186 MAKING OF A FLOWER GARDEN 



answer. It should be made fine and mellow and 

 should, by preference, be surrounded with a board 

 frame. This need be but a few inches high and 

 may be just four boards held together with stakes, or 

 the boards may be nailed together at the corners and 

 the frame set over the ground after the seeds are 

 planted. 



If there is any probability of the ground being dis- 

 turbed by chickens, cats or dogs, it will be best to 

 ;nail lath across the top of the boards, placing them the 

 width of the lath apart. This is a good plan any 

 way, as it affords a shade for tender little seedlings. 



Seeds of many hardy perennials may be sown in 

 the fall, making a distinct gain in time and also 

 lessening the amount of work to be done in the 

 spring, when there is always more to do than one 

 can find time for. 



Among the seeds which it best pays to sow are the 

 antirrhinum, digitalis, delphinium, poppies — espe- 

 cially perennial varieties — nicotianas, primrose, or 

 cowslips, lychnis, sweet alyssum, golden saxatile, hi- 

 biscus and the like. 



Such fine seed as poppies do not need to be covered ; 

 merely scatter as thinly as possible over the soil. As 

 poppy seed always comes up much too thick no mat- 

 ter how thinly one trys to sow it, it is a good plan to 

 mix a packet of the seed with a teacup full of dry 

 sand and scatter this as thinly and evenly as possible. 



