CHOOSING THIS YEAR'S VEGETABLE SEEDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

CHOOSING THIS YEAR'S VEGETABLE SEEDS.

In planning the season's work in a vegetable garden or allotment, a job, by the way, which everybody should be getting on with now, one of the first points that come up for consideration is the selection of seed. In doing this you have to remember; that in modern gardening, that is to say, in gardening for food production, it is not merely the bulk of food which counts; you also need to incorporate as much variety as possible. The idea, therefore, in preparing this article is to help you make a wise choice of kinds when ordering the supply of seeds, for "the year. Here, for a start, are the actual vegetables you should grow:—

Roots.—Parsnips, carrota, beet, turnips. Tubers. —Early and main crop potatoes. Bulbs.—Onions and leeks. Greens. —Cauliflowers, spring cabbages, Brussels sprouts, savoys. Pod Bearers. —Peas (early and main crop), runner beans, French beans, broad beans. Miscellaneous. —Tomatoes, marrows, pumpkins, celery. Herbs.—Parsley, sage, mint, etc. This list omits quite a number of very 1 useful vegetables, but those left out are, for the purposes of the ordinary garden, what can be called luxury vegetables. By this we mean kinds which do not produce quite the weight of food that those which appear in the above list doi If your plot or garden is large enough and your family responsibilities small enough, there are a good many kinds that may well be added. For instance, there is no better crop than Jerusalem artichoke for rough ground; you always get some results from them. Shallots may be added to the bulbs; sprouting broccoli and early cauliflowers to the greens; even winter and late broccoli. Salsify and scorzonera may KIND. VARIETY.

Beans —• Broad, for early sowing Early Mazngan ~ Broad, for main crop Ixmgpod Dwarf, French Canadian Wonder • Runner Best o£ All Beet Crimson Globe Broccoli — Midwinter Veltcli's self-protecting Lily White r.rfite Late Queen Sprouting Brussels Sprouts Matchless or • Exliib'n. Borecole (Kale) Cottager's Cabbages— Spring Ellam's. Early I,nte Enfield Market Carrots — Enrly Early Gem Mh'ii crop Champ. Scarlet Horn Cauliflowers— " Early First crop I„ate Autumn Giant Celei-y— Wliite Solid White Self-blanching Golden Plume Bed Cole's Bed Cucumbers Mangere Prize Leeks • The Lyon, Musselburgh LettucesCos .? Paris Wliite Cabbage Webb's Wonderful Goldsn Ball, Mignonette Onions— For large bulbs The Premier, Ailsa Craig For outdoor spring sowing Improved Reading James Long Keeping For outdoor autumn sowing Brown Spanish Parsley Moss Curled I'arsnips Tender and True Hollow Crown, Student Peas — . Early Wm. Ilurst, Gradus, Daisy , Main crop Alderman Late Autocrat Radishes French Breakfast Savoys, late Tom Thumb Spinach Round leaves or summer Prickly leaves or winter Tomatoes Best of All, Hillside, Comet Turnips— Summer Snowball. Early Milan Winter *. Golden Ball Kohl Rabi Earliest Purple Salsify Ordinary Variety Vegetable Marrow .... Green Bush, White Bush, Pcn-y-byd

be included in the roots, and sea kale and chicory and cucumbers come into the miscellaneous. Marjoram and thyme may be added to the herbs. Celeriac may be used as late celcry, whilst salads such as cabbage and Cos lettuce and endive should be included in the list, so welcome are they. Maximum results from the little plot and for it to be well filled cannot be obtained by growing main crop kinds and varieties alone. There are so many opportunities of working in a short period catch crop, Also a lot can be done by growing these dwarf, quickly maturing plants between the rows of sprouts, savoys, peas and so on in their early stages. If you miss these opportunities your vegetable plot as a whole will suffer in general productivity. In compiling this list the guide is that of depending" upon standard sorts of proved merit. Novelties arc very well, but they really luxuries to the man who first of all wants to make certain results. The novelties may be good, perhaps better than the standard sorts. On the other hand, they have yet to pass the acid test of general cultivation and many of them will be "ploughed" at it. The table $t the foot of this page gives kind, variety and seed required outdoors. If you are limited by questions of cost to one variety of each kind, take the first named. Obviously the quantities of seed you need can only be decided by your own cropping plan, which should be drawn up before you can calculate quantities. Once you have done that it is a simple matter, having regard to this list, to work out the amount of. seed required. For example, say a packet of carrot seed contains Joz of seed and -you wish to sow two 50ft rows. Our table shows that you need $ov, of seed for a 50ft row, therefore you know that you will need four packets. SEED REQUIRED.

1 pint for 50ft —60ft run of row. 1 pint for ]00-120 ft row. ' 1 pint for 50ft row. ioz per 40ft run of row. Joz per square yard of seed bed. ioz per 50 feet row. ioz per square yard of bed. In seed pans or boxes under glass. A pinch of seed of each variety. Raised in heat, one seed per small pot. Three seeds to each "hill'' outdoor sowing. ioz for Gsft of row. A pinch of seed every 10 days. Broadcast in boxes. ioz for Goft of row. Joz for 50-Goft of row. ioz for 50ft of row. 1 pint for GOft of row. 1 large pinch per square foot, or ioz per 25ft Of row. ioz per square yard of seed bed. ioz for 30-40 ft run of row. Small pinch per Gin pot. Joz for 75-Ssft per yd run of row. ioz for 75ft of row. ioz for 30ft of row. 2 seeds per plot. 95 per cent of seeds should produce plants.