32 MAKING OF A FLOWER GARDEN 



posure to sun and air is best after the plants have 

 made some growth, providing there is no hint of frost 

 in the air. While the beds should never be allowed to 

 suffer from drought it will be best to let them dry out 

 occasionally, sufficiently to harden the plants and 

 encourage a stockier, woodier growth of stock and 

 branch. If there is room to transplant the plants in 

 the bed or one has auxiliary beds in which they can 

 be transferred, much benefit will accrue, especially to 

 such plants as asters, balsams, cabbage, cauliflowers 

 and the like, though most plants recover quickly from 

 the effects of crowding if the transplanting is ju- 

 diciously done. 



Especial care should be given to hardening off the 

 plants for a few days preceding transplanting, both 

 by withholding water and by giving full exposure to 

 the weather ; but the night before actual transference 

 begins the bed should be well soaked to enable the 

 plants to store up a generous supply of moisture to 

 serve them until the roots have recovered from the 

 shock of transplanting and are ready to resume the 

 work of extracting moisture from the soil. 



It goes without saying that the beds should be in 

 complete readiness for receiving the plants, and this 

 preparation should have been made several days in 

 advance of transplanting and before a soaking rain if 

 possible. Newly spaded and worked ground is in too 

 light and porous a condition for the setting of plants 



