Now that it is fully gardening season I thought it appropriate to post some vintage gardening tips. It seems, the more I read that everything new was once old. Here are some tips to apply the well known Sandwich System to your gardening beds for good results. I’m sure this is best done in early spring. It’s too late for me this year but I will probably try this come next gardening season.
The Sandwich System
The METHOD herein described of growing vegetables of superior
earliness and finest quality is new and entirely unique. By it the
products of the garden are always earlier, and at the same time
of better quality than can possibly be produced in any other way.
Why is this method or superior to other methods?
First : Finest vegetables can be grown on hard, stony, or alkaline soils,
where ordinary cultivation would be utterly fruitless. Even where “made”
soils consisting mainly of brick-bats and old wall plaster, the Sandwich beds
flourish. A solid rock, a paved street, or the tops of flat-roofed buildings
could be made into a successful garden by this method.
For best results plants need aeration of the roots. If air cannot penetrate to the roots
the plant languishes and dies from suffocation. When surface of ground is covered
with water,the plant suffers in same way, and for the same reason.
The Sandwich beds can neither be drowned or smothered.
The air circulates through the .several layers of material, and if too much
water is applied, it readily passes through the fibrous beds, and does no harm.
Second: Fertility is placed just where it can easily be absorbed and
assimilated by the plants.
Third: The fibrous nature of the bed causes it to warm up earlier than
does the natural soil.
Fourth: While hydrant water must be supplied as often as needed, in
practice it is found that this form of bed does not require as much water as
would be supposed, for the decaying mass of fibrous material retains moisture
in a way that is surprising.
All kinds of vegetables, and most of flowering plants do wonderfully
well on Sandwich beds. Celery, Spinach, Endive, Chard, Egg Plant,
Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kohlrabi, Brussel Sprouts, etc., do exceptionally
well. For Peas, Radishes, Carrots, Salsify, Parsnips, etc., where the soil is
fairly good, it seems best to first spade the ground, as described in the “Modi-
fied Sandwich bed,” mixing in manure, and after raking fine and level,
make the regular Sandwich bed on top. This is true of those plants that
have long, penetrating roots like carrots, etc.
DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING SANDWICH BEDS
First: Place a layer of straw, or stable litter, or leaves from the trees,
about five inches deep. Tramp or pack pretty firm and smooth.
Second: Spread over this a layer about one inch deep of rich, fine,
stable manure.
Third: On this place another layer of stable litter about two inches
thick.Tramp or pack this down firm. Then turn on the hose and give the
mass a thorough soaking, but stop before leaching begins.
Fourth: Spread evenly over the bed at least four inches of street
scrapings, but avoid streets that have oil or asphalt in their make-up. If
street scrapings cannot be readily obtained, use instead, a compost of equal
parts of fine river sand, rich garden soil, and old, fine stable manure. Mix
by shoveling over in the heap.
After all is in place, tramp till firm, and it is ready to plant.
It sometimes happens that the real Sandwich bed is not possible or
practicable; in such cases if the soil is reasonably fertile, and in good con-
dition, the following method may be successfully adopted.
~The Gardenette , 1912
When Queens Ride By, a short story by Agnes Slight Turnbull, is a touching short vintage story of what can happen when a woman takes a moment to add a bit of beauty to her life.
