PREPARING PLANTS FOR THE WINTER WINDOW GARDEN. 



333 



November when there is little else but cab- 

 bage and cauliflower to supply the table. 



White turnip and radishes sown early in 

 Aug-ust will often make paying returns early 

 in the fall. 



Spinach for standing over winter for 

 spring use should be sown not later than the 

 second week in September. The prickly 

 seeded variety is the hardiest. 



Onions should be havested when the bulbs 

 will remove fairly easy from the soil. It is 

 a mistake to leave them too long before 

 pulling. Thoroughly dry the bulbs and 

 place them on a shelf in a dry airy shed un- 

 til early winter. 



Gather seed beans when ripe, before the 

 pods burst or the beans are half-rotten.. 

 Keep in a dry place after picking. 



Secure the stable manure now that is re- 

 quired for the garden in autumn. Throw 

 the manure into a pile and turn it over once 

 in every two or three weeks. A few pails 

 of water thrown on it will help rot it, if very 

 dry weather prevails. Manure treated in 

 this way comes in very useful for mulching 

 asparagus, or for digging into ground where 

 early spring crops are to be sown or plauted 

 and gives better results than raw manure 

 dug into the ground. 



Hamilton. W. Hunt. 



PREPARING PLANTS FOR THE WINTER WINDOW GARDEN. 



T is too often the case that the window 

 garden is without flowers in abundance 

 ^ during the latter part of fall when all 

 plants are gone outside, and in many cases 

 this lack enters into the winter months. 

 While it is not so easy to have an abundance 

 of the general collection of house plants in 

 bloom during this period, as nature seems 

 inclined rather to retard growth even of the 

 healthiest and strongest specimens until the 

 genial sunshine of later months is more 

 plentiful, there are a number of plants and 

 common ones, too, which may be had in fair 

 amount of bloom, if attention to preparing 

 them for this purpose be given during the 

 summer and early fall months. 



The principle that no plant can be ex- 

 pected to flower profusely during summer 

 and then do double duty by blooming well 

 in the winter is a safe one on which to rely. 

 Successful amateurs are learning that it is 

 not only the florists who may have flowers 

 in winter, but that if plants be given similar 

 treatment as winter flowering ones receive 

 at his hands, a fair degree of satisfaction 

 may be had for early blooming, and a 

 greater degree for still later in the season 



when there is more sunlight, even in aa 

 ordinary window. 



A good lesson may be learned by a walk 

 through a florist's grounds at this time. 

 There are quantities of bouvardias, carna- 

 tions, heliotropes, geraniums, begonias, 

 and the like without a single flower on them 

 but in fine stocky condition. The flower 

 buds are being all kept down by pinching, 

 which results in the bushy plants that pro- 

 duce a heavy crop of bloom during the win- 

 ter months because they are in the right 

 condition for the work. 



Many grow geraniums, etc., in pots 

 during summer, which is a good plan, but if 

 this has not been done those which have 

 been planted in beds may be lifted, for 

 though they may have become well estab- 

 lished and are pushing root and top vigor- 

 ously, the roots will not by this time have 

 pushed out so far that much Injury will! 

 result from lifting. Later lifting gives us, 

 much more top growth, but the roots have- 

 spread over so much ground it is impossible 

 to retain them all. 



There are a number of summer blooming 

 bulbs which make fairly good early winter 



