The Garden Magazine 



Vol. II.— No. i 



Published Monthly 



FEBRUARY, 1906 



| One Dollar a Year 

 I Ten Cents a Copy 



[Note. — For Table of Contents of this month's number see 

 page 7.] 



The Wonderful Things You Can 

 * Do With a Hotbed 



A HOTBED is a device that will enable 

 you to get fresh vegetables a month 

 earlier than usual this spring. 



It costs $3.00 plus a little elbow grease. 



March is plenty soon enough to sow the 

 seeds, but the time to get a hotbed is now. 



There are seventeen desirable kinds of 

 vegetables you can grow in hotbeds, but it 

 is worth while to have one of these structures 

 simply to grow tomatoes. 



Every day you gain on tomatoes before 

 August 1st is clear profit, because no matter 

 when a tomato plant begins to bear it will 

 continue to do so until killed by frost. 



You can have tomatoes all through July 

 and possibly even in June, if you have a hot- 

 bed. 



You can also have in July the heat-loving 

 relatives of the tomato, viz., the eggplant and 

 pepper — a month ahead of time. 



YOU CAN GAIN A MONTH 



On the whole cabbage outfit : Cauliflower, 

 kohlrabi and cabbage in July; Brussels 

 sprouts in August and the Englishman's 

 frequent substitute for cauliflower — broccoli. 



On that delicious home vegetable — celery — 

 you can make a notable saving. 



On vines of the gourd family: Fancy 

 fresh slicing cucumbers in June; luscious 

 muskmelons in July. 



As to the short-season crops, like lettuce 

 and radishes, which only need a month or 

 so, you can reel them off any time in the 

 year. With three or four hotbeds you can 

 enjoy these two all winter. 



The things that require two months of 

 growth are beans, beets and parsley. 



FRESH VEGETABLES THIS MARCH 



In fact, if you had a hotbed right now you 

 could taste home-grown lettuce and radishes 

 in March; beans, beets and parsley in April. 



Figure it out for yourself. A hotbed is 

 three feet by six. It will hold twenty-eight 

 heads of lettuce — two heads a daw 



That means enough to last a family of six 

 for a fortnight. 



At forty cents a pound or ten cents a head 

 (midwinter prices) a single crop of lettuce 

 would cost you, if bought from the grocer, 

 $2.80, nearly as much as you paid for the 

 sash. A hundred per cent, in two months! 



Has your boy ever earned any pocket 

 money? I wonder if he wouldn't like to 

 raise a lot of young tomato plants to sell this 

 spring ? 



DOES IT REALLY PAY? 



Perhaps not, if you charge up your time, 

 cost of the manure, the old boards you pick 

 up around the place, doctor's bills in case 

 you catch cold, etc. 



But it's fun. And you get better varieties. 

 The tomato plants you buy of the local 

 grocer are "any old kind," with fruit that is 

 too big perhaps, or wrinkled, or an unat- 

 tractive pink instead of an honest red. In 

 short not suitable for dainty slices. 



YOU NEED A COLDFRAME TOO 



A coldframe differs from a hotbed in not 

 having any artificial heat. It has seven 

 reasons for existence. 



1. It can supply lettuce, radishes and 

 spinach all winter. 



2. You can winter cabbages and cauliflower 

 in one and thereby gain a month because 

 you can set out good big plants in April. 



3. If tea roses are not hardy in your 

 climate you can store them in a frame all 

 winter. 



4. The very choicest foxgloves and lark- 

 spurs can be raised cnly with the aid of cold- 

 frames. 



5. You can have no end of pansies, violets, 

 English daisies and polyanthus primroses in a 

 coldframe. They will bloom for a month or 

 more between February and April. 



6. When your vegetable plants this spring 

 are too large for your hotbed, you want to 

 put them in a coldframe where they can 

 '"harden off" before you set them out in the 

 garden . 



7. Last, but not least, with a coldframe 

 alone you can gain a week or two on the 

 vegetable season this spring. 



HOW TO GET THEM 



If you are not handy with tools and don't 

 want the bother, you can buy ready-made 

 sash locally or have them made by a car- 

 penter. Or you can order them from the 

 seedsmen or makers of greenhouses. 



If you want to save money you can buy 

 the glazed sash and do the rest with hammer 

 and saw. 



For "The Making of a Hotbed, " see The 

 Garden Magazine for March, 1905, page 



58. 



For "What Coldframes are Good For and 

 How to Make Them," see February, 1905, 

 page 30. 



The bound volumes of The Garden 

 Magazine are a fund of information like 

 that. 



Do you bind your volumes? 



Better do so now, or it will be too late. 



Early vegetables are the most pleasing returns from i notbed 



