. A good organic dry fertilizer is favored by many in preference to chemical fertilizers.

Dry fertilizers are best used in combination with liberal amounts of rotted compost. Theyre available everywhere, and frequently are specially prepared for various kinds of plants and flowers as well as vegetables.

Lime is often beneficial and sometimes necessary but it is usually not needed every year. Low lying, heavy wet soils are likely to need it every second year. Average soil requires lime once each three or four years.

However, outside of the lime belt it might be needed more frequently. When in doubt about the needs of your soil your state experiment station or local farm bureau will test it for you or you can purchase a simple home soil testing kit that will provide all the needed information.

Superphosphate

Superphosphate should be added to the soil when cow manure is used, since the latter generally lacks phosphates or at least enough for best results.

Perennial Borders

Perennial borders need a little extra nourishment in the spring as soon as there is sufficient growth to show where all the plants are. Manure and bone meal or dry fertilizer should be dug in. Perennial borders properly fed and cared for will grow along for years.

Large clumps of perennials can be separated now unless they are the spring blooming kind but fall is the better time for this job if there are many plants to be divided.
photo credit: audreyjm529

Gall on Spruce Trees

Spruce tree gall is caused by a midge that lays its eggs on the young tips of the spruce tree, and the developing young within the plant cause the formation of galls or burrs. Affected trees should be sprayed with a miscible oil spray that has been diluted according to instructions for use on evergreens.

Shaded Corner Garden

A shaded corner in the garden or a northern exposure is ideal for tuberous begonias. Start them in flats in an enclosed porch or in the greenhouse in equal quantities of sand, leafmold or peatmoss and soil.

Plant with the rounded end down and about one-third of the tuber exposed. When they have made an inch or two of growth and there is no danger of frost they can be planted out into well-prepared soil in the shade. They can also be potted into 4 or 5-inch pots and put outdoors later on. (This is safer where there is danger of a late frost.)

Gladiolus

Plant gladiolus as soon as the ground is ready. To do their best gladiolus should have rich soil. Plant about 4 inches deep and for a longer season put in succession plantings up to July 15. To control thrips spray the plants every two weeks with malathion. Do not plant gladiolus in the same spot two years in succession.

Planting A Strawberry

Strawberry plants should be planted this month to bear fruit next year. To be sure of a good crop of berries prepare the bed with liberal quantities of manure or compost and dry fertilizer and water well in dry weather. Either young plants from an old bed or purchased plants may be set out. It does not pay to keep a bed past its second fruiting year.

For best results dig one old bed under each year after taking the young runner plants from it. Then start a new bed with them. Start the new bed in a spot that has not had strawberries in it for at least two years.

Vegetables

Vegetables to sow. Seeds suggested for March sewing, if not already in, can still be sown new. In late April or early May put in succession planings of lettuce, beets, carrots and radishes, and the first sewing of green beans. Even a first sewing of corn could go in if the garden is in a favored spot and you wish to take a chance.

Small frequent succession sewings assure a constant supply of first class vegetables. Also in late April plant out all hardy vegetables – broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and cauliflower. Do not put out tender plants till after May 15 to 25.

Annuals

Start annuals now including marigolds, zinnias, cosmos and asters, all fast-growing plants. These if can be sewn indoors or outdoors late in April and May in the locations where they are to flower. After germination thin out the seedlings. These annuals often flower best when sewn outdoors directly but these sewn indoors and then set out flower earlier.

Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemum cuttings for fall flowering may be taken in April and May. Take the tops of strong, healthy growth and root in sand. Use a rooting hormone. It is also a good time to divide outdoor patio plants with several stems, taking a small piece of root with each part. Such a division is called an “Irishmans cutting” and can be started in a soil mixture in pets or flats. This is particularly good for outdoor chrysanthemums or where there is no greenhouse.

Outdoor chrysanthemums should be lifted each spring, broken up in this manner, and then started off again as separate plants. They will need to be pinched several times to make them branch. Plants net divided become thin, weak and flower poorly.

Harden off plants before setting out. Seedlings started in a greenhouse, hotbed or perch are tender and must be hardened off before planting out time. Even such hardy types as lettuce and cabbage freeze easily if taken from the warm indoors and immediately planted into the garden.

Place the plants on a cool porch or in a cold frame for about 10 days, allowing the temperature to become quite low and give plenty of ventilation. On extremely cold nights they need covering to keep out frost.

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May is iris and peony time throughout our section. The real work has already been done on these two and the results indicate just how thorough we were. The main thing now is to provide plenty of water through the flowering season, to produce top quality bloom.
photo credit: Donnaphoto

Each iris plant should have a feeding of one cupful of balanced fertilizer but it should be kept well away from the plant. It will be wise to note the ones that should be divided after flowering and perhaps prepare the soil for planting in new locations.

Peonies are subject to aphid infestation and many times this is first noticed by the presence of ants. These ants live on the honey dew secretions from the aphids and quite often there are “farms” of aphids that are milked” regularly by ants. Aphids cause a blasting of the buds quickly on peonies. Regular spraying with a contact spray will control these critters.

Rose Time

Throughout our section roses are giving their first lush crop of blooms. The annual rose shows are usually staged beginning the second week in May.

In the garden the chief chores are regular spraying at ten day intervals with products to control blackspot, spraying to control aphids, watering. feeding and light pruning to control blooming and habit of growth.

Rock garden plants respond beautifully to feeding and watering this month. Divide and transplant violets and allow a spacing of about ten inches. As the perennials come into flower, keep the faded blooms cut back to encourage new growth and a second crop of flowers. Pinch the early set chrysanthemums is one of the highly recommended plant branching ideas, and feed lightly.

For those of you who enjoy gourds, May is the month to plant. These plants are among the novelty group and are most interesting. Be constantly on the alert for weeds… most of these have an uncanny way of getting established very early.

Investigate the new herbicides for control of weeds by chemical sprays; many hours of hard work can be saved by using them. Read and follow the directions carefully. There is still time to replant water lilies and other aquatic plants. And why not plant a few herbs for both seasoning and unusual foliage for arranging?

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