keep it small. The new country dweller's
first garden is usually three times the size needed or that he can
take care of. Vegetables have a way of either producing nothing or
bearing in such abundance that the average family is swamped in
plenty. Whether or not the excess is canned, depends on the time and
energy of the housewife or her cook. With green vegetables now
available the year around, there are two schools of thought as to the
real economy of home canning. There is even plenty of controversy over
the question of a family vegetable garden. Some hold that after the
normal charges for fertilizer, seeds and labor are met, any vegetables
that may result actually cost far more than if bought in the retail
market. To this the pro-gardenites retort that the charges for seeds
and fertilizer are small and that a certain amount of struggle with
spade and hoe is good for a man who has spent all day in a stuffy
office. Let him do his own spading, cultivating, and planting. A half
hour or so every evening will keep the garden free of weeds and, in
due time, vegetables fresh from the garden will result. They will be
superior in flavor and will actually have cost less than even the
largest chain stores can afford to sell them for.

Out of ten years' experience, we can only state that both are right in
a measure. Whether or not a vegetable garden pays, breaks even, or
goes into the red, depends to a large degree on the owner himself. If
he has a flair for making things grow and has a definite amount of
time to devote to them, his garden will not only thrive but pay
dividends. But if a business trip is imperative just at the time the
garden should be planted, or some pressing engagement causes him to
defer transplanting his cabbages and his tomato plants beyond the
proper time, he must either get some one to take care of his garden or
do without one. There is a lure, however, to having your own
vegetables, so most of us close our eyes to any distressing figures on
the household ledger and go ahead and have a garden anyway.

One busy man compromises by having his garden prepared for planting by
a local man of all work who also keeps his grass cut and his borders
trimmed. Then he plants a few easily grown and tended vegetables, such
as lettuce, parsley, string beans, carrots, spinach, crookneck squash,
tomatoes, and corn. Around these, like a border, he plants showy
annuals like zinnias, cosmos, calendula, marigolds and so forth