76 AROUND THE YEAR IN THE GARDEN 



A Substitute for a Cold-frame 



If not even a cold-frame is available a specially prepared 

 seed bed may be made in some sheltered place, south of a 

 wall or building, and protected from any drip from the eaves 

 above. Spade up a narrow border four or five feet wide, 

 raising it a little above the general level of the garden. Un- 

 less it is naturally good soil and can be made fine and mellow, 

 put on top some four inches of clean, rich soil from one of the 

 old flower beds. Make the bed perfectly smooth and mark 

 out shallow drills six to ten inches apart. Cover the flower 

 seeds lightly and then roll, or gently pack down the whole 

 surface with the back of the spade. This bed should be 

 conveniently situated, so it can be watered either with the 

 hose or with a watering can. In preparing the bed, rake in 

 a good dressing of bone flour. The plants should be thinned 

 out as soon as they are large enough so they will not crowd. 

 With very little extra work you can have from a border four 

 by six feet a good many hundred plants of many different 

 kinds ready to set out in the beds only a little later than 

 you would ordinarily sow the seed. 



Plants that do not lend themselves to transplanting, such 

 as poppies, and some of the quick-growing annuals, like 

 portulacas, are almost always sown where they are to flower. 

 The surface of the soil should be made as fine as possible, no 

 matter how many times it has to be gone over. The seed is 

 thinly broadcast or dropped in rows on the surface, if very 

 small, and pressed into the soil with the edge of a board or 

 with a brick. 



In preparing the flower beds work in all the manure and 

 humus you can and in addition give a top-dressing of bone 

 dust or mixed fertilizers. If the beds are spaded up some 

 weeks before you expect to plant them rake them over 

 occasionally to destroy sprouting weeds and to maintain a 

 dust mulch. 



If tree roots invade the flower bed cut down about the 

 edge of the bed with an edger or with a sharp spade, going 



