The Busy Woman s Garden Book 



size and supplied with a hinged hd of glass, are 

 sold by the florists but are easily manufactured 

 at home and are better than the open flats as 

 they enable one to regulate moisture, the prin- 

 cipal trouble — owing to the dry air of the living 

 rooms, the shallowness of the soil, in growing 

 plants in flats. 



Several holes for drainage should be made in 

 the bottom of the boxes and these covered with 

 pieces of shard or glass and the boxes filled to 

 within a half inch of the top with a good compost 

 consisting of fibrous loam — that shaved from the 

 bottom of sods — leaf mould, clean white sand and 

 a little well-rotted manure, all thoroughly mixed 

 and free from roughage. 



The seeds should be broadcasted, if fine, drilled 

 in if coarse, and the soil pressed down snugly over 

 them. In the case of fine seed it is a good idea 

 to cover with fine white sand instead of soil as 

 this is less subject to the minute fungus which 

 causes the deadly "damping off" so destructive 

 to plant life and especially troublesome in grow- 

 ing plants in the house. 



34 



