io Essentials in Gardening 



and unless there is a sufficient quantity of 

 phosphate in the form of bone meal, basic slag, 

 or a similar product, the plants may grow and 

 flourish with regard to leaf and stem and the 

 flowers be pale and sickly. Potash is beneficial 

 to flowers which are valued for their fragrance. 



The planting of seed in a way to obtain the best 

 results is simple, but in order to produce the 

 greatest number of seedlings from the amount of 

 seed sown they, like everything else in the garden, 

 must be handled carefully and not sown in a 

 haphazard fashion. The soil for seed should 

 always be finely pulverized and then baked in a 

 hot oven for an hour or more to kill any seed of 

 weeds which may be laying dormant. If this is 

 not done weeds are likely to come up in profusion 

 and if not detected at once and pulled out the 

 flower seedlings will be puny and unhealthy for 

 lack of the nourishment which the weeds have 

 stolen. Seeds require warmth, moisture, and air 

 in order to germinate, and if either of these is 

 lacking there will be a poor crop. The atmosphere 

 of the seed bed should be kept as fine as possible 

 so that the young plants when first bursting forth 

 from the soil may not be injured by being chilled, 

 otherwise they may never reach maturity. The 

 bed should be kept not wet but slightly moist in 



