FARM GARDEN. Figs. 379-391.
The farmer's garden should be simple, ample and abounding. There is no need that it be stinted or cramped. The hand labor is increased when the garden is small and enclosed, for the spaces are narrow and the rows short, preventing the use of a horse. A garden area should be as much a part of the farm establishment as the cows or chickens are.
Three classes of products may be grown in farm gardens,—flowers, vegetables, fruits. If the es tablishment is a fruit-farm, the fruits will be sup plied from the orchards or fields ; but even then there may be some kinds of fruit that will be grown only in a garden space. The garden may be field-like in its size and treatment ; it may be called a garden because it is part of the home idea rather than the money-profit idea, being accessible to the residence and supplying products that are used therein.
Long, straight rows allow of cultivating by horse. As land is plenty, the rows may be placed far apart. Too often the farmer follows the dis tances advised in the catalogues and books, and thereby plants his garden so close that he must hoe it and till it by hand. The distances given in the books are those that the plants require in order to arrive at proper development ; greater distances are no harm to the plants. At one side of the garden area, the bush-fruits and asparagus and rhubarb may be placed. The other parts may be planted in rotation. Even some of the flowers may occupy long free rows in the garden space, afford ing abundance of bloom which may be picked with the same freedom that tomatoes and strawberries are picked. Or, the flower-garden may be made a part of the landscape or pictorial setting of the residence ; this relationship of it is discussed in Chapter IX of Vol. I, particularly at pages 312, 317-18.
Whether a part of the landscape features or of the separate garden area, the flowers should be of the kinds that require least special care and are surest to afford abundant bloom under indifferent or even adverse conditions. The main part of the flower-garden should be permanent, comprising perennial plants. Such plants come up of them selves year after year. Many of the perennials, as the phloxes, need to be divided or renewed (page 10) now and then, but this entails less labor than the growing of most annuals. Some of the perennials that are easily grown and that will unite to extend their bloom from early spring to late fall are as follows : Snowdrop and snowflake, crocus, tulip, hyacinth, narcissus, polyanthus, English daisy, pinks, forget-me-not, peony, bleeding heart, lychnis, columbine, iris, larkspur, poppies, lilies, yucca, gas plant or dictamnus, hollyhock, phlox (improved kinds), certain kinds of sunflowers, Golden Glow rudbeckia, perennial pea, outdoor chrysanthemums, goldenrods, asters, Japanese anemone.
Some of the most easily grown and satisfactory annuals for the general flower-garden are : China aster, marigold, cornflower or bachelor's button, petunia,verbena, sweet alyssum, Phlox Drummondii, cosmos (for late bloom), annual chrysanthemum, zinnia, stock. pansy (for a moist or semi-shady place), nasturtium, sweet sultan, nicotiana (two or three kinds), annual poppies (bloom of short dura tion), balsam, portulaca or rose moss (for sunny places), sweet pea, morning-glory, hyacinth bean.
Certain shrubs may be grown primarily for their flowers as well as for their shrub effect, as : Lilac, syringa or mock-orange, crape myrtle ( at the South), deutzias, hydrangea, snowball, spireas, blue spirea or caryopteris, weigela, rose of Sharon or hibiscus, kerria or Japan rose, and various wild bushes of most neighborhoods.
The Farm and The farmer's garden is proverbially the least productive area on the farm, whereas it should be the most productive and profitable, and should afford an abundance of the most wholesome lux uries of country living, fruits, vegetables and flowers, in a condition in which they cannot be found on the market. The farm affords a variety of soils from which may be selected that which is adapted for the best growth of garden prod ucts. It provides all of the tools needed for the most thorough cultivation. It can supply an abundance of plant-food, and the farmer or some of his family is on the place all the time and can look after the garden. The garden should afford recreation for the women and children of the family, and a means, if they choose, of earning a little "pin money" by the sale of surplus products. The home garden is also a place in which various interesting fruits and other plants may be grown, largely for curiosity (Fig. 380). It is a place for odds and ends of things mentioned in books and advertized in catalogues.