For reckoning dates, the latitude of New York City is generally taken as 

 standard. In applying the directions to other localities, allow six 

 days* difference for every hundred miles of latitude 



THIS MONTH'S BIG JOB is 

 Planning and Ordering. January 

 is the most important month in 

 the year, so far as your garden 

 problems are concerned. That is not said 

 merely because you will disagree with it. 

 It can be proved; and it is worth proving 

 because most folks think of it as the least 

 important, and thereby are handicapped in 

 their garden operations throughout the 

 year. Follow this: and if we're wrong tell 

 us where! 



There is only one test of the success of 

 private gardening — satisfaction: the personal satisfaction of the gardener. 

 Profit or loss, the commonly accepted standards of beauty, other considerations, 

 are secondary. For the gardener, whether he set out to grow a big tomato, or 

 create an Italian garden, is an artist: his first aim must be to satisfy himself 

 with his work. 



THE first step toward that end is a state of mind, plus a decision. The 

 state of mind is that which must precede any work of creation- — en- 

 thusiasm! Every good gardener is an enthusiast. "Gardener" is used here 

 not in a narrow sense: one who grows things, any kind of things. And the first 

 Tanuarv the Most things he should grow, or she — the first thing to be 

 ir / t tut u i grown is, ideas! What is the aim of your gardening? 



Important Month ! ^ what would you like to acc0 mplish? What, at the end 

 of the season would give you the greatest satisfaction? 



When you have answered those questions, you will have gone a long way to- 

 ward making this year's gardening successful. And the time to answer those 

 questions is now — January 15th, midnight, at the very latest. If you put it 

 off later than that you will be getting behind with your garden work almost 

 before it has begun, and you won't be able to "make it up" later. 



TTT'HA T would you like to accomplish? " That is not so easy to answer as you 

 rr thought, is it? Put it down on paper, and see. The best vegetable 

 garden in the neighborhood? The most 

 beautiful lawn on the street? Roses, 

 Poses! a petal-showering wealth or roses? 

 A hardy border in bloom from frost to 

 frost? The whole place a landscape 

 unit, a small bit of Nature's art, but 

 perfect in conception and execution? A 

 water garden with a silver fountain, a 

 joy forever in the summer sun? A shady 

 summer house, with high-backed wooden 

 seat, where you can loaf with book and 

 pipe — pardon, fair reader, I meant bon- 

 bon dish! The biggest squash you ever 



THE MONTH'S 



REMINDER 



JANUARY 1916 



grew? The finest collection of Cactus 

 Dahlias in town — there is no end to the 

 number of things you might like to accom- 

 plish, that are worth getting enthusiastic 

 about! 



Plant this Month 



^Vegetables for Forcing. Lettuce, radish, beans, 

 cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons. 



Cfl Flowers for Spring Plants. Pansies, daisies (bellis 

 perennis), geranium (seed), begonia, lemon ver- 

 bena, heliotrope, fuchsia, nymphaeas, stocks. 



€| Flowers for Fall and Winter. Cyclamen, gloxinias, 

 primulas, asparagus, smilax, cinerarias, solanum 

 (Jerusalem cherry). 



<J Roots for Forcing. Asparagus, rhubarb, sea-kale, 

 witloof chicory. 



lay-out as can be made. Study it care- 

 fully — and then adapt it to your own needs 

 and desires. Don't try to copy it exactly. 

 Flowers all season: Is it your ambition 

 to have flowers every week, every day, 

 until snow flies? It can't be done hap- 

 hazard. You'll be lucky to achieve it the 

 first year even with study. There is infor- 

 mation that will save you much trouble 

 and time on page 204. 



Gardening that gets there: You may be 

 one of those who says in his heart, "I love 

 my pretty flowers, but oh you fresh vege- 

 tables! " Well, there's a whole series of articles — the first in this issue — to help 

 you master your particular hobby. Take the gamble out of your gardening by 

 following Mr. Kruhm's series. And later, but in time for you to carry out a 

 complete programme for preparedness, we'll tell you how to put the "guard" 

 in gardening with modern equipment against insect invasions. 



Home-made fruit: You can't buy the best fruit. For one thing, much of it 

 has to be picked before it's fully ripe to "stand up" for marketing purposes, and 

 the full, satisfying flavor that the Lord intended to put into it never gets there. 

 For another — but J. R. Mattern, who knows home-made fruits from A to izzard, 

 tells what the ordinary man can do to keep his table supplied with the healthful 

 luxury of abundant fruit in a number of articles that will start and guide you 

 right. The first one is in this number. 



Gardening for greenbacks: Can the small garden be made to yield income as 

 well as inspiration? Yes; if you'll add some perspiration! That is what Mr. 

 Rockwell shows in "Pin-money Crops" a series in which he tells what things, 

 both vegetables and flowers, are suited to the conditions of small scale gardening, 

 and how to grow and sell them. In many a home garden $10 to $50 or more 

 kicks around in the dust every season and is never picked up because the owner 

 doesn't know where to look for it. Better make sure that you're not guilty. 



Make specific plans: We have taken the space to mention these features 

 here to suggest some of the things you can select to concentrate on in your own 

 work this year. That's all we can do. Now it's up to you. Make your choice 



Hitch Your Star (° r _ more than . one) 

 and then work it till 

 to a wagon ^e cows come home." 



You have got to decide to do something 

 belter than you ever did it before, better 

 than any one in your neighborhood 

 has ever done it. But your shining 

 resolutions will float away into space, as 

 they have done before, if you don't tie 

 them down at once. There is one best 

 way to tie it. Get a piece of paper. Go 

 out now, while your good intentions are 

 still white hot, adjust your new plans to 

 fit your grounds, and get the result down 

 on paper, measurements and all. 



BUT — that kind of enthusiasm will 

 get you nowhere. Like a puff of 

 powder in the open, it makes a lot of smoke, but doesn't start anything. Unless 

 you've unlimited wealth, you can't accomplish all these things at once. And 

 right here comes the point of this whole preachment; come to a definite decision 

 about what you will do, this year. Get your new catalogues, read your books, 

 look through your magazines, and generate all the enthusiasm you wish- — but 

 by the 16th sit down and write in ink your definite aims for this season's garden- 

 ing. Remember the date. I am always chary about mentioning garden dates. 

 Most of them are often misleading. But this one is important: mark it on 

 your calender in red ink. 



IN COMING to a decision about the line of improvement, or definite accom- 

 plishment that will be likely to give the greatest satisfaction at the end of 

 the season, each gardener must of course, fall back upon personal taste and 

 experience. But I have one word of warning for the beginner — don't attempt 

 too much! It is so easy to accomplish — on paper — all the different things you 

 can think of, and would like to see done; it is so much easier to wield a pencil 

 than a hoe. With an hour's hard work with a pencil you can do a whole season's 

 work on a good sized place ; with a hoe, you can plant two or three rows of beans — 

 just plant them. Become a specialist; concentrate; and make sure of results. 



HITCH your general garden enthusiasm to a special hobby, and make the 

 dirt fly! That doesn't mean that you should have no other interests; 

 far from it. But do a few things as well as it is possible to do them; and the 

 others as well as you can. One of the strong features of The Garden Magazine 

 Have a ' s *- nat; ^ n tn * s sense it * s a specialist's magazine. Let us see 



_ , __ , , what we can do in laying out your work for this year. 

 Iraraen Hobby pi ou , er gardens: If you are a lover of flowers, individual 

 flowers that you can get on friendly terms with, and personally minister to, 

 then flower beds of the old-fashioned sort, accessible, intimate, will be one of 

 your hobbies. Plan to keep the units small, or the beds long and narrow, 

 interspersed with grass or gravel walks, so that each plant may be get-at-able. 

 To have vigorous plants of your favorite kinds to set out, overhaul your old 

 plants at once, as described in a following paragraph; or order them when you 

 order seeds, to be shipped at planting time (of course you order plants from the 

 nurseryman or florist, and seeds from a seedsman). Orders are filled in rotation, 

 and the earlier your order is in, the better plants you get. 



The place beautiful: What is the ideal treatment for the whole place? There 

 is none — except to treat it as a whole. It depends on the personal equation, 

 plus conditions. But in the article on page 185 you will find as near an ideal 



WHILE January is the month of 

 fore-minders; there are also some 



timely reminders to be heeded now. 



Don't put off these things. This is the 



last chance you'll have to get fully caught 



up, or a little ahead [with your work, which will help wonderfully in the next 



three or four months. Make a list of all these things that apply to your work, 



and check them off as you attend to them. 



EARLY THIS MONTH 



Orders: It will soon be time to get off your orders for all kinds of things. 

 Send postals now for catalogues of every thing you want. 



Moving trees: With the late falls we've been getting, the ground usually 

 isn't frozen very deep by this time. Move deciduous trees. Very large or 

 valuable trees may be dug around, leaving a ball of earth to freeze solid later, 

 and then moved. 



Getting ice: Don't wait too long to secure your ice harvest; six inches of 

 clean virgin ice will give better material for keeping and refrigeration than ten 

 or twelve of frozen slush such as is formed in an "intermittent" winter. 



Frames in which there are growing crops, or that are supplied with heat, should 

 be cleared of snow as soon as possible after each fall. Frames occupied by hardy 

 plants, wintering over, may be left covered for several days, without injury, if 

 the temperature is well below freezing. Very little water will be required now. 



Greenhouse: Keep enough heat on in the morning to give a little air every 

 day it is not actually stormy. Be very careful not to over water. For fuller 

 details of greenhouse work see special article on another page. 



BEFORE THE END OF THE MONTH 



Wood: If there is wood to be hauled, or sawed and split, attend to it on 

 bright days now. Later, it would take time from other things. 



Insects: Not many available now, but egg-clusters of all kinds should be 

 searched for carefully and destroyed. See that your Grange or Garden Club or 

 Improvement Society offers a prize to the school reporting the greatest number 

 of tent caterpillar nests cut and burned by its pupils. 



Garden Equipment: Take advantage of the first comfortably warm day to go 

 over your garden tools, see that every bolt, nut, and thumb-screw works (soak 

 rusted ones in kerosene) ; make a list of any repairs or additions required. 



Plant supports: Cut or buy now, pea brush, bean-poles, tomato poles, posts, 

 that will be needed. 



Winter Spraying for San Jose scale should be done before the end of the 

 month — the last Saturday is the 29th. 



IT IS early yet to make hot beds, but time to be thinking about the manure 

 before the end of this month, if you want to start early in February. 



203 



