228 



GARDENING. 



April 75 



doubt because that the garden afforded 

 better food than its native rocks did. 



To those who have not tried it, it 

 would be a great surprise to find how 

 much better plants grow when the ground 

 about them is well mulched. It makes 

 the plants feel more nearly at home than 

 anj thing else that could be done, save 

 the giving of shade to some ot them. 

 Plants in the woods have shade above 

 them and decaying leaves about them, 

 and those in fields have grass or other 

 plants about them, so that in both 

 places the roots are cool. This is what 

 mulching of the garden plants does, this 

 and the preservation ot moisture. 

 Another thing rarely thought of is this. 

 The wild plants in the woods are so 

 covered with forest leaves that frost does 

 not get to their roots. I am sure that all 

 plants, hardy or not, are the better for 

 this, and I would mulch afresh in fall, 

 that the roots may have a winter cover- 

 ing. As herbaceous plants will repay 

 good lood given them, I would mulch 

 with manure in the fall. Let it be long 

 manure, the better to protect the plants. 

 The strawy portion can be raked off in 

 the spring. The remainder can be lei t 

 undisturbed. It will be loose, and often 

 it will be sufficient mulching for the sum- 

 mer. 



Next to mulching there is nothing like a 

 constant stirring of the soil. Let me say 

 here that I have found many workmen in 

 gardens totally unacquainted with the 

 principles of hoeing. The hoe is drawn 

 over a surface already hard, cutting off 

 the weeds close to the ground. Then the 

 weeds are raked off, leaving thegrouud in 

 really worse condition than before, for the 

 weeds shaded the surface if they did rob the 

 ground. Hoeing should be fully as much 

 to loosen the soil as to destroy weeds. 

 Every stroke of the hoe should loosen 

 up an inch or more of soil, and this loose 

 soil should not be raked down too fine, or 

 the first heavy rain will beat it down very 

 hard. One would hardly believe what 

 a help constant cultivation of this kind is 

 to herbaceous and all other plants. And 

 when rains cot e, the water is all taken 

 up where it falls. Good mulching pre- 

 serves the looseness of the soil in the same 

 way. I am sure that very many more of 

 our lovely native flowers could be success- 

 fully grown than there are if mulching or 

 hoeing could be made a feature of cultiva- 

 tion. 



In regard to the propagation of herba- 

 ceous plants, it is mostly by division of 

 the root or by sowingseeds, though when 

 greenhouse facilities are at hand, many 

 sorts can be increased by cuttings. A 

 little practice will suggest the best mode. 

 Those that can be divided will show it 

 after a year or two's growth, by the 

 clump-like appearance displayed. There 

 is no set time for dividing the plants. 

 Very early spring is an excellent time; so 

 is early fall. If done late in spring, the 

 summer's heat comes on to them too 

 soon, before well rooted, and in late fall 

 frosts behave in thesame way. Thesow- 

 ing of seeds is an interesting as well as a 

 successful way. This work should be 

 done early in spring, out of doors, just as 

 soon as the season will permit. There 

 are some kinds, such as our wild aster, 

 which are the better for being sown in 

 the fall. Just before the ground freezes 

 up will do. The seedlings will appear 

 early in the spring, and, what is more, 

 they will flower the same season, in the 

 fall. It was my intention to name some 

 fifty kinds of herbaceous plants, giving 

 the months in which certain ones flower, 

 but as the catalogues of nurserymen con- 

 tain this information, it seems hardly an 



advantage to do it here. I will but say 

 that, commencing with April and ending 

 with November, something can be had for 

 every month of the term. 



Instead of saying more about these 

 plants, I will diverge a little and speak of 

 ferns. I believe that all of us that possess 

 a garden, be it ever so small, have a place 

 for a few ferns. What they require above 

 all else is shade. It may be the eastern 

 or northern side of a dwelling on a wall 

 or any other situation where the after- 

 noon sun does not reach them, and it will 

 do. Under trees is not suitable, as a rule. 

 The roots of the trees exhaust the soil of 

 moisture, and the branches shed big 

 streams on the fronds, both to the injury 

 of the plants. My own collection of 

 native sorts is planted on the eastern 

 side of;-, neighbor's house, which forms a 

 division line. The sun shines on them 

 until noon but not later. They flourish 

 in the best possible way. Among the 25 

 sorts collectable about our city, some 

 half dozen of them are evergreen, and 

 these should certainly be planted. The 



Groundplan >•/ bed at ranged for Sub-Irrigation 



time to collect ferns is toward late sum- 

 mer. All the kinds can be seen then, and 

 their fronds being fully matured, the 

 height to which they attain is shown, 

 and the proper place for them in the gar- 

 den can be determined. Take a good ball 

 of earth with them if possible, though as 

 it is easy to get all their roots, they are 

 not difficult to transplant without this. 



