44 MAKING OF A FLOWER GARDEN 



very conveniently if preferred ; a hoe of small blade 

 and light handle, suitable for chopping in between 

 plants of perennials and shrubs, and a trowel. This 

 should be of steel in one piece — no riveted handle 

 sort should be invested in — and it will be well to pur-- 

 chase three or four trowels and keep them in dif- 

 ferent parts of the garden, as they are apt to be 

 needed when not available and the extra steps re- 

 quired in running after them often result in a bit 

 of work being neglected that would be done were the 

 means of attending to it at hand when it was noticed. 

 Also it will be found a wise precaution to tie a bit 

 of bright ribbon to the handle of each trowel, as 

 there is no garden tool so prone to loss and to be- 

 ing covered up with the soil and weeds as this, 

 and the bit of bright color helps to identify it. 



Where the garden is planted in long even rows and 

 the plants set a reasonable distance — fifteen to eight- 

 een inches — apart, the use of a hand cultivator of 

 the Planet, Jr., type is possible and will so simplify 

 the work of caring for the garden that twice the 

 amount of space may be undertaken; the use of the 

 cultivator produces a far thriftier growth of plants, 

 but where the garden is laid out in formal beds it is 

 not practicable and one must use the hoe and spading 

 fork more or less. After the beds have been spaded 

 up in the spring and put in thorough order it will 

 not be necessary to do much deep digging, but rather 



