WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH CANS 137 



In planting out the sods must be well bedded in moist soil which is 

 closely firmed around them and the surface kept loose. 



Cuttings and Layers. Many herbaceous stems of garden 

 vegetables root readily from cuttings. Higher heat and greater 

 moisture are as a rule requisite for such cuttings than for hard- 

 wood cuttings of fruiting and flowering plants, but some, like the 

 potato, sweet potato, globe artichoke, etc., root quickly in open 

 ground taken from sprouts taken from the parent stock, and others, 

 like the tomato, grow from cuttings of aerial stems. In the open 

 ground the soil must be warm and moist and the air moist also. 

 These conditions usually occur in California at the beginning or 

 especially towards the end of the rainy season, or they can be pro- 

 duced in a hot-bed at any time. The cuttings should not wilt, and 

 shade is of advantage when practicable, for cuttings made from 

 aerial stems, as they are more prone to collapse than sprouts from 

 the tuber or root crown. 



Layering is often a handy way to multiply many vegetables 

 with branching stems. Cover the stems with moist earth and they 

 usually root readily. In some cases a short slit with a knife length- 

 wise of buried stem aids in rooting. 



A Consideration of Cans. It would not do to ignore the can 

 method of vegetable growing and deny this refuse tinware its place 

 in amateur gardening, for really some very creditable things are 

 done in cans. If one prepares the right kind of soil, with such 

 texture that it will form neither a leach nor a brick, and then strives 

 for correct temperature and moisture conditions and makes drain- 

 age holes enough, a plant will grow in a tin can as well as in some 

 more distinguished receptacle. Many housewives grow very 

 creditable tender plants for planting out by using old cans and a 

 sunny window shelf. Some devoted city gardeners make surpris- 

 ing successes on the old can foundation. In San Jose a few years 

 ago there was a back yard twelve by twenty-five feet surrounded by 

 high whitewashed fences and sheds which cast a blinding glare in 

 the eye of the visitor. Gardening enthusiasm and tin cans trans- 

 formed the scene. Tomato vines ran above the eaves of the shed, 

 being trained to the wall like grapevines. Between the tomato 

 plants were squash vines from which the laterals and leaves were 

 cut as they grew toward the roof, so that they were little more 

 than a bare stem below the eaves, but had a most luxurious growth 

 at the eaves and on the roof of shed and back porch and along top 



