THE GARDEN PRIMER 



succeeding pane over the preceding one by half an 

 inch, in the way shingles are overlapped in roofing. 

 A brad under each lower corner will keep the panes 

 from slipping down. 



With the hotbed placed upon the packed manure 

 (the back or high end to the north always), proceed 

 to bank up on the outside with more manure quite up 

 to the level of the lower or front edge. Then spread 

 the soil, which is to be the actual seed bed, inside, 

 making it from four to eight inches deep according to 

 what you intend to grow. The shallower depth is 

 quite sufficient for salad or for flower plants only 

 radishes and deeper growing root crops require the 

 deeper bed. The planting soil of the hotbed should 

 be rich and soft and friable good garden earth with 

 a mixture of sand is best. 



Put the sash on the bed, and let it heat up the 

 earth inside. It will be hot for three or four days 

 much too hot, at first, for any planting. Keep a 

 thermometer inside the frame; do not begin planting 

 until it drops to 90 F. or less. 



As the plants must remain in the bed for two months 

 it will be necessary to thin out the seedlings to make 

 room therein. This should be done as soon as they 

 appear in order to give the ones spared plenty of room 

 to develop right from the start. Some of the plants 

 may later be transferred to the coldframe if it is too 

 early for them to go out into the garden and the hot- 

 bed becomes overcrowded. 



48 



