62 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



March, 1910 



What Can Be Grown in a City Back Garden 



George Baldwin, Toronto 



HAVING a fair sized garden, name- 

 ly, thirty-one feet, six inches wide 

 by about 130 feet long, I decided 

 three years ago to become an amateur 

 gardener and went to work and planned 



A Well FUled City Back Garden 



In this garden an amateur has grown many 

 kinds of vegetables that have competed success- 

 fully at the Canadian National Exhibition with 

 stuff grown by market gardeners. Mr. Baldwin, 

 who tells something about his experience in the 

 accompanying article, is yardmaster for The 

 Canada Foundry Co., Limited. Toronto, and 

 works ten hours a day. As he has not much 

 time for gardening, he was in his garden at 

 four a.m., every morning last summer. 



it to the best of my ability. First, I made 

 a lawn next to the house about twenty- 

 five feet by forty feet with flower beds 

 on all sides. This left about eighty-five 

 feet for vegetables and fruits. 



I then saw the necessity of having a 

 small greenhouse to raise my plants in 

 the early spring. So I got some second- 

 hand bricks and with the assistance of a 

 friend we built the brick work up about 

 two feet above the ground, got some 

 lumber and glass, put it together, paint- 

 ed it and had it all ready for the spring 

 of 1907. The inside measurement is nine 

 feet by twelve feet with an eighteen-inch 

 passageway in the middle. 



I have had such pleasure and success 

 from it, that I would strongly recom- 

 mend anyone to put up a small green- 

 house in preference to having a hotbed, 

 for after you have gotten your plants all 

 out in the spring, you can grow the long 

 cucumbers, egg plants, peppers, etc., to 

 advantage. 



I laid my vegetable garden out on pa- 

 per and had all my plans and arrange- 

 ments made for an early start in the 

 spring. 1 manured the ground heavily 

 the previous fall. 



I had such good results that I made 

 up my mind to compete at the Canadian 



National Exhibition the following year 

 and which I did, gaining three prizes. 

 This was an incentive for me to try and 

 do better last year, and regardless of 

 the fact that I had to compete in the 

 same classes with market gardeners and 

 farmers (who have almost as many 

 acres as I have feet), I was successful 

 in obtaining the following prizes : 

 Fourth for collection of vegetables with 

 sixty-one varieties, second for green- 

 hou.se cucumbers, fourth for a collection 

 of tomatoes (containing twenty-three va- 

 rieties, including the small fruited vari- 

 eties), and I took also third prize for a 

 bunch of marigolds. 



Last fall we stored enough vegeta- 

 bles to do us till next summer, thus 

 combining pleasure with profit. I 

 know of several gardens as large as 

 mine. If the owners of them only knew 

 what pleasure I have derived from 

 watching the things grow, I am sure 

 we would have more amateur gardeners 

 in this city and eventually get an ama- 

 teur class at the exhibition, which I have 

 been aiming at for two years. 



I did not have very good success with 

 onions, peppers and egg plants. . Per- 

 haps some friend will give me some 

 pointers. [An article on onion culture 

 is published on page 65. Pointers on 

 growing peppers and egg plants will be 

 welcomed for publication. — Editor.] 



The Best Hardy Shrubs 



J. McPherton Rom, Toronto 



In The Canadian Hortici lturist for 

 March, 1909, I gave a descripti\'e list of 

 twelve hardy shrubs, as follows : Hy- 

 drangea paniculata grandiflora. Spiraea 

 Van Houttei, Japanese Golden Bell, 

 Weigelia rosea, althea or rose of Sharon, 

 Persian lilac, garland syringa, Japan 

 quince, deutzia, purple barberry, purple 

 fringe and flowering currant. To extend 

 this list into twenty-four varieties, we 

 must have the flowering plum {Prunus 

 triloba). It makes a striking shrub in any 

 lawn in early spring. 



My next choice is the white lilac which 

 is too well known and liked to need de- 

 scription. As its companion we will in- 

 clude Charles X. lilac and also the varie- 

 ety Josikea which blooms after all the 

 other lilacs have faded and gone. 



The snowball is worthy of cultivation 

 and a place on the lawn. When it blooms 

 it makes a great show. 



The Tartarian honeysuckle is another 

 old favorite and is strikingly ornamental 

 when in full flower. Either the pure 

 white or the deep pink should be in every 

 collection. It has the added attraction 

 of orange-colored berries in the fall and 

 in winter its greyish white branches 



make it one of the best shrubs for color 

 effect in winter. We have to have more 

 spireas in the collection. Plant either S. 

 prunifolia, S. Billardii or S. ulmifolia, 

 all showy and desirable in any situation. 



Our winters are too severe for the 

 growing of the evergreen holly. The 

 best substitute for it is the holly-leaved 

 barberry, {Mahonin aquifoHiim). This 

 does well in partially .shaded places, es- 

 pecially when in a clump. 



One of the grandest of shrubs is the 

 Syringa grandiflora. It grows to a 

 height of ten to twelve feet and makes a 

 great show when in flower. The bloom 

 is exceedingly fragrant and its strong 

 habit of growth makes it useful as a 

 .screen to fill in a gap in a belt of trees. 

 It stands the drip of the trees well and 

 grows under the most adverse condi- 

 tions. The African tamarisk is a unique 

 shrub with fine green foliage of a feath- 

 er-like nature and small pink flowers. 



The common barberry, as a specimen 

 shrub, is quite attractive when in bloom 

 and presents a pleasing sight in fall and 

 winter from the profusion of its scarlet 

 berries. The bladder senna {Colutea ar- 

 horesci.ns) is a strong growing shrub 

 with yellow pea-like blossoms followed 

 by inflated membraneous pods contain- 

 ing seeds. 



Last but not least is the Azalea mollis. 

 Its orange-colored blossoms on naked 

 stems make it a very ornamental shrub 

 in the earliest days of spring. 



The evergreens have an important 

 place in producing landscape effects, 

 and in planting for protection from win- 

 ter winds. 



A Winter Scene in a Canadian Park 

 Victoria Park, Peterboro, Ont. 



