CHAPTER X. 



WINDOW GARDENING. 



WINDOW gardening is something more than simply 

 filling a box with plants. We hear green-bouse 

 construction men speak of the window garden meaning the 

 addition put on the outside of a window thereby making a 

 miniature green- house heated by the sun and the warm air 

 of the room. The Civic Improvement Societies speak of 

 window gardening and window boxes referring to those 

 boxes filled with plants and placed on the outside of tene- 

 ment houses for the spring and summer. Again, we hear 

 of window gardening and window boxes in the autumn 

 for the cultivation of plants inside the house. Window 

 gardening in its broadest sense includes even more than 

 all these. It includes the preparation of the soil, the 

 artistic filling of the boxes or arrangement of the pots, 

 either inside or outside of the window, and the care and. 

 treatment of the plants. 



The present methods of heating and lighting by kero- 

 sene or gas (not electricity) produce a dry atmosphere 

 which is detrimental to the vegetable growth. In houses 

 lighted by electricity and heated by any system which 

 introduces an abundance of fresh air, the matter is not so 

 troublesome. Too much heat and dry air are harder for 

 plants than insufficient light, but lack of light is also one 

 of the drawbacks of the window garden. Dust and insects 

 do harm but are more easily overcome. On account of the 

 dry air, plants often do better in boxes than in pots be- 

 cause there is more soil space to evaporate moisture, 

 which makes a moist atmosphere about them. Water iu 

 zinc pans under the pots accomplishes the same purpose, 

 but the pots should be raised so they do not set in water. 

 Saucers will answer the same purpose but the moisture is 

 likely to pass through the pores and injure the woodwork, 



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