CHAPTER XXXVIII 



GARDEN MAKING AND SEED SOWING 



Do not be in too great a hurry to make your flower 

 garden in spring, for nothing is gained by working in 

 advance of the season. Wait till the water from melt- 

 ing snows and spring rains has had a chance to drain 

 off before you spade up the beds. 



When the ground is in such a condition that it 

 will not stick to the spade, but cleave away from it 

 and break apart easily, it will be safe to begin work. 

 The first thing to do is to spade up the soil to the 

 depth of at least a foot. A foot and a half is better. 

 Choose a warm, sunshiny day for this work, and throw 

 up the earth as lightly as possible, so that the air and 

 sun can take effect on it. Leave it until it is in a 

 condition to crumble easily before doing anything more 

 with it. Then get some well-rotted manure and mix 

 with it thoroughly. If you work it over once or twice, 

 you will have the soil fine, light and mellow, and 

 that is just what you want it to be. 



Do not sow flower seeds before you feel quite 

 sure that warm weather has come to stay. The enthu- 

 siastic young florist, and some older ones, too, for that 

 matter, always gets in a hurry to have his garden 

 made when he sees "green things growing," and quite 

 often he finds to his sorrow that "haste makes waste," 

 for our first early warm days are only promises of 

 what is to follow, and we ought not to be deceived 

 by them into thinking that summer has really come. 

 If you sow seed before the ground gets warm it will 

 rot. If the seed starts, a "cold snap" may come along 

 and kill your young and tender plants. Therefore, 

 don't be in too great a hurry. Remember that a plant 



