VEGETABLE CULTURE.
As a rule, we choose to grow bush beans rather than pole beans. I cannot make up my
mind whether or not this is from sheer laziness. In a city backyard the tall varieties
might perhaps be a problem since it would be difficult to get poles. But these running
beans can be trained along old fences and with little urging will run up the stalks of the
tallest sunflowers. So that settles the pole question. There is an ornamental side to the
bean question. Suppose you plant these tall beans at the extreme rear end of each
vegetable row. Make arches with supple tree limbs, binding them over to form the arch.
Train the beans over these. When one stands facing the garden, what a beautiful
terminus these bean arches make.
Beans like rich, warm, sandy soil. In order to assist the soil be sure to dig deeply, and
work it over thoroughly for bean culture. It never does to plant beans before the world
has warmed up from its spring chills. There is another advantage in early digging of
soil. It brings to the surface eggs and larvae of insects. The birds eager for food will
even follow the plough to pick from the soil these choice morsels. A little lime worked in
with the soil is helpful in the cultivation of beans.
Bush beans are planted in drills about eighteen inches apart, while the pole-bean rows
should be three feet apart. The drills for the bush limas should be further apart than
those for the other dwarf beans say three feet. This amount of space gives opportunity
for cultivation with the hoe. If the running beans climb too high just pinch off the
growing extreme end, and this will hold back the upward growth.
Among bush beans are the dwarf, snap or string beans, the wax beans, the bush
limas, one variety of which is known as brittle beans. Among the pole beans are the
pole limas, wax and scarlet runner. The scarlet runner is a beauty for decorative
effects. The flowers are scarlet and are fine against an old fence. These are quite
lovely in the flower garden. Where one wishes a vine, this is good to plant for one gets
both a vegetable, bright flowers and a screen from the one plant. When planting beans
put the bean in the soil edgewise with the eye down.
Beets like rich, sandy loam, also. Fresh manure worked into the soil is fatal for beets,
as it is for many another crop. But we will suppose that nothing is available but fresh
manure. Some gardeners say to work this into the soil with great care and
thoroughness. But even so, there is danger of a particle of it getting next to a tender
beet root. The following can be done; Dig a trench about a foot deep, spread a thin
layer of manure in this, cover it with soil, and plant above this. By the time the main
root strikes down to the manure layer, there will be little harm done. Beets should not
be transplanted. If the rows are one foot apart there is ample space for cultivation.
Whenever the weather is really settled, then these seeds may be planted. Young beet
tops make fine greens. Greater care should be taken in handling beets than usually is