NcAv Year's Plans for Next Sufntner s Garden 



WITH the advent of the New Year, 

 most of us resolve that we are 

 going^ to do something more 

 satisfactory, or should I say accom- 

 plish something which comes nearer 

 to our ideal, than we achieved dur- 

 ing the year that is just past. To 

 make such a resolution materialize is no 

 mean accomplishment, and particularly 

 is this so with gardening. This gardefi 

 business is very much in the nature of a 

 race — a race against conditions, weeds, 

 insects, and last but not least, against 

 time. If we only had time enough in 

 spring, summer, and autumn, what a 

 splendid garden we could have. But our 

 time is always too short. The only way 

 to get ahead is to save time in every 

 possible way, and if you have resolved 

 to do this and start to do it now, you 

 have decided upon something well worth 

 while. Anyone who intends having a 

 garden, even if only a small one, and 

 who wastes time, even in mid-winter, is 

 accepting a severe handicap. 



There is no greater saver of garden 

 time than the planting plan. It means 

 that when things open up in the spring 

 every minute can be put into actual 

 work, and that everything- needed — 

 seeds, plants, fertilizers, and so forth — 

 will be on hand and in proper quanti- 

 ties. Thus there will be no waste of 

 time or materials. More than this, it 

 means vastly better results. 



Perhaps you have not done anything 

 as yet to improve your place, beyond 

 keeping the front lawn cut and planting 

 a few vegetables. Even so, if you only 

 have a piece of ground twenty by twenty 

 feet, make a plan of it now. This should 

 be drawn to scale, using a T square and 

 triangle for convenience, and should in- 

 dicate the space for and amount of each 

 vegetable wanted. Plan to have such 

 vej?etables as onions, beets, and carrots, 

 which remain in the ground all the sea- 

 son, in one section as far as possible, 

 and tall-growing ones, as corn, north 

 of the dwarfer kinds, in order to avoid 

 undue shadjng. 



In preparing your plan, make careful 

 use of the seed catalogues. The new- 

 ones will soon be out. Studv them thor- 

 oughly, but be careful in (he choice of 

 novelties, as they may not he adapted 

 to your locality. Try out a few, but go 

 easy. 



If you have no regular flower garden, 

 devote part of the vegetable garden to 

 flowers, or better still, mark off a long 

 narrow bed or border along some path. 

 Even if it means less vegetables, have 

 a few flowers. Some of the choicest an- 

 nuals and perennials are as easily grown 

 as carrots. You can start them yourself 

 with your early vegetables in the ihoMse 

 or in a hotbed. 



Henry Gibson, Staatsburg 



The hotbed should be got ready to- 

 wards the end of the month. A few 

 hours' work will see it an accomplished 

 fact. Select a warm, sunny, sheltered 

 position on the south side of the house 

 or some outbuilding. Clear the ground 

 off level, and if it is not frozen too hard, 

 dig it out to the depth of a foot or eigh- 

 teen inches, six feet square. This will 

 give room for two three by six standard 

 size sash, which you can buy either glaz- 

 ed or unglazed for a few dollars. 



The frame you can easily build your- 

 self or have someone do it for you. Make 

 the back six inches higher than the 

 front. ^ Ordinary three-quarter - inch 

 boards, supported by three by three posts 

 and banked on the outside with rough 

 manure, are all that are required, and 

 fhe labor is slight when one considers 

 the advantage of having a garden six 

 weeks ahead of time. 



Into the frame place the heating ma- 

 terial, twelve to eighteen inches of stable 

 manure. Some persons make a practice 

 of taking the manure directly from the 

 pit and using it. A far better way is to 

 take a sufficient quantity, and build it 

 into a square heap. This should be wet, 

 but not soaked, while being put up. 

 After the lapse of a' week turn it, and 

 build it up into a heap again, putting 

 the "outside inside" as much as pos- 

 sible. After a few days, put this into 

 the frame, tramping it down well, then 

 cover with about four inches of good 

 rich garden loam. 



If you have your soil protected from 

 frost in some convenient place, you will 

 be saved the none too pleasant task of 

 thawing it out over the furnace. When 

 the temperature of the bed 'has receded 

 to seventy degrees Fahrenheit, as indi- 

 cated by a thermometer plunged into the 

 .soil, the seeds may be sown. 



In the greenhouse, January is a busy 

 month. Towards the latter part of the 

 month the first sowings of early vege- 

 tables will have to be made. Stock 

 plants slhould be given more heat and 

 moisture to start new growth for pro- 

 pagating purposes. 



Tomatoes that were sown in Decem- 

 ber, for early fruiting indoors, will now 

 need repotting preparatory to being put 

 into the beds or fruiting boxes. Cu- 

 cumbers should be brought along to 

 follow the last crop of lettuce, which 

 should now be in the beds. If you are 

 short on pansies start more now, and 

 sow seeds of annuals for setting out 

 in the spring. 



If you are desirous of prolonging 

 your display of bloom indoors next 

 spring, start a batch of tuberous be- 

 gonias now. There are many excellent 

 varieties of these persistent blooming 

 plants that may be purchased at a 

 nominal cost. Start the tubers in boxes 

 (flats) of sand and leaf mould, keep 

 them warm and moist, and after the first 

 watering damp rather sparingly until the 

 young growth appears. Pot them into 

 suitable sized pots (preferably two and 

 one-half or three inch) before the shoots 

 become too far advanced, using a light 

 but ridh compost, made porous by the 

 addition of plenty of sand. Continue 

 to pot them on as they permeate the soil 

 with roots, until a six or seven inch 

 size is reached. In these they should 

 be allowed to flower. Feeding with 

 liquid manure or some approved fertil- 

 izer is advisable at this stage if the best 

 results are to be obtained. Don't, how- 

 ever, overdo it. Once a week or every 

 ten days is quite often enough to apply 

 stimulants. Once started and growing 

 well, tuberous begonias succeed best in 

 a compartively cool house, fifty two de- 

 grees at nig/ht being sufficiently high. 



Note the Floral Effect in Connection with thi> Modest Home, that of Mr. andMri. Wro. 



Knapton, London, Ont. 



