THE 



GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Volume XXVII. 



OCTOBER, 1885. 



Number 322. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



We have now reached a season when, more than 

 another, work is in order, and we have to put in 

 practice the lessons of the year. We shall there- 

 fore content ourselves with noting briefly things 

 not so much to be learned as to be remembered. 



Plant life is a battle — a struggle with the ele- 

 ments which it strives to conquer. To do this it 

 requires food. The successful planter is one who 

 does not forget this. Thousands of plants live 

 through hot dry summers, and cold hard winters, 

 because they have more food than those which 

 die. Grass, herbaceous plants, bedding flowers, 

 trees, and shrubs, — all must have manure some- 

 times, as well as garden vegetables. 



Deep soil holds moisture in summer. A dry 

 hard soil rapidly parts with moisture. Make gar- 

 den soil deep and open if you would have lawns 

 and trees resist drouth. 



Water must not remain long around roots when 

 growing, or they smother from want of air. In 

 clay soils if we deepen the soil we sometimes make 

 the matter worse. Like a well it holds water. 

 Water must pass rapidly in the open ground, as in 

 a flower-pot. So, if you deepen soil see that it is 

 also underdrained. 



Sometimes it is desirable to plant andmakegarden 

 where the ground cannot be underdrained. Then 

 elevate the soil so that rain will roll off and pass 



away. Trees that do not care to grow in swamps 

 have been made to grow well by throwing up the 

 earth a little, on which to plant, so that surplus 

 water should pass through easily. 



Grass wants water and food as well as trees — 

 but the roots of plants only extend in proportion 

 to their branches. An Osage Orange tree 30 feet 

 high, will extend its roots 30 feet or more from the 

 trunk. But if the Osage is cut every year so that 

 it does not extend more than five or ten feet, the 

 roots are lini'ted in proportion. So with grass; a 

 lawn with the grass suffered to grow a foot or more 

 in height will send roots down a foot deep, and 

 dry and rob the earth proportionately, but if kept 

 mown to less than an inch, the roots will drain the 

 ground to only a proportionate depth. Therefore 

 short grass under lawn trees may be a benefit by 

 keeping the surface cool, and not drying the 

 ground materially— but long grass and rare trees 

 will fight and quarrel over the food, and neither 

 rest satisfied. 



In planting, set early as possible. Rootlets will 

 grow till frost stops them. A newly set tree wants 

 all the rootlets it can get. No matter how well 

 we may work the earth in about the rootlets, there 

 will be many spaces where earth does not touch. 

 But the growing rootlet pushes in, and the earth is 

 in contact over its whole surface. 



After earth has been perfectly filled in the spaces, 

 ramming is a great benefit. It presses the earth 



