September, 1917 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



41 



more and give them to your friends, for if it is 



a patriotic duty to have a garden oneself, 



why is it not also a patriotic act 



M^ to help one's neighbors make their 



gardens successful? Let us help 



all we can, and I know of no better 



way than to give them a tool like 



the one I have described. — Marian 



Fairchild, Washington, D. C. 



More About Intensive Celery 

 Culture. — Since reading in the 

 June issue Mr. Allen's descrip- 

 tion of his method of raising 

 celery by "the New Culture," I 

 am led to think others might be 

 interested in my method, which is 

 even more intensive. 



Last summer from a space con- 

 taining about 170 sq. ft. I cut and 

 sold at the wholesale price of 

 eight cents a bunch, between $20 

 and $24 worth of celery. This 12 

 to 14 cents a square foot 

 might easily have been 

 increased to 20 cents if I 

 had retailed. The soil 

 was poor and looked ut- 

 terly unsuitable for cel- 

 ery; but I had no better 

 place vacant at the time. 

 On July 17th, I set 600 

 plants of Golden Self 

 Blanching and Easy 

 Blanching celery in twelve 

 rows of fifty each, the 

 plants five inches apart 

 in rows and seven inches between rows; 

 fourteen inches between every four rows 

 thus making beds of four rows each. I 

 had ordered a hundred pounds of cattle 

 manure and the like quantity of prepared 

 humus butdid notreceivetheseuntilnearly 

 two weeks later when the mixture was 

 applied between the rows and hoed in as well 

 as could be done without injuring the roots. 

 On August 28, I began cutting only two or 

 three days after putting on the first celery 

 bleachers and a week later was cutting from a 

 dozen to a dozen and a half bunches daily. 

 Though I put two stalks in most bunches 

 many stalks were large enough to sell alone at 

 ten cents. My garden had not had celery 

 before, and byusingthecommercial manureand 

 humus and watering daily and very thoroughly 

 and spraying the young plants with bordeaux 

 two or three times I had no trouble with rust. 

 — N. S., Virginia. 



A Bulb Planter. — Last season I made a 

 very useful bulb planter out of simple mater- 

 ials. This enabled me to get my bulbs in at 

 the best depth without any trouble at all. The 

 point has recently been shown to be one of 

 considerable importance for bulbs placed at 

 too great or too little a depth do not give good 

 results. As can be seen from the picture a 

 stoutish stake was secured. This was be- 

 tween a foot and eighteen inches in length, and 

 it was pointed at one end. At intervals in 

 the stick holes are bored in the sides into which 

 wooden labels can be inserted. Each label 

 bears the name of a particular class of bulbs, 

 and these can be inserted at the height most 

 suitable for the kind. Thus Narcissus do best 

 when planted six inches; that is the base of the 

 bulb is this distance below the surface. The 

 depth for Tulips and Hyacinths is four inches, 

 and that for Crocuses and other small bulbs 

 two and a half inches. Of course when using 

 the planter only one wooden label is in at a 



time according to the kind of bulb being 

 handled. — S. L. B., England. 



Tulips in the Window Box. — As a plant 

 for the window box the Tulip would appear to 

 have been neglected. As most window boxes 

 are so securely fastened that to remove them 

 means some little trouble, a box of tin or light 

 wood should be made of a size to fit snugly 

 into the window box. Into this second box, 

 the Tulips are planted. Only the early or 

 bedding varieties are recommended. A good 

 potting soil will suit the bulbs which are set at 

 a depth of about three inches so that they may 

 be covered with at least two inches of the soil. 

 They are spaced three inches. Settle the soil 

 by watering freely, but do not pack down with 

 the hand. Then bring the box outdoors in a 

 well drained location, covering all to a depth of 

 two or three inches. The Tulips will behave 

 exactly as they would if set out in a bed for 

 spring bloom. Naturally the boxes are to be 

 prepared at the same time that bulbs for bed- 

 ding purposes are set out. In spring when 

 the Tulips begin to peer through the soil in 

 the box, which can easily be determined by 

 removing some of the extra soil covering, set 

 the box into the window box where the gen- 

 ial warmth of the sun with good watering will 

 develop bloom a little earlier than those in beds. 

 On the other hand if you do not care to go to 

 this trouble give your order to your florist and 

 he can have the Tulips ready in time to shift 

 them into the window boxes. Indeed, he can 

 force the bulbs along a little bit and give you 

 Tulip bloom as early as may be deemed safe in 

 your locality. A hard frost will not interfere 

 with the bloom of a Tulip and furthermore 

 Tulips can be shifted when in bloom, though 

 you will get the longest blooming period when 

 they are shifted before the buds have opened. 

 — C. L. Meller, N. Dak. 



Making a Lawn in Fall. — This is an ex- 

 cellent time to remodel or make a new lawn. 

 I speak from experience. A year ago I had a 

 very unsightly lawn; originally it had been 

 improperly graded, and, knowing it must at 

 some convenient time be redone, weeds had 

 been allowed full sway. The first of last 

 September the lawn was peeled, and then gone 

 over with pick and spade to a depth of fifteen 

 or eighteen inches and all weed roots removed. 

 The soil was then made very fine, heavily 

 fertilized with bone meal, and at daybreak one 

 fine morning when not a breeze was stirring to 



Use Tulips for the window box. They give early color 



carry the light seed other than where wanted a 

 combination of Blue-grass and Red-top (the 

 best mixture, apparently, for this region) was 

 thickly and evenly sown, being lightly raked in 

 and rolled. Sticks with white strips of cloth 

 tied upon the ends, which gaily waved in the 

 breezes, were placed about and kept the spar- 

 rows from picking up the seed. Nature was 

 kind, adding the last requisite, a gentle rain, 

 and in a very few days the entire lawn was a 

 most beautiful carpet of living green. Early 

 this spring White Clover was very sparingly 

 sown over the surface before it was rolled. 

 Some weeds such as dandelion, plantain and 

 dock, have appeared, as well as some annuals. 

 No attention was given to annuals, but all 

 perennial weeds have been carefully removed, 

 a little soil and grass seed in each case ap- 

 plied, and the wound carefully patted down, 

 and this procedure will be persisted in yearly. 

 There is not a bare spot anywhere. The 

 accompanying picture with its pleasing back- 

 ground of flowers and shrubbery, also fall 

 planted, does not begin to give an adequate 

 idea of this beautiful September made lawn. 

 Not only is this time of the year desirable for 

 the production of a good lawn, but fall usually 

 affords greater leisure than spring; the ex- 

 perienced gardener realizes the necessity of 

 doing everything which it is possible to do in the 

 fall to relieve the congestion of the spring's work, 

 and the making of a sizeable lawn is no small 

 task if well done. — R. R. A., Jamestown, N. Y. 



Late Strawberry Planting. — I was startled to 

 read in August Garden Magazine that planting 

 could be done as late as November 10 — but 

 then, New Jersey is not Massachusetts! We 

 plant here in August. — G. W. A. 



[ — Of course the farther north the earlier the 

 advent of winter. — Ed.] 



Is fall planