12 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



February, 1 906 



mained until I planted them out May ist, 

 expecting daily to find they had succumbed 

 to the cold. But they thrived, and when the 

 blossoms finally appeared I felt rewarded 

 for my tribulations. Another year I shall 

 transplant all of my seedlings to the hotbed, 

 as the asters, cosmos and salvias with which 

 I filled the one sash alloted to me grew so 

 well that it proved to me a ,hotbed is the 

 only place to raise early plants. 



One of the beds was filled with Empress 

 candytuft, which bloomed in the middle of 

 June and stayed in bloom several weeks. Two 

 weeks later a bed of stocks in all the lovely 

 pastel shades was in bloom, another had 

 Phlox Drummondi and calendula in bloom, 

 and the fourth was of Shirley poppies, which 

 of course bloomed where they were .sown. 

 The four other long beds were planted with 

 roses and gladioli, which was effective but 

 will never be repeated, as the roses were 

 handicapped. They have been put in my 

 new picking garden (poor things, the third 

 time transplanted) in a specially prepared 

 bed where they will be unmolested. 



The old rose beds have been planted with 

 irises, each bed a different color, and gladioli 

 will be put in with them in the spring. 



Gladioli I tucked in wherever it was possible 

 and found them most attractive for filling in 

 gaps left by early perennials which could be 

 cut down. 



That there were no bare spots in the garden 

 I was proud, but I could never persuade the 

 gardener that his way of "fine bik bets" on 

 the lawn would not have been better. I did 

 overhear him asking the laundress one day 

 if she had ever seen such a fine garden and 

 "was it not like a park?" so I believe he 

 secretly admired. With his knowledge of 

 planting, manuring and with my "book 

 knowledge, " we pulled smoothly together, 

 and even if he had never before raised a 



flower or knew hardly one by name my gar- 

 den could not have been the success it was 

 without him. 



Between us we gave my dear old dog a 

 "garden education " and only those who 

 have had both a garden and a dog can sym- 

 pathize. At first my despair was great but 



GRASS WALK ZJr FT WIDE. 



PERENNIAL BOADEft 4 FT. INIOE 



HEOQE ANNUAL HELIANTHUS C C*/ARf) 



The garden was laid out on the radial plan 



he is wise and was soon walking only the 

 straight and narrow path of grass. 



The hedge or "fence," as old Schmidt 

 calls it, of dwarf helianthus or sunflower was 

 extremely pretty until the first hard storm 

 wrought havoc with it and .it never looked 

 the trim little hedge again. But it bloomed 

 until frost and was a pretty background. 



Another year we shall support it securely 

 by driving stakes into the ground at intervals 

 on both sides and nailing long strips between 

 t«he stakes to the height of about two feet. 



One day in May the garden looked so 

 charming to me with its 500 yellow tulips 



blooming that I was tempted to take a snap- 

 shot with my panorama kodak. In June 

 and each month with its successive bloom 

 the change was so great and so interesting 

 to me that my cameja was made to testify. 



After the tulips, which were planted as 

 borders and which remained in bloom for 

 several weeks, came columbines, peonies, 5 

 oriental poppies, German iris, Sweet Will- 

 iams, hardy pinks, candytufts, and Canter- 

 bury bells and foxgloves, the Jatter planted 

 behind the former, making one of the most 

 charming effects in the whole garden. 



The Jul}' photographs show the garden 

 with a riot of flowers and color. The sun- 

 flower "fence" is in bloom, and hollyhocks, 

 Shirley poppies, Japanese iris, snap dragon, 

 stocks,' Phlox Drummondi of all colors, and 

 one or two varieties of the perennial hardy 

 phlox, calendula, platycodon, Gaillardias, 

 Shasta daisies, golden glow, Achillea The 

 Pearl, California poppies, and the annual 

 and hardy coreopsis. 