During the trip to England already- 

 referred to, it was my privilege to visit 

 many large private grounds, and though 

 the climate of that country is thought 

 particularly favorable to the cultivation 

 of herbaceous plants, I cannot say that 

 I saw any evidence of more interest in 

 them there than is displayed here. But 

 let any one who wishes to see them in 

 perfection visit the Royal Gardens, Kew. 

 The department for these plants is sup- 

 posed to contain everything hardy, and 

 to have every plant correctly named. 

 And as far as possible to every plant has 

 been given a position it prefers. There 

 are swamps, bogs, dry rocks and damp 

 rocks, shady nooks and open places, all 

 filled with flourishing plants. With note 

 book in hand, after two visits, I did not 

 nearlj- make record of all I would have 

 wished to have done. In the woods and 

 fields visited I did not find nearly as 

 many wild plants as similar situations 

 here afford. No doubt it is there as it is 

 here near large cities, those who see 

 pretty flowers are apt to dig or pull them 

 up, and so they disappear. On reaching 

 these shores again, after my travels 

 abroad, I could but feel a pride in the 

 beautiful scene presented on each side of 

 the track as the ears sped on from New 

 York to Philadelphia. It was the month 



of August and, while full of recollection of 

 the never to be forgotten kindnesses 

 shown to me by the good friends I had 

 parted with in England, it seemed to me 

 the picture before me could not be pre- 

 sented on any other shore. Crossing the 

 Delaware at Trenton and entering once 

 more Pennsylvania, my feelings can be 

 expressed by quoting these lines from 

 Byron , 



Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild; 



Sweet are thy groves and verdant are thy fields 



For look wherever I would, cultivated 

 fields, the trees of the forests, and the 

 wild flowers of the roadside seemed to 

 me never to have looked so beautiful. 



SUB-1RRIGATI0R FOR LARGE FOLIAGE BEDS. 



The surface watering of large foliage 

 beds is attended with considerable diffi- 

 culty. If the planting is properly done, 

 the plants when in full foliage stand too 

 close to permit one to walk between them 

 and it is almost impossible to use the 

 hose without damaging the plants more 

 or less. Lawn sprinklers require a con- 

 siderable head of water to work satisfac- 

 torily, and even with this, they can not 

 often be so placed as to water a large 

 bed uniformly. More important still, 

 comparatively few people have access to 

 a head of water sufficient to permit the 

 use of either the hose or lawn sprinkler. 

 To obviate these difficulties, the experi- 

 ment was made the past season of water- 

 ing a large foliage bed from beneath, in 

 the folio a ing manner: 



A circular bed 22 feet in diameter was 

 prepared for sub-irrigation by removing 

 the top soil to a depth of 16 inches, at 

 which depth the subsoil was compact red 

 clay. Three inch round tile in sections 

 one foot long were laid over the bottom 

 of the excavated circle, as indicated in the 

 accompanying diagram. 



A line of the tile was first laid across 

 the center of the bed, the sections being 

 placed three inches apart. At right an- 

 gles to this, were laid branch lines, oppo- 

 site the spaces between the sections of 

 the first line, the sections o) the branch 

 lines being placed close together. The 

 outer end of the branch lines and one end 

 of the main line were then closed with 

 bricks, and at the other end of the main 

 line a section of five inch tile two and a 

 half feet long was set vertically, as an 

 inlet to the system. The spaces between 

 the sections in the main line were covered 

 with pieces of tile, after which the joints 

 were closed with cement. 



The tiles were then covered with well- 

 enriched soil to a depth ot 24 inches at 

 the center of the bed, and the surface was 

 gently rounded to the border. The bed 

 was planted June 1st with the ricinus at 

 the center, surrounded with a group of 

 50 robusta and SOCrozy cannas. Around 

 this was a belt of 80 plants of Caladium 

 csculentum, and these were inclosed with 

 a belt of Verschaflelti and Golden Bedder 

 coleus, and lastly the whole was encircled 

 with a narrowband of Silver- Leaf gerani- 

 ums. 



Rains came sufficiently often so that no 

 artificial watering was needed until June 

 24. On that day, and also on July 7th 

 and 15th, and August (5th and 21st, 

 water was supplied to the tiles from the 

 Station irrigation system, until the soil 

 of the bed appeared moist to the surface. 

 The quantity of water required to thor- 

 oughly wet the soil was very large, 

 amounting to in the neighborhood of fifty 

 barrels for each watering. How much of 

 this water escaped through the subsoil, 

 we have no means of knowing. 



The accompanying half-tone illustra- 



