August, 1917 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



to have a few mild days, and it is then that I 

 look to find on the north side of the house a 

 few brave Snowdrops which somehow give 

 me a thrill of joy that the later flowers can 

 hardly bring. So you see that within and 

 without I manage to have flowers in my 

 garden every month in the year. When I 

 have been forehanded enough to have Pansy 

 plants in the coldframes, I have often picked 

 a Pansy an each of those barren winter months 

 about which Louise Beebe Wilder has written 

 with so much feeling. At the present writ- 

 ing (March 23), the Arabis alpina which is 

 planted with the Scilla sibirica is well budded, 

 and soon there will be a wonderful bed of clear 

 blue and white. 



I had a curious experience with my Arabis 

 two years ago. According to all the authori- 

 ties, late summer or early fall is the time to 

 separate these plants, to increase their num- 

 ber. Early in the spring I set an old darky 

 to uncovering the bed, cautioning him to do it 

 only with his hands, explaining that every 

 little circle of green leaves contained the buds 

 and it must not be broken; the greatest care 

 must be used. 



The moment my back was turned he clawed 

 over the bed with an iron rake, and as a result 

 some seventy-five heads that had braved the 

 winter's cold were ruthlessly snapped off. I 

 was disconsolate, almost to tears, but moved 

 by what I know not, I knelt down and one by 

 one pressed each rootless little stem with its 

 whorl of leaves in the ground, not really 

 thinking they could live, but just because 

 I was sorry for them to be cut off just 

 before their blooming time. Imagine my 

 surprise some two or three weeks later to 

 find practically every one of them had taken 

 root and they blossomed and have greatly 

 added to the size of my bed. — Nellie D. Mer- 

 rell, Ohio. 



When a Teaspoon Solves Difficulties. — 

 When the weather at last permits the trans- 

 planting of early grown seedlings to their out- 

 door situation, there is apt to be a large loss 

 from the handling, as well as a set-back to 

 those that survive. The seedlings are often 

 quite close together in the box, and to dig out 

 one without bruising or breaking some of its 

 neighbors is difficult or impossible; and the 

 plant which is being moved is, also, often 

 injured by the old earth falling away from its 

 roots, this making the shock of transplanta- 

 tion very severe. The use of a flat blade, like 

 that of a knife, generally loosens the earth 

 about the root: a small trowel is not much 

 better, besides almost certainly crushing 

 nearby plants by its broad, long blade. If a 

 kitchen teaspoon be used for these tiny 

 seedlings, it will be found very easy indeed to 

 scoop out each plant with the earth around its 

 root not even loosened, and to place it in a 

 hole already scooped in the outdoor flower 

 bed to receive it, where it will grow as if noth- 

 ing had happened to it. The fact that the 

 bowl of the spoon is curved in two directions 

 instead of in only one, as the trowel is, makes 

 it easy to get well under the plant, and helps 

 to hold the ball of earth around the roots to- 

 gether. The short bowl and narrow handle of 

 the spoon makes it practicable to avoid the 

 surrounding plants. 



With a teaspoon a first transplanting of 

 seedlings sown broadcast can be nicely done 

 in the house before the spring shift to out- 

 doors. 



With many larger plants, transplanting is 

 equally facilitated by the substitution of a 

 larger kitchen spoon for the usual straight- 

 backed trowel. For instance, poppies, which 

 are said to be almost non-transplantable, 

 have been moved by this means, and very 

 few plants lost. — W. J. Whiting, Conn. 



Marsh Marigold as a House Plant. — 

 Many of our native plants bloom well in pots 

 in the window or on the piazza in summer, or 

 in the/window box in early spring, but for a 

 goodly show of blossoms and foliage from little 

 care I suggest the Marsh Marigold (Caltha 

 palustris). The treatment is simplicity itself. 

 One or more roots may be lifted from the brook- 

 bed as soon as enough growth has been made 

 in early March to show their location, and 

 placed in any kind of a dish with a little of the 

 brook mud or garden soil, and plenty of water. 

 I prefer about five roots in a six-inch pot, to 

 get a good clump, and the mud in the pot is 

 covered with Marsh Forget-me-not (Myosotis 

 palustris) which will give an undergrowth of 

 fresh green shoots, and flowers after the Marsh 

 Marigold has dropped its blossoms. 



