HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?
MASTER GARDENER
JEAN LAIRD

Dear Gardening Friends,

Are you planning a vegetable garden this year? If you are, please choose a sunny, welldrained spot. Most vegetables need at least eight hours of direct sun to produce to their fullest.

I remember during World War Two that President Roosevelt asked each home in America to plant what he called 'a postage stamp garden.' Many people complied with his request. Fresh food was difficult to find, and this was our President's answer to the problem. A postage stamp garden could be place in most any home's backyard, for it was to be a small garden. I remember my mother planting the garden on the south side of the house. You don't need to be in a depression or a war to plant a vegetable garden, but it is a wise decision to do so. For Gardening 101, here are a few suggestions:

Think carefully about the size of your garden, choose a sunnywell drained place.

Have a convenient water source especially for vegetables.

Decide whether to have raised beds or to plant in raised rows.

Decide on what vegetables you want to grow. Make a list of your favorites.

Choose varieties that grow well in this area of Texas. Free copies of vegetable variety sheets are available from your local county office of the Texas cooperative Extension Service.

Draw up a diagram. Draw to scale, if possible. Draw approximately how much space you will need for each crop.

Prepare your soil. Remove all weeds and grass. Make sue you get the roots. Do not turn under any living lawn grass.

Use a shovel, garden fork or tiller to turn under 8 to 10 inches of soil. Spread a layer of compost, rotted leaves, manure, or Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, 4 to 7 inches over the bed. (I like cotton seed meal or bone meal to use as fertilizer.) Thoroughly incorporate the amendments into the 8-10 inches of soil, rake the bed smooth and you are ready to shape the raised rows.

Using a hoe or shovel, push the prepared soil up onto the area where the vegetables will be grown. Form a raised row about 3 feet across and 8 to 12 inches high. Level this off, then separate the rows. Make uses a stick to draw between the rows and he likes to plant with the rows low and build up the soil around it as the plants grow. Or you can plant the vegetables up high. Try both ways. Plant your cut and dried seed potatoes as the background of your garden. I made a mistake and called the seed potatoes, potato slips! Potato slips are sweet potatoes. I stand corrected. It was suggested o put up a small sturdy 12 inch wire fence next to the planted potatoes on which the foliage can grow.

You can now plant lettuce, spinach, green beans, green peas, onions, peppers, tomatoes, squash, cucumber or even okra if you choose. You can plant seeds (follow directions) or transplants. Seeds are planted 2-3 times thicker than transplants. These must be a certain distance apart. In our flower garden, you can plant cool season flowers, such as pansies, petunias, snap dragons, dianthus, blue phlox, canna, daylily, daisy. Plant these as soon as possible to get early spring blooms. I will add to this list next week.

And water as needed.

No go -- dig, weed, amend your soil, fertilize and get ready to watch it grow.

The Happy Gardener

"An addiction to gardening is not all bad when you consider all the other choices in life." Unknown