SPRING IN 



The professional florist succeeds with his seed- 

 lings because he has all conditions necessary 

 to success under control. This is not possible 

 in the living-room, hence our failure in our at- 

 tempts to grow plants from seed there. This 

 being the case, our efforts to " get the start of the 

 season" with early-sown plants are quite cer- 

 tain to prove abortive, and I would not encour- 

 age the amateur to undertake this phase of gar- 

 dening. If seed is sown in the garden when 

 the soil is warm, and the weather has become 

 settled, we will get flowers quite as early as we 

 need them. The spring-flowering plants and 

 shrubs will hardly have completed their blos- 

 soming-season before the earliest of the annuals 

 will begin to bloom. Therefore we can well 

 afford to wait for the annuals. 



* . '* / *",- 



THE first thing to be done in garden-work 

 is the spading of the beds. Do this about 

 the first of May at the North. Throw up the 

 soil in clods, and let it lie as it falls from the 

 spade for three or four days, exposed to the 

 action of the air and sun and possible showers. 

 By the end of that time a good deal of moisture 

 will have drained and evaporated from it, and 



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