238 THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



tivated dandelions, however, are much more desirable, and 

 where there is sufficient ground they become an excellent 

 crop for school and home gardens. 



Dandelion seed should be planted in spring or early sum- 

 mer, in rows a foot apart, and be given careful tillage through- 

 out the season. The plants will then be of a good size 

 for cutting early the following spring. The entire crop 

 should be cut, however, and not allowed to produce blossoms 

 and seeds, because the latter will spread everywhere and 

 cause much trouble in grass lands and cultivated soils. 



PLANNING FOR WINTER FLOWERS 



By a little planning during the later weeks of summer and 

 the early weeks of autumn one can very readily have in- 

 doors an attractive show of blossoming plants from the time 

 when the killing frosts of October have cut off the display in 

 the out-door garden until the time for blossoming of the 

 winter flowering bulbs. The method by which this may be 

 brought about is to start seedlings out-doors in summer and 

 transplant them into small flower-pots, which are then buried 

 in the ground and kept growing thriftily out-doors until the 

 danger of frost requires that they be transferred to the in-door 

 window-boxes. In thus transferring, they may either be re- 

 tained in the pots which are to be buried in the soil or the 

 pots may be removed and the plants set directly in the soil. 

 The chief precaution necessary in the out-door treatment is 

 to cover the hole in the bottom of the flower-pot before it is 

 filled with soil, and then, after the plant has got a good start, 

 to lift the pot about once a week in order to break off any 

 roots that may have found their way through the bottom into 

 the soil below. 



