STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 25 



CHAPTER V. 



STARTinG T6G GARDGH ID TBG f)Ca?G 



O get the greatest possible return 

 out of a handkerchief garden, we 

 must forestall the growing season, 

 is the early potato that costs. We must 

 gather our crops when they are high- 

 priced in the stores, and thus credit the garden 

 on a "bull market." It is better to stop buy- 

 ing lettuce when it is seven cents a head than have 

 to wait till it is down to three cents. The market 

 gardener's chief profit isalways in these forwarded and 

 high-priced crops, and we must be equally sharp after 

 every early penny that grows in the garden. It is often 

 thought that only those who have green-houses and 

 hot-beds can thus hasten their early crop. Glass is 

 always a great help, and it pays to use it, yet for a 

 small home garden it is not necessary. Every house 

 has one or more sunny windows, and these make the 

 advanced garden where the early crops may be started. 

 Can't have troublesome plants making a slop and 

 dirt in your parlor ? 



Not the slightest need of it — if you know how 

 Besides, a neat box filled with young cauliflower 

 plants is rather pretty and suggests the spring, long 

 before the snow has gone. Even a box of young 

 potato plants, thrusting up green fingers towards the 

 light, may be quite a picture. Visitors will be sure 

 to look at the cheery bit of greenery and ask in all 

 innocence the name of the odd looking plants. 

 Spoil your carpet and fade your curtains ? 



