PLOTTING AND PLANNING 65 



Time- and trouble-saving devices innumerable will be sug- 

 gested by inventive boys and girls, who will now have their 

 special innings. Some of these devices, to be sure, seem 

 rather trivial, especially before they have been tested ; but all 

 may well be given a trial. One would hardly realize, for in- 

 stance, how cleverly a little clothespin will lend its aid ; as 

 an article for holding strings in place it certainly takes the 

 lead, pushing as it does so firmly and neatly into the earth. 



When the garden plan is finished, there will doubtless be 

 several copies of it made. One will be kept "for best " and will 

 be posted on some convenient wall for reference. 'Lettered 

 plainly, it will reveal at a glance many interesting things ; it 

 will tell what proportion of the land is to be given over to 

 general kitchen-garden purposes, what to the experimental 

 beds, what to a little nursery, to small fruits, to ornamental 

 shrubbery, flower plots, and borders. In the case of a small 

 inclosure that is expected to produce a variety of vegetables 

 and flowers, some of which can get along with less sun than 

 others, one is recommended to mark out quite definitely the 

 areas of sun and shade that can be counted upon. These, of 

 course, will change to correspond with the sun's path as the 

 weeks go by. 



The place of honor, however, in any well-regulated garden 

 will be reserved for the cold frame, since within it there will 

 be reared hundreds of little plantlings with which to stock all 

 the rest of the garden. Spare no pains, therefore, in choosing 

 for it a spot that combines the most complete shelter with 

 the most splendid sun exposure. For nowadays, even in very 

 modest home and school gardens, the cold frame is very prop- 

 erly playing a leading part, and every day its value is being 

 more and more appreciated. 



Desirable in every way as it would appear to work out the 

 whole plan (this being in accordance with the advice offered 



