HOME GARDEN'S EXPERTS DESIGN A VEGETABLE MINI-GARDEN FOR $10
(Page 4 of 4)
May/June 1974
By the Mother Earth News editors
Following our original plan, we had two sowings of the lettuces. The second followed the harvest of endive. This gave us the final pickings in the fall.
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In place of the heat-resistant Oak Leaf Lettuce we could also have used Salad Bowl which matures in 45 days. This, too, resist heat to some degree. For a later lettuce we could also have planted Buttercrunch (75 days) or Great Lakes, a heading variety which matures in 90 days.
RADISHES
A quick crop throughout the season is the radish. Here again we used two varieties: Cherry Belle, which only takes 22, days to mature, and All Season's White, which matures in 45 days. You can see, then, that when half a row of each was sown, we had quite a long season of picking.
We also made a second sowing of radishes after the lettuces matured. This gave us radishes throughout the entire growing season. This is a good crop for children because it gives them quick, sure results.
In addition to the quick-maturing Cherry Belle we could have used the variety Champion (28 days). For a substitute white we could also have grown White Icicle, which also matures in 28 days.
If we were using two quick-maturing varieties we would have made succession plantings.
CARROTS
Although we grew the carrot Goldinhart, we could also have planted Park's Munching,, Sweetheart or Red Cored Chantenay.
ENDIVE
For an additional green we planted two sowings of endive Green Curled. This makes an excellent salad green and matures in about 65 days. You may also find this variety listed as Giant Fringed Oyster in some catalogs.
ONIONS
No salad is complete without onions. We used both sets and seeds. Again, we harvested all season by using the younger plants as scallions.
SEASONING
As a final gesture, we added two little plantings of extra spice for the salad, cress and parsley. They only occupied a small amount of space, but were well worth the effort.
PROOF IN EATING
The success of our garden was in the eating. On a small space we proved that it is possible to grow a generous supply of fresh vegetables. Also we enjoyed vegetables that were grown the way we wanted them to be grown, without unnecessary chemicals in the soil or on the plants.
We feel that this garden was a great success and can honestly recommend the plan and variety selection to our readers.
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