The garden yard

The home garden would scarcely be complete without a strawberry patch, and hardly anything gives better returns. Strawberries grow in various kinds of soil, but a light, sandy loam gives the earliest berries, because that is the earliest, warmest soil. It takes only a few well-developed, well-cared-for plants to supply a family with berries enough, and the care is no greater than would be given corn. But you should make a careful selection of your plants. Small, weakly plants, or plants that have already been in bearing, are no good for your purpose. Therefore, buy from an honest dealer. Plants for setting should have been grown for that purpose purely, and not have been allowed even to blossom, as the important thing is to have a vigorous root growth, and well-formed crown.

This sort of strawberry plant will yield large, delicious berries about ten to fourteen months after setting out, and although a plot containing 100 plants requires not more than a half-hour’s work a week to keep the plants in condition, after they have been well started, yet the yield will be about a quart to each plant.

To get such a return, you must first put your soil in good condition for planting. Have the soil finely pulverized and thoroughly fertilized with well-rotted manure, ground bone or wood ashes.

Having prepared your bed and got good strong plants, it is now time to set them out. Before doing so, trim the roots even, and cut off all but a leaf or two on each plant. The easiest way is to take them in bundles of 25, fasten together and cut the roots of all at once. But do not expose the roots to sun and air during planting. Keep them covered with a damp cloth. Lay the roots carefully in the ground, spreading them out fan-shape, and see that the crown of the plant is level with the surface of the soil, and firm the soil well around the roots. A properly set plant begins to grow at once, becomes larger and has more fruit crowns than a carelessly set plant. So be careful to start right.

Set the plants out in rows 18 to 24 inches apart, and 15 inches apart in the row. If each plant is set in a little hill by itself as you would set corn, you will find it easier to cultivate and also to keep the weeds down. It is as necessary to keep strawberries clear of weeds as it is any other crop.

Cultivate as soon as all the plants are set, and continue to do so once a week during the whole season. Pinch off all blooms the first year and cut off the runners. By so doing the plant will spend its energy on root growth and in producing more fruit crowns for bearing the next year. It never pays to crowd strawberry plants. Give them room and keep them in hills with cultivation and you will get both pleasure and profit from your patch.

It pays to mulch strawberries. As soon as the first hard frost has come, cover the bed with about three inches of litter of salt hay or straw. This prevents the ground freezing and thawing during the winter. In the spring you clear a space over each plant for the leaves to come through, but leave the mulch on the ground. It not only keeps the soil from drying out, but it also keeps the fruit from getting dirty from sand or mud.

From the first ripening, pick your berries as soon as they redden, every day if necessary, and let the picking be done in the early morning, before the sun has dried them. The berries keep longer and have a better flavor.

As soon as the plants cease fruiting, remove the mulch and cultivate. A handful of bone-meal mixed with the soil between each plant will have a good effect. In a few days the plants will put out runners. Allow one runner to grow from each plant, and layer this between the old plants in a straight row. “Layering” is covering the runner at one or more points with earth, or really planting it. It will develop roots at these points and become a strawberry plant. In from two to three weeks it will have got a good start, and then you can take up the old plants. In this way you can renew your own strawberry patch every year at little trouble or expense, if you get good plants to start with.

Some reference to the possible yields of strawberry beds has been made elsewhere in this book, so it will not be necessary to repeat here, but you will be making your own records soon, if you follow these simple rules.

Raspberries and blackberries succeed in any soil that is not too wet and heavy, and there are good profits in their growing. If you intend to take up the culture of these fruits, you will do well to read “Bush Fruit,” by Prof. F. W. Card. The bushes of both should be cut back and pruned in the spring, the raspberry being easy to handle with ordinary hand-shears, but a blackberry hook is better for dealing with the sharp thorns of that bush.

As soon as the fruit is gathered the fruiting canes of the season should all be removed; then in the spring, cut back all canes. This makes them stockier and stronger. They should be supported by wires stretched on either side and fastened to crossway pieces attached to stakes driven at each hill, for these fruits should be planted in hills, too.

Plantations are generally renewed every five or six years, although with good care yearly, they last longer. The yield varies from 1200 to 10,000 quarts an acre; the difference lies partly in the canes, and partly in the cultivation.

The home garden would scarcely be complete without currant and gooseberry bushes. They are easily grown, the gooseberry, in particular, requiring very little care and yielding large returns. It can be grown in clayey soil, though like the currant, it prefers a deep, moist, rich soil, especially a rich soil.

Strong one-year-old plants are the best to set out, and two- or three-year-old canes yield the best and largest quantity of fruit. All wood older than that should be carefully pruned. The same cultivation applies to both—well-rotted stable manure and shallow spring tillage.

The worst pest is the currant worm, which eats the leaves almost as soon as they unfold. Dust the bushes with powdered hellebore when the leaves are wet, or mix the hellebore with water and apply. Then there is the leaf blight, which attacks the leaves as soon as the fruit is ripe, and almost strips the bushes of foliage. This should be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture to stop its ravages, because if allowed to progress it weakens the bush, and the fruit next year will be small and of poor quality.

The grape-trellis is a common sight in the gardens of the New England and Middle States, but not so common as it will be when the gardener understands how comparatively easy it is to grow this fruit. A well drained, thin soil, with a warm southern exposure will provide for starting a good grape-vine.

The vine needs a trellis support always, and the pruning must be looked after, else the numerous runners will draw from the plant so that it cannot fruit properly. Keep the runners pinched off during the fruiting season, and in the fall cut off the old canes, leaving only the new, vigorous canes for next season. It may be two or even three or four years before much pruning is needed, but after that it must be attended to regularly.

Each new cane must have plenty of space, light and air, to prevent rot and mildew of the fruit, so that the number of canes you can allow to grow, depends upon the strength of the vine, the space to be covered and the root growth.

You may fancy other small fruits that you have room for in your garden. Any good agricultural paper will give you the information or name the book you need. Fruits are another means of making your plot pay, so you might as well grow a few at least.