78 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



This sounds very plausible, for are not vegetables so 

 dealt with, the green string- beans in our garden being 

 always sown every two weeks from early April until 

 September first? Yes, but to vegetables is usually 

 given fresher and deeper soil for the crop succession 

 than falls to flower seeds, and in addition the seeds are 

 of a more rugged quality. 



My garden does not take kindly to this successive 

 sowing, and I have gradually learned to control 

 the flower-bearing period by difference in location. 

 Spring, and in our latitude May, is the time of universal 

 seed vitality, and seeds germinating then seem to possess 

 the maximum of strength; in June this is lessened, 

 while a July- sown seed of a common plant, such as a 

 nasturtium or zinnia, seems to be impressed by the late- 

 ness of the season and often flowers when but a few 

 inches high, the whole plant having a weazened, preco- 

 cious look, akin to the progeny of people, or higher 

 animals, who are either born out of due season or of 

 elderly parents. On the other hand, the plant re- 

 tarded in its growth by a less stimulating location, 

 when it blooms, is quite as perfect and of equal quality 

 with its seed-bed fellows who were transplanted at once 

 into full sunlight. 



Take, for example, mignonette, which in the larger 



