March: Fourth Week 



FIRST PLANTING OF FLOWERS OUT-DOORS; 

 PRUNING ROSES; WORK WITH THE HARDY 

 BORDER; GETTING A START WITH ANNUALS 



Spring work in the flower garden, like that in the veg- 

 etable garden, cannot be done all at one time. But the 

 earher start you can get, and the more you can keep ahead 

 of the several jobs to be done, the better. To do their best, 

 flowers require a large amount of moisture in the soil, and 

 the best way to provide this is to work the beds up as soon 

 as rainy weather lets up. 



For the purposes of planting, it is important to know 

 whether flowers are hardy, half hardy or tender. This in- 

 formation is almost always given on the packets in which 

 the seeds come. It is a good plan to plant flowers of the 

 various groups soon after you plant vegetables of the cor^ 

 responding groups. Sweet peas, however, should be planted 

 as early as possible. 



Along with other information on your packets of flower 

 seeds you will note the direction "or start early under 

 glass." You may have started some already if you have a 

 hot-bed; if not it is by no means too late to start them in the 

 cold-frame or the hot-bed now — but you must do it at once. 

 The half-hardy and tender plants cannot safely be planted 

 in the open for four to seven weeks to come. If seeds of 

 these are to be sown in flats and the seedlings transplanted 

 lejore setting out in the garden, they may be put in quite 

 thickly. If there is not time or room for this sow the seeds 

 rather thinly in rows four to six inches apart in the frame 

 and thin the plants to stand two or three inches apart. In 

 this way a good supply of stocky Uttle plants, which will 

 advance your flower garden several weeks, can be grown 

 with very httle trouble. 



75 



