The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



not run and wash the seeds out of the ground. 



The sowing of the seed is one of the fascinating 

 phases of gardening that every bom gardener en- 

 joys and the watching for the breaking of the 

 soil with the tiny green seed leaves is a joy indeed. 

 Unlike open air planting, there is rarely a failure 

 in seed germination if good seed is used. The 

 ideal conditions of warm soil, mellow, moist soil 

 of just the right consistency; protection from 

 changes of weather all make for a high per cent 

 of plants from the sowing, and the chief difficulty 

 is often an embarrassment of plants — that is they 

 come up too thickly, a trouble that is easily obvi- 

 ated by sowing quite thinly, holding back a por- 

 tion of the seed for later sowings if needed, or for 

 a later crop. 



Each variety of seed must be given a little plot 

 of ground by itself and should be separated from 

 its neighbor by thin strips of wood pressed into 

 the soil; this not only helps in identifying plants 

 of similar appearance, but also prevents the wash- 

 ing together of the seed when too much water is 

 applied. Where two or three different varieties of 



