16 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN, 



weather has arrived out-of-doors, is several inches 

 high and well advanced in its natural life. In May 

 we remove it from the house to the garden, and it 

 thus reaches its full maturity even in our short out- 

 of-door season. Cultivated in this way it produces 

 its crop in August and September, whereas, if its seed 

 were planted out-of-doors, it would be cut down by 

 October frosts with only half a crop on its branches. 

 It might be thought that the seed could be sown in 

 the house in November and the crop thus be made to 

 mature in June. This would not work, for until the 

 spring really begins, it is nearly useless to attempt to 

 sow seeds in even the warmest house. The young 

 plants would be struggling against the solar tide and 

 wasting their lives for nothing. 



These facts in regard to the divisions of the grow- 

 ing year point to the first lesson in all horticultural 

 work. Whatever we do, much or little, whether our 

 garden be large or small, we must be forehanded. 

 We must always look six months ahead, always lay 

 out our workweeks in advance. If we wish tomatoes 

 in August, we must plant the seed in March, and this 

 means soil to put the seeds in, and to have good soil 

 in March we must piiepare it in November. Fore- 

 thought and forework are essential to success in 

 home gardening. 



To show what is meant by planning the work in 

 advance, I may from my journal give a few notes as 

 to what was actually done to prepare for the season 

 of 1888. By the first of November the last of the 

 celery in the garden had been taken up, and the 

 ground was left clear of all perishable crops. At odd 

 moments the soil was spaded up and left rough, thus 

 exposing it to the frost and rain to kill the eggs of 

 insects and the seeds of weeds, and by December the 

 out-of-door work was fairlv over. The five straw- 



