HOW TO START A GARDEN 61 



don't let the baby plants die for lack of water! 

 In warm, damp weather all seeds germinate 

 several days sooner than when it is cold. 



The most difficult thing to teach beginners is 

 thinning. I confess that to this day, after half 

 a century's gardening experience, I sometimes 

 make a fool of myself by sowing too many seeds 

 and hesitating afterward to pull out most of 

 them before they are an inch high. Nobody 

 knows better that if they grow larger they 

 become spindling or consumptive looking and 

 unable later on to bear large flowers; yet it 

 seems so cruel to kill all these healthy young 

 plants, each of which, if left to live, would prove 

 a source of daily delight for weeks, that well, 

 you must be ruthless or you had better quit 

 gardening; that's all. 



In pulling out crowded plants, be very careful 

 not to disturb the roots of those that remain, 

 especially in the case of poppies. Do your 

 thinning on cloudy days, if possible, or late in 

 the afternoon. Ordinary weeding, on the other 

 hand, especially when the hoe is used to scratch 

 off hundreds of plants, is most effective if done 

 early on a hot sunny day. That makes the 

 weeds wilt and unable to gain a new roothold. 



In a later chapter I shall speak of the weed 

 sorrel as an indication that the soil needs lime. 

 In my Maine garden I have never needed lime, 

 but that may be because the soil is light and 

 sandy and I use for most crops wood ashes, 



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