Page 16 — SUSQUEHANNA BULLETIN Paul Raber Marietta’s big garden has started growing Everyone the Bulletin talked to said that Paul Raber was Marietta’s “‘big- gest’ gardener. Paul used to farm a truck patch that was over three acres every summer. Last year and this year with nearly an acre to look out for, he still has Marietta’s most impressive garden. Every year he raises all the vegetables he needs and freezes, plus a lot he sells to people who stop their cars right by his garden on Essex. Street. Sugar peas, hull peas, beans, spinach, radishes, beets, peppers, eggplant, to- matoes, turnips, cabbage, onions, etc. keep coming from Paul’s garden all sum- mer. As one crop is finished, he plants a new crop in the same row. A sprinkling of lime and Vigoro 5-10-5 in the new row insures the nutrition of the new-sown crop. He says there aren’t any secrets to gardening, al- though he’s glad to give ad- vice to anyone who asks for it. But gardening is something that everyone has to learn for himself by ex- perience, Paul says. He has been gardening ever since he was a boy in Bainbridge. During all the years that he was an engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad he kept his garden growing. He’d be on a run for two days and then home for two days. Those two days off were enough time to tend his garden. Now as animal control officer of Marietta, he has even more time for garden- ing. Soon the cars will be lin- ing up on Essex Street to get their vegetables fresh- picked from Paul Raber’s garden. Have a little paradise in your own backyard Arthur G. Zerphey, who lives at the rear of 229 N. Barbara Street, Mount Joy, has a horticultural project going between N. Barbara Street and N. High Street that takes in several acres. Mr. Zerphey and his wife used to live at the front of 229 N. Barbara, but moved into a building in the rear to let their son and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur R. Zerphey, have the house in front. In the rear, the edl- er Zerphey’s property ad- joins that of another son, Henry R. Zerphey and his wife, of 154 N. High Street. On the Zerphey’s property between Barbara and High Streets there is a little Gar- den of Eden composed of beautifully landscaped lawn, a swimming pool, a tiny grove of bamboo shoots, an orchard of various fruit trees, and a garden plot of about an acre. On the day the Bulletin called, Mr. Arthur G. Zer- phey had just returned from a nursery in Adams County where he had bought an Alberta peach tree, a red Stayman winesap apple tree, a red delicious apple tree, and a Bartlett pear (tree. these fruit trees were to be planted in the yard of son Henry, where chestnut and English walnut trees are al-. ready yielding nuts, beside blue spruce, holly, white oak, red oak, sugar maple, arbor vitae, and many other species of trees planted by the Zerpheys “I don’t know (Continued on page 2) Arthur G. Zerphey Chester Loucks built his own greenhouse Chester S. Loucks of 232 East Front St., Marietta, knows a lot about growing things. He worked for years in the Appley greenhouses in Marietta. Now he has his own small greenhouse behind his house on Front Street. It was an old shed that faced south toward the river that he filled with windows in front and equipped with a wood- burning stove. When Chet is away for half a day, he fills the stove with locust logs that burn slow and keep his young plants warm during the winter. For the past few years he’s been starting tomato plants in his greenhouse. Most of the plants are the hybrids that produce. large tomatoes that his friends like to grow. He starts them around February 1 in plastic cups. By April l they are already about a foot high, thanks to the sunlight pour- ing in through the windows and the heat of Chet’s wood stove. Gardening is just one of Chet’s hobbies. When he isn’t busy in his greenhouse or garden, he’s carving wood- en decoy ducks or polishing stones he finds along the banks of the Susquehanna. The banks of the Susque- hanna are a treasure chest for Chet. He finds there driftwood carved by nature, fossilized rocks, and in the old dumps of yesteryear, valuable antique bottles. “I’m sort of a scavenger or beachcomber, at heart,” he says. Fas Chester Loucks a 3 Bo oo ca Mrs, Helen Horton Bo Your garden starts indoors in by Mrs. Helen Horton January, February and March are favorite months with gardeners for planning their gardens and starting the more tender plants in- doors. The seed catalogues with their beautiful flowers and vegetables come out in January. The gardener dreams of red luscious to- matoes and beautiful pe- tunias with nary a weed, rabbit, or bug to battle with. He orders his seeds and makes out his time- table for planting. Some seeds should be planted 12 weeks before setting-out time (the time of the last frost); others need only 4 weeks. Besides patience and a love of plants you will need: January 1. clean containers with bot- tom drainage such as fiber or plastic flats; foil baking pans, clay or plastic pots, etc. 2. some soilless seed start- ing mixture or Jiffy - 7 peat pellets; 3. plastic to enclose the seed box; 4. a bright growing area - not sunny until after the plants have started; 5. a heating cable or old heating pad. I moisten the starting mixture by putting it in a plastic bag with some water and mixing it with my hands. I add water until it is quite moist, then I place it in the seed box and sow the seeds - thinly. There is no need to cover tiny seeds. After the seeds are in I let the box stand in warm water until it is real moist. Next I drain it and put it in a plastic bag to keep it from drying out. I then place it on a heating cable or old heating pad and turn to low heat. When the seeds have started I re- move the plastic bag and place the box in a sunny window. When the seedlings have formed their second set of leaves I transplant them to a larger growing area, where they should stand about two inches apart. When I use Jiffy - 7s to start the they do not have to be transplanted. After all dan- ger of frost is over - about May 15 in Mount Joy area - I set them in their perman- ent place in the garden. April 16, 1975 = an mm— atl: GUN aan Cam
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