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
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