In August the garden became more gor- 

 geous in coloring with the hardy sunflowers; 

 all the hardy phloxes, planted with each color 

 massed; hydrangeas in white, with the border 

 of sweet alyssum around them, salvia, with 

 hibiscus (crimson eye) planted near; the 

 whole making a pretty effect, and the asters 

 and gladioli were blooming profusely. 



The September garden is nearly the same 

 as in August, with the appreciable change of 

 dullness coming over all. The hydrangeas 

 are changing to pink, and everything looks 

 faded and worn, with the exception of white 

 Boltonia asteroides which blooms in Septem- 

 ber, and looks like large white bouquets. 

 After this there was nothing to anticipate but 

 the cosmos and chrysanthemums. The lat- 

 ter were a disappointment; the reason I 

 have yet to learn. But the cosmos I picked 

 in armfuls. 



Orchard Fruits in a Rented Garden— By William c. McCollom sa 



THE ADVANTAGE OF THE TRAINED DWARF TREE— A PRACTICAL METHOD OF GROWING SEVERAL VARIETIES 

 AND MAINTAINING A SUCCESSION OF FRUITS ON A SPACE THAT ACCOMMODATES ONE ORDINARY TREE 



GATHER apples and pears two years after 

 planting the trees ? Impossible, you 

 say! Not at all. I have done it, others do 

 it, and so may you. Of course the large 

 orchard trees commonly seen take five or six 

 years to reach fruiting age, but by planting 

 dwarf trained trees the seemingly impossible 

 may be attained. The owner of a very small 

 garden need not despair of enjoying luscious 

 pears and juicy apples from his own trees 

 either. Let him plant dwarfs. They occupy 

 so little room that even the average city plot 

 would easily accommodate a score. 



There are several reasons why the trained 

 dwarf trees are so precocious. 



In the first place, the nurseryman selects 

 his very best specimens for training because 

 he knows that in the end they will bring him 

 the biggest prices; and he gives them the 

 best of care and attention afterwards. They 

 are expensive to buy, of course, because the 

 nurseryman has to give them individual atten- 

 tion. About seventy-five per cent, of the 



young shoots have to be removed during the 

 first season or two and they have to be rubbed 

 off before they are any size. It is by leaving 

 only a few branches instead of a hundred or 

 more that these trees are given stout, heavy 

 stems and limbs, which are the proper founda- 

 tion for clean, vigorous branches. 



An important factor in the production of 

 perfect fruit is proper pruning, which can be 

 easily done in the case of trained fruit trees, 

 as all parts of the tree are easily reached. 

 As the nurseryman starts the trees so must we 

 continue, selecting the best wood and tying 

 it in position, cutting out the weak, straggling 

 shoots that are only a detriment to the plant 

 and which are largely overlooked in the ordi- 

 nary type of fruit tree. 



THE ESSENTIALS OF CULTIVATION 



The first and the most important point in 

 the management of trained dwarf trees is a 

 thorough preparation of the soil. Trench 

 deep and put in plenty of manure. It is 



foolish to pay big prices for fruit trees and then 

 to plant them in hardpan or sand ; it is just 

 as foolish as paying ten thousand dollars for 

 a house and spending only ten dollars on 

 the foundation. Trench the soil at least 

 three feet deep, putting in not less than four 

 layers of manure; you will never regret the 

 money expended. 



This preparation should have been done 

 in the fall and the soil allowed to lie and settle 

 over winter. As scon as the ground opens in 

 the spring build up the trellis on which the 

 trees are to be trained. Make this strong 

 and have the posts set down so deep that the 

 frost will not heave them. Iron posts are 

 better than wood posts because the latter 

 will rot and there is always the chance that 

 just as soon as the trees are nicely trained the 

 posts will give way at the earth line, and in 

 a hard wind will topple over. The cross lines 

 of the trellis should be of strong galvanized 

 wire with a bolt in each strand so it can be 

 tightened to take up any stretching cf the 



