'", -IV 



Dbceubbb 12, 1912. 



The Florists^ Review 



37 



Japanese Basket of Gwtofu, Poiosettias and Farleyente. 



weeks, provided you have the bottom 

 heat, but if the wood is hard they will 

 be much slower, if they root at all. 

 C. W. 



BUILDING SOLID BEDS. 



the best 



Please inform me as to 

 method of making soliKi beds 

 houses. State the height of 

 and the depth of stone for 

 Any information on the subject will be 

 fully appreciated, as I have never used 

 solid beds. J. M. 



in green- 

 the curb 

 drainage. 



The methods of constructing solid 

 beds are as varied as are the styles of 

 raised beds. Almost every grower has 

 some pet ideas of his own, which are 

 duly incorporated in his plan of bench 

 building. Both wood and concrete are 

 used for the sides, and for drainage the 

 material ranges from broken stone to 

 solid earth. I will give you my ideas of 

 a practical solid, or rather semi-solid 

 bed, and then you can modify them to 

 «uit your case. 



Our beds all have wooden sides. "We 

 use 2x4 red cedar posts, set into the 

 ground about eighteen inches and 

 placed four feet apart. Against these, 

 on the inside, we place the side boards, 

 which may be one 12-inch pecky cypress 

 board or two 6-inch boards. We put 

 them on the inside of the posts for 

 two reasons: First, because the soil 

 is kept away from the posts, causing 

 less rotting; second, because the pres- 

 sure is against the posts, putting no 

 strain whatever on the nails which hold 

 the boards in place. The boards are 

 set with the upper edge about two 

 inches above the top of the posts, giving 

 a height, from the walk to the top of 

 the bed, of about fourteen inches. This 

 is high enough for all practical pur- 

 poses. 



For filling we use the cinders from 

 our boilers. We find them excellent for 

 this purpose. They seem to be better 



than gravel, which we used at one time 

 to fill out a lack of cinders. The gravel 

 seems to hold moisture longer, which 

 is undesirable. Just now broken stone 

 would act, I am not prepared to say. 

 The cinders are brought to within four 



inches of the top; the coarser clinkers, 

 etc., are worked to the bottom, so that 

 a fairly smooth surface mi^y be had. 

 If they are dry, they should have a 

 good soaking before the bed is filled 

 with soil. On top of the cinders we 

 put a thin layer of long stable manure, 

 and on top of this goes the soil, about 

 four inches deep. 



Pecky cypress boards will last about 

 eight years, while the cedar posts will 

 last twice that long. The sides, how- 

 ever, can be made of concrete if de- 

 sired. The height and general dimen- 

 sions would be the same as for the 

 board beds. Let the sides be an inch and 

 a half thick at the upper edge aild widen 

 to about five inches at the bottom. 

 Make your concrete out of clean gravel 

 and make it rich enough to make a first- 

 class job. Nothing, to my mind, could 

 be more exasperating than a concrete 

 bed with pieces broken out here and 

 there, as we frequently see where a 

 poor job has been done. 



If you use the wire-and-string method 

 of supporting your carnations, you will 

 do well to set pieces of 1-inch pipe, 

 about one foot long, into the concrete 

 about every fifteen feet. This will 

 allow for uprights made of ^^-inch pipe. 

 By using the same size of pipe for cross 

 pieces, with split tees to fasten them 

 to the uprights, a neat job can be done. 



A. F. J. B. 



Denver, Colo. — The Western Forestry 

 and Landscape Co., with offices in the 

 Empire building, has arranged to start 

 in the florists ' and nursery business and 

 is erecting a greenhouse at Edgewater, 

 Colo. A. H. Eounsvell is president of 

 the corporation, Leslie F. Paull vice- 

 president and F. L. Bounsvell secretary. 



Proterpine Tulip* and Romaat in a Simple Basket. 



