The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



the plants are able to stand full sunlight, which 

 will be as soon as they have grown their first 

 pair of real leaves. As the young plants increase 

 in size more and more air and sunshine should be 

 given them and due attention to watering must 

 be carefully observed. Lath screens to temper 

 the sun will be necessary and will be needed to 

 replace the sash when the plants are large enough 

 to dispense with it during the heat of the day; 

 these, in turn, may be replaced by wire screens 

 if there is any danger of predatory cats, chickens 

 or children, for it is the work of but a few mo- 

 ments for an entire planting to be destroyed by 

 any one of them. Puss likes nothing better than 

 to get into that nice warm hotbed and roll on the 

 soft warm ground and as for Biddy! 



It is surprising the number of things that may 

 be started in the hotbed and transplanted into the 

 open ground as soon as the weather permits, thus 

 gaining at least a month's start in the garden. A 

 great many of the vegetables that are always sown 

 in the open ground — beets, string or lima beans, 

 endive, lettuce — ^all may be started in the hotbed 



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