454 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May 1 



ly the size of the curtain roller. The splice 

 was made by driviag- the wooden roller into 

 a tin tube about a foot long-, the two wooden 

 rollers meeting' in the middl of the tube. 

 Then I used cheese- cloth for curtains. Two 

 curtains, about 9 ft. wide, shade the ground. 

 When the sun becomes too hot you simply 

 grasp the pole at the bottom of the curtain, 

 pull it down to the eaves, and hook it on a 

 couple of nails. In the afternoon, when the 

 dwelling shades the greenhouse, the pole is 

 loosened and the spring in the curtain- fix- 

 ture rolls it up in a j iffy. To work curtains 

 in this way there must be no posts nor sup- 

 ports under the rafters Now my green- 

 house works beautifully; in fac*-, the whole 

 arrangement has been a bigger success 

 than I often have. It is now full of flower- 

 ing plants; and about all the attention re- 

 quired is watering. Of course, it is better 

 to manipulate the curtains so as to give the 

 plants the full sun mornings and evenings; 

 but if Mrs. Root and I both want to be 

 away, the curtains can be left down perma- 

 nently for a day or two. In this case but 

 little watering would be needed. To get 

 rid of frequent watering as much as possi- 

 ble I have adopted the following plan: 



The plants iire all in pots. These pots 

 are plunged into the soil of the beds, not 

 only to the rims, but a little deeper. The 

 soil is all good potting- soil, made of old 

 well-rotted manure so that it will break up 

 fine, with the proper amount of sand, some 

 bone meal, ashes, or soot from the chim- 

 neys, some swamp muck, etc. This is eas- 

 ily worked and dug. To plunge a pot, I 

 use an iron spoon, such as they generally 

 use in the kitchen for a basting- spoon. The 

 edges are made very sharp with a file. 

 This spoon makes a tiptop post-hole digger, 

 if you will excuse the term; and I do believe 

 a large steel spoon with a handle like that 

 of a common auger would be a splendid 

 thing to dig post holes. With this spoon I 

 can make a hole for a pot very quickly. 



Now, one great reason why plants do not 

 thrive is a lack of drainage. Every pot 

 should have at the bottom broken crockery, 

 or, better still, lumps of soot from the chim- 

 ney, broken- up coals from the stove, or 

 something of that sort. I prefer the char- 

 coal or soot, as it is lighter than the broken 

 crockery, and possesses more or less fertili- 

 ty. For very small pots, use just a little 

 moss. Now, plants need air as well as 

 water and fertility. They must have air to 

 do their best; therefore I take my iron spoon 

 and make a hole a little lower than the pot 

 is to go. The spoon is pointed, you know. 

 This leaves a cavity under the bottom of the 

 pot; and if you should neglect your pot so 

 3'our plant gets pot-bound, it will send a 

 lot of white roots down into this cavity. 



The above may not be a new invention, 

 but it is a wonderful inven ion for me with 

 my own greenhouse. Plunge the pots down 

 to their rims, or a little more, so that you 

 can rake the soft soil right over them; then 

 give the whole bed a good watering. The 

 cavity under the pots will prevent injury to 



the plants from " wet feet." I should have 

 mentioned that, in making up the beds, 

 drain tiles every two feet not only gives 

 perfect drainage, but the tiles allow air to 

 work all through the soil, and up into these 

 cavities I have mentioned, left under each 

 pot. You will now readily see that plants 

 potted and plunged in this way are not apt 

 to suffer from drouth, even though they are 

 neglected for several days. Plants in full 

 bloom, or loaded with bloom, of course re- 

 quire more water; but the arrangement ans- 

 wers beyond my expectations for avoiding 

 the necessity of daily supervision. I expect 

 to give you some pictures of both outside 

 and inside, later on. This morning there 

 are 18 petunias in full bloom, and 2 speci- 

 mens of azalea aniollis just coming into 

 blooom. There are about a dozen different 

 roses, a wilderness of beauties in the way 

 of primulas, geraniums, some pelargoniums 

 just comicg out; fuchsias, ageratums, Ian- 

 tanas, genestas, vincas, sweet alyssum, and 

 a great variety of gorgeous colei, of all col- 

 ors of the rainbow. The hot end, where 

 the steam-pipes go through the wall, while 

 it would kill some of the plants, it is just 

 the thing for coleus to a dot. Some gold- 

 en-leaved salvias, contrasting with the 

 glittering scarlet acharanthus, set off the 

 whole as a sort of background. 



Do you say all these things cost money? 

 Well, almost all the plants I have mention- 

 ed cost from 3 to 5 cents each. Those from 

 cuttings, still less. The azaleas cost from 

 20 to 35 cents each. 



Now, there is just one more thing about 

 that greenhouse that makes it not only 

 a thing of beauty, but a jov for ever. Eve- 

 ry evening I have a great lot of papers and 

 periodicals tolookover — perhaps half abush- 

 el basketful. If I do not get through with 

 them and get them into the waste-basket, 

 they pile up in my secretary until it will 

 not shut up. Then Mrs. Root scolds. Per- 

 haps I might add she never scolds so but 

 that she is always ready to give me a kiss. 

 In fact, it is a sort of compact between us 

 in our married life, that, whatever ccmes 

 up, we can always " make up " at any in- 

 stant. Well, after I have read my periodi- 

 cals for a couple of hours my blood becomes 

 stagnant, and I get to feeling dull. It is 

 that feeling that prompted me to build that 

 greenhouse. I wanted something to get to 

 work at evenings — something for a change 

 or recess after this reading that I really 

 must do to keep pace with the business of 

 the great world. 



Now I will tell you what I do when I get 

 tired and stiff from too much reading. 

 There is an electric light that I can hook 

 over one of the rafters in any part of the 

 greenhouse. With this light turned on I 

 can mellow the soil among my plants, lift 

 out those that are becoming pot- bound, 

 sweep up, watch plant growth, and do any 

 thing else. The only trouble is, if I get 

 down to the greenhouse I get so busy (and 

 happy) that Mrs. Root can not get me to 

 stop when it is bedtime. 