The pot is set in a deep dish holding at least 

 a quart of water, and set in any window — it is 

 not necessary to have any sun. The room need 

 not even be heated, and it does the plant no 

 harm to freeze, the dish is more liable to be 

 injured. Within three days the big round 

 leaves will push out, the buds show in two 

 weeks' time, and the waxy yellow blossoms on 

 stems a foot tall are fully expanded inside of 

 three weeks from the time you bring the plant 

 within doors. If the plant is kept in a cool 

 room the blossoms are effective for three weeks, 

 so large and shining that friends think it must 

 be some rare plant from the tropics, and not 

 our friend of the swamps a month later. 



When the flowers have fallen and the foliage 

 gets limp slip the plant out of the pot and into 

 the brook again or in the shady part of the 

 vegetable garden, where it may be forgotten 

 until the first thaw of the next spring, when 

 the roots may be potted and brought into the 

 family again. I imagine that the double-flow- 

 ered form would give even brighter and more 

 enduring blossoms. — S. F. H., Lexington, Mass. 



THE MONTH'S REMINDER 



THIS YEAR'S LAST FOOD PLANTINGS— BUILDING FERTILITY FOR NEXT— SETTING OUT EVERGREENS 



W ~\ON'T fool yourself; for there's work 

 § I to be done! Anybody knows that 

 -M. — S one of these piping afternoons, 

 when the thermometer is threaten- 

 ing to run over at the top, and sidewalk and 

 paths are so hot that your bare-footed boy has 

 to walk on the grass, it is much more com- 

 fortable in the couch hammock, with the 

 last volume of Kipling or the new issue of the 

 World's Work, than it is out in the garden 

 shoving a wheel hoe or destroying weeds. 

 But — think of the boys in the trenches — and 

 also of the price you paid for potatoes last 

 winter! And did you ever notice that the 

 man who has been out playing golf or tennis 

 all afternoon has a good deal less complaint 

 to make about the terrific humidity than the 

 one who has been hugging the shady side of 

 the veranda, and imbibing iced drinks? 

 There's a considerable stretch every after- 

 noon, say from four o'clock till dark, when it's 

 fairly comfortable in the garden — next year 

 we will have "daylight saving" in force. And 

 as to other objections: 



(1) If your garden is clean, half an hour's 

 work a day with the wheel hoe or slide hoe 

 will keep it so, while if you let it go it will take 



hours of the hardest kind of work to get it 

 back into shape, if you find it possible to do 

 so at all. 



(2) If crops have "gone by," it is the worst 

 kind of gardening to let them remain, inviting 

 weeds to mature and seed themselves, and 

 using up plant-food and moisture that should 

 be utilized for a succession crop, or for a cover 

 crop for winter to be spaded under next spring, 

 supplying your hungry garden zvith humus and 

 stored up plant food for big crops next season. 



(3) As to the argument that you have to 

 leave the big weeds, because they cannot be 

 pulled out without taking other things along 

 with them — don't pull them out! But don't 

 leave them to work havoc where they are. 

 Sharpen up your knife, or if there are many 

 of them your lawn edger, and cut them out. 

 Cut through the roots, just below the ground. 



Last Call for Planting! 



'T^HIS is about the last call for planting 

 ■*■ food crops to be used this year. A num- 

 ber of things can be put in yet, if you plan at 

 once, and take pains to do everything you can 

 to assure good germination. These include: 

 beans, beets, carrots, Chinese cabbage, corn 



salad, cress, lettuce, peas, radish, sorrel, spin- 

 ach, swiss chard and turnips. In making 

 these late sowings you should of course use 

 early varieties which will mature in the short- 

 est time. Most of the foregoing require about 

 eight weeks to be big enough for use, but the 

 root crops will continue growing until 

 hard freezing weather. // you take full ad- 

 vantage of the opportunity that is likely to occur, 

 and make this planting immediately after a 

 good rain, it will be possible to have most of 

 the vegetables up in three or four days after 

 sowing. But don't wait indefinitely for a rain; 

 and have your ground spaded and ready to 

 absorb every drop that falls, if you are going 

 to wait at all. If the dry weather doesn't let 

 up, open up trenches before planting and flood 

 them with water; then fill in a little soil on top 

 of the mud, and plant on this, pressing the 

 seed down firmly. Soaking the seed a day or 

 so before planting will also help to make cer- 

 tain of good germination in dry weather. 



Start Plants for Later Use Under Glass 



"YXTHEN your planting of outside crops is at- 



* ' tended to, don't forget that you will be 



needing good strong plants with which to plant 



