Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl ScoutsGirl Scouts of the United States of America
History
Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts of the United States of America
Girl Scouts -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
The rest of the bed devote to string or butter beans. You will have left
for these a space of eighty-eight inches, or a little more than seven
feet. The rows of beans must be farther apart than the other vegetables
you have planted. Two feet between the rows is not too much. You will
have space enough for three rows. Measure from your last row of beets
one foot six inches at each side of your bed. Now stretch your line
across your bed at this distance from the beets, then with a hoe make a
furrow close to the line. This furrow should be two inches deep at
least. Much deeper, you see, than the shallow furrows for the smaller
seeds. Having made this furrow, measure two feet from it on each side of
the bed and place your line at this point and make a furrow as before.
Repeat the process for a third furrow. You should now have left a space
of eighteen inches between your last furrow and the end of the bed. Into
these three furrows place the beans, spacing them.
Your seeds are now all in. At this juncture take your rake and cover the
seeds, leaving the whole bed level and smooth.
There is nothing more to be done just at present except to leave these
seeds to the forces of nature, to the darkness and the moisture and the
warmth of their earthy bed. They are put to bed not that they may sleep,
but in order to wake them up. Soon the delicate shoots will begin to
appear above the ground, and with them will also appear the shoots of
many weeds whose seeds were in the soil. These weeds constitute a call
to your next operation which is
Cultivation
Declare war on the weeds. Use your hand weeder between the rows of
smaller vegetables and let not a weed escape. If they are in the rows so
near to the seedlings that you cannot use the weeder without danger to
the delicate little plants that you are attending, then employ your
fingers.
For a time you may use the hoe or rake between the rows of beans, but
even here near the paths themselves the weeder or hands should be
preferred.
There is one caution that old gardeners give which is not to work among
beans when they are wet with dew or rain for fear of "rust." Wait till
the sun has dried the foliage.
* * * * *
Frequent and thorough cultivation not only destroys the weeds, thus
giving your vegetables a better chance and giving your garden a tidy,
well-kept appearance, but it keeps the soil loose and forms a sort of
mulch whereby the moisture is conserved. The dryer the season the
greater the need of cultivation.
* * * * *
It may seem to you that you are obliged to wait long and spend a good
deal of labor without results, but when you have for the breakfast table
some cool, crisp radishes and for dinner a head of fresh lettuce, and
later a dish of sweet, luscious beets or mess of string beans, you will
feel well repaid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account