The Garden Magazine 
VoLuME XXIII 
sun and food from the air and earth through the 
medium of water is the work of plant growth car- 
ried on. Under natural conditions we can in our garden 
operations make little change in the heat and light of the 
sun,. or the food and water in the soil and air; plants adapt 
themselves to Nature’s environment. Under the intensive 
cultivation of plants, though more when under glass than 
when in the open air, we can and do profoundly modify 
Nature’s conditions, and greatly accelerate or retard plant 
growth. But when we are growing plants in a natural way 
for their beauty we should expect in general not to be re- 
quired to give their physical wants continuous attention. 
Food and water we must give them, for as soon as we take 
them into cultivation we are taking them partly out of the 
control of Nature, but this special feeding can easily be 
overdone. 
ATER is perhaps the most important element for 
WV plant or animal life; with light and heat from the 
WE HAVE enough trials, as weeds, bugs, and disease, 
without adding frequent watering to the list of things 
that must be watched for, if we can avoid it. A border 
that needs constant watering is scarcely worth while. If 
your little patch of vegetation begins to wither in early sum- 
mer the cause is easily located—the plants do not fit the soil, 
or the soil the plants, which is the same thing. The fault is 
the gardener’s, and not to be laid against Nature because she 
does not rain upon it at once. So we seize the hose or 
watering-can, sprinkle for five seconds, and exclaim men- 
tally, “Now grow, confound you.” To-morrow we repeat the 
operation, then forget it for a week, the plants fail, and we 
tell our friends that our soil is too dry to raise anything, 
while thrifty Docks and “Pusley” fill our beds. You never 
saw Nature out with a watering-can sprinkling a 10 by 20 
piece of ground; her work is on a larger scale, and she waters 
your little plots with her larger ones; her gardens rarely look 
dry, but flourish through the heats of summer. 
4 the gardens of the unjust gardener as upon those of the 
just, yet the unjust gardener blames the weather and not 
himself. In New England we do not have as heavy rainfall as 
in Oregon, and yet the grasses and trees survive and flourish; 
so should the plants of the gardener who plants with wisdom. 
The arid angle of the front steps will not raise Cardinal 
Flower ‘nor Japanese Iris—better try Sedums. Three inches 
of soil and a subsoil of gravel or cinders will scarcely sup- 
port a thrifty crop of lawn, even if you keep the sprinkler 
going eternally. With the first preparation of the ground we 
plan for future droughts by deep digging (at least two feet) 
and unless the soil is naturally retentive of moisture we add 
a great deal of decayed vegetable matter (old manure, rotted 
leaves, sod, etc.) to act as a sponge, and work it in deeply. 
For here we have the secret told by the grasses and trees. 
“In August we do not depend on water from overhead (rain) 
but from the everlasting springs below our roots which for- 
ever are sending up moisture to the surface. By shading 
our soil surface with our green tops or blanket of dried 
leaves we keep the sun from sucking this up, and save it for 
ourselves.” Nature works simply and effectively, and the 
everlasting springs send up all summer by capillary action 
THE RAIN falls on the just and the unjust, as much on 
FEBRUARY, 1916 
17 
NumserR 1 
just as much moisture per square foot in your Pansy bed as 
in your neighbor’s potato field, if the soil is of similar nature. 
You let the sun have your share—why? Anything to stop 
this surface evaporation is all that is necessary. 
4 that he is killing the weeds, but he is doing more than 
that, for he is also making a dry-dust mulch about an 
inch deep, through which but little moisture can pass. Your 
annuals should also be hoed, just as vegetables, and never let 
the earth get a hard dry crust, for the sun is looking for just 
such spots for a drink. Water with your hoe and rake, and 
throw the can on the dump. On the other hand, where 
specially succulent vegetables are wanted—and these, bear 
in mind, are highly artificial productions—it is quite proper 
to resort to quite elaborate irrigation methods. 
In the hardy border and among the shrubs it is not well 
to hoe every week through the summer, unless you like a 
few plants set in bare stretches of soil. Thorough deep 
trenching of the soil before planting helps the roots to 
strike deeply, and for the rest we have other mulches. Shrubs 
or herbs that entirely shade the ground will stand longer 
droughts than will those planted where there are open 
spaces; plant to have all the surface shaded, just as Nature 
does in the meadows. Newly set trees and shrubs should 
have a mulch of leaves, hay, or even boards or burlap the first 
summer, as the roots have not yet struck deeply. You will 
find the under side of this mulch damp even in the longest 
droughts. This is not necessary nor feasible in the border, 
for properly planted as to distances in well-prepared soil 
with plants suitable for very sunny situations, there will 
be no need for the ministrations of the hose under ordinary 
conditions, and never before July. 
4 through the summer, particularly in August, and near 
large shrubs or the house foundations, water is sometimes 
necessary. When the herbage wilts down in the hot sun of 
midday, and scarcely recovers before the next sun, then apply 
water, but do not sprinkle. Let the water run all night, or 
until the ground is saturated for several feet down, for the 
under-supply is insufficient for the rampant vegetation of 
your bed. You see that Nature was planning something simpler 
for that spot, so you must help her out. Put on so much water 
that no more will be needed for at least a week, and the next 
day carefully loosen the surface soil in any exposed places. 
As a rule, water late in the afternoon, at night, or when 
cloudy, to cheat the sun. Do not use cold water from pipes 
far underground; try some on yourself and see how the 
plants will like it, for they are even more sensitive to cold 
than you are when they are growing vigorously. If you have 
not surface water from pond or brook, see that the water you 
use has first been exposed in an open tank to the sun for half 
a day; you have no idea how much difference it makes to the 
plants. As a rule, don’t water much after the first of Sep- 
tember, except in the case of very late bloomers that you 
wish to keep luxuriant; the soft weak growth made in late 
autumn always winterkill. Nature ripens things off in Sep- 
tember by drying before the time of frost, and thus gets 
ready for winter. 
THE farmer uses his hoe and cultivator; he may think 
BUT to keep a luxuriant growth of many border herbs 
