Perhaps the best characteristic feature of small farms is the home vegetable garden. When an orchard is not present, and the ornamental surroundings of the home have been neglected, a fairly well-kept garden with a large number of vegetables is generally found. In many cases the garden is maintained by member of the household. A small portion of the garden is generally devoted to the cultivation of flowers and a number of medicinal plants. Although conditions around the country dictate the kind and ease of vegetable you grow, people plant what is familiar to them.
It would be impossible to make an accurate estimate of the value of crops grown in the kitchen gardens of the United States, but it can safely be said that a well-kept garden will yield a return ten to fifteen times greater than if the same area was devoted to general farm crops. A fourth acre devoted to the various kinds of garden crops will easily supply a family with $1300 worth of vegetables during the year, while the average return for farm crops is considerably less than one-tenth of this amount. A bountiful supply of vegetables close at hand where they may be secured at a moments' notice is more importance than the monetary value.
Fresh vegetables from the home garden are not subjected to exposure at the market (being handled by staff and customers) or in transport. There is less likelihood of contamination, unless you are careless but them you know who to blame. Many products lose their characteristic flavor when not used within a short time after gathering. The home vegetable garden is the best way clean, fresh, nutritious produce are grown, and a greater number and variety of produce can be added.
Gardeners soon see the advantage that long summers and sunny autumns give for the production of a constant succession of produce from the garden. If the garden is kept clean and cropped continuously all the year round, there is a bountiful return all season long. From the time the earliest peas go into the ground up to the time it is necessary to prepare for the following year there can be a constant succession of fresh vegetables. Local gardeners are very active in the early spring, utilizing greenhouses, hoop houses, and cold frames to get that early start. With production starting early the enthusiasm of the gardeners wanes as the season progresses and gardening becomes a labor of love.