The Garden Magazine 



Vol. Ill— No. 4 



Published Monthly 



MAY, 1906 



( One Dollar a Yea» 

 1 Ten Cents a Copt 



Good News for Late Beginners 



ON April 15th, when this number ap- 

 pears, practically all the old sub- 

 scribers to The Garden Magazine will have 

 finished their planting plans and the actual 

 work will be started under better auspices 

 than ever, because of the "Planting Tables" 

 and other features of the Spring Planting 

 Number. 



But on May-day thousands of people will 

 be moving to the country or suburbs and, by 

 the time they are settled, they will be two or 

 three weeks late in planting their gardens. 



Several thousand people who read this 

 number of The Garden Magazine will not 

 have seen a copy before. 



It is fair to assume that most of these new 

 friends, will have rented places and will, 

 therefore, want to have the best possible gar- 

 dens for the least money. 



Also we shall assume that everyone of 

 them has had no previous experience in 

 gardening. 



Are you one of this goodly company? If 

 so, we welcome you to the ranks of a most un- 

 selfish and good-natured brotherhood of 

 honest outdoor enthusiasts. 



Every gardener loves a beginner. It will 

 be a pleasure if we can be of service to you. 

 If you cannot find what you want in the mag- 

 azine, do not be afraid to ask specific ques- 

 tions. We are never too busy to help be- 

 ginners, and if you will write at the top of 

 your letter "Beginners' Tr oubles, " you may 

 be sure of a prompt reply. 



A CLEAN-CUT, PRACTICAL PROGRAM 



The whole work of making a garden con- 

 sists of just about fifty operations of the first 

 importance, which are duly numbered and 

 listed in the April (Spring Planting) Number. 

 After each item you will find a reference to an 

 article about it. 



The cheapest way to make a garden, there- 

 fore, is to buy that number. It costs twenty- 

 five cents, and will certainly save much 

 strength, expense and vexation of spirit that 

 comes from consulting many books when a 

 man has no time to apply principles. 



What the belated beginner wants to know 

 is, how deep to plant, how far apart, when to 

 thin or transplant and how, when the crop 

 should be ready, etc. 



We give you our word of honor that never 

 before have these questions been answered 

 so well as in these April "Planting Tables." 



PLANTING PLANS WORTH $300 



If you can afford to spend $5.00 on garden- 

 ing this year (and we will show you that it 

 will pay you to do it) the best investment you 

 can make is to buy the first two volumes of 

 The Garden Magazine. 



These bound volumes, containing 596 

 pages of practical information for the am- 

 ateur, with 886 pictures, will cost you $3.35 

 and they will save you more than their cost in 

 one season, because they will enable you to 

 raise crops worth $3.35 with which you 

 would otherwise fail. 



Moreover these volumes contain planting 

 plans that would cost you $300 if you got 

 them in the regular way from a landscape 

 gardener. 



FOR EXAMPLE 



If you have a 50 x 100 lot, you will find a 

 diagram on page 139 for April, 1906, showing 

 exactly where to place each tree, shrub and 

 flower. That would cost you $100. 



If you have only 25x35 feet in your back 

 yard, you will find four original designs in 

 January, 1906, page 271, which would cost 

 you $25. 



If you want a 6 x 50 border of hardy per- 

 ennial flowers you will find a detailed plan in 

 this May number that is worth $50. 



If you want a combination vegetable and 

 flower garden of one acre> half an acre, one- 

 third of an acre or 60 x 60 feet, you will find 

 the most detailed instructions you ever saw in 

 January, 1906, page 265. A landscape gar- 

 dener would charge you $100 for such plans 

 and they would not be as good as these. 



If you can only spend ten minutes a day, by 

 all means make your vegetable garden 15 x 

 30 and follow the directions on page 71 of 

 the March number. You can raise $12.55 

 worth of vegetables— sixteen kinds — at a cost 

 of $1.00 and save a fee of $25. 



If you have only three in your family and 

 have plenty of time, make your vegetable 

 garden 22 x 34, follow the plan on page 268 

 of January, 1906, and your garden should 

 yield $25 worth of vegetables — three cents a 

 square foot! Isn't that plan worth $25 ? 



HOW TO SAVE ON TOOLS AND FERTILIZERS 



For a spraying outfit, see Volume I, page 



3 2 - 



For two outfits of tools, see Volume I, 

 page 134. 



For fertilizers, buy the chemicals men- 



tioned on page 236, Volume I, which will 

 cost you about $2.00 if bought separately. 

 They might cost you more if bought in the 

 form of ready-made, complete fertilizers sold 

 under a brand. Do not forget, however, 

 that analysis does not convey all that lies in a 

 fertilizer and if you know of a brand that 

 gives adequate results on your soil, by all 

 means use it again. 



NINETY DOLLARS FOR ANYTHING BETTER 



Everybody knows that ready-made plans 

 are not all that could be desired. Original, 

 personal things are best. 



Granting that all the bitter things you feel 

 like saying about ready-made garden plans 

 are true, how can you get anything better 

 for the beginner ? 



Anybody can improve on any plan after 

 one year's experience. "Improvement" is 

 merely adaptation to your personality and 

 your own conditions. There is no special 

 credit in that. 



We will gladly pay $50 for any illustrated 

 article by a beginner telling how he started 

 his garden after May 1, 1906 on an original 

 plan conceived on or after April 15th, pro- 

 vided the information is as practical and de- 

 tailed as any of the planting plans mentioned 

 above. 



To experienced gardeners who are inclined 

 to scoff at the "ready-made" idea we make 

 this offer: Send us the planting plan for the 

 best vegetables or flower garden you ever 

 made, even if you do not think it generally 

 adaptable, and we will gladly pay $40 for the 

 article, provided it is as interesting and ac- 

 curate as the one entitled "A Complete Garden 

 for a Family of Six" on page 265 of January, 

 1906. 



HINTS TO OLD SUBSCRIBERS 



There are twenty-six things to be done in 

 May, after the fifty things mentioned in the 

 April Gardener's Reminder have been done. 



These you will find in the Gardener's 

 Reminder for May, 1905, at page 169. 



Can you think of any important items that 

 should be added? 



IF FROST THREATENS 



i. Cover tender vegetables and flowers. 



2. Rake the litter back upon the straw- 

 berry patch if the plants are in blossom, or 

 on a small patch cover with cheesecloth — 

 a very slight covering will do wonders. 



3. Spray plants with cold water from the 

 hose at dusk. Early next morning see if 

 anything important is touched by frost. If 

 so, cover it from the sun and let it thaw out 

 as slowly} as possible. Spraying with ice cold 

 water will nearly always save a slightly frozen 

 plant. 



