Article April 26, 1919 ISSUE

Gardening

FREELAND HOWE, JR.

While working over a strawberry bed one morning, I found myself taking advantage of past experience with regard to the removal of grass and weeds. When with less experience I was caring for a similar bed, I was so strenuous and inconsiderate while weeding that I loosened the roots of a number of the plants so that they showed all stages of weakness, from complete drying up to a much reduced yield of berries.

It is always necessary to have the soil well prepared so that weeds are not present when the bed is started. Even so, we may find the soil well supplied with weed seeds which will easily sprout and grow unless the bed is constantly watched and tended. Bird and wind borne seeds of undesirable plants are constantly introduced to usurp the place intended for a fruit bearing crop. When the plants and the weeds are closely associated, strenuous methods will not do, for in this way the plants may be uprooted and destroyed. If a weed is close to the plant, it must be pulled gently away from the fruit bearer. A witch grass root may run directly beneath the spreading root system of the plant and may need to be pulled through the ground instead of up out of it. Each plant must have its own particular treatment, and it is impossible to determine in advance what this shall be. Sometimes it is necessary to discard all tools, get down on one's kness and do the most delicate handwork gently, in order to get the best results. We learn from the record of creation found in the second chapter of Genesis that God made "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew."

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