Special Features of the Garden 23 



Gardening can hardly be carried on advan- 

 tageously without the aid of a greenhouse or a 

 hotbed, and as the majority of gardeners cannot 

 afford a greenhouse a plea is entered for the hot- 

 bed, which anyone can afford. In the following 

 pages are suggestions for making and caring for 

 the hotbed, which will show how simple it really is, 

 though it is generally looked upon as being some- 

 thing difficult to make and as more or less hard 

 to operate. 



With the aid of the hotbed the length of the 

 flower season is increased almost one third. In 

 the hotbed only can heat, light, and air be properly 

 regulated for tender young plants. When the 

 attempt is made to plant seed indoors in boxes, 

 awaiting transplanting to the out-of-doors later, 

 they are often killed by someone thoughtlessly 

 leaving the door open and creating a draft, or by 

 neglect to keep them supplied with moisture, as 

 watering so often means wetting the % floor unless 

 the box has unusually good drainage. When the 

 soil becomes dry and hard, and wet and soggy, 

 alternately, they will not live. The hotbed has no 

 other motive than to protect and promote the life 

 of young plants, and it should be placed in a corner 

 so easy to reach that when the hardening-off pro- 

 cess has begun the plants may receive daily atten- 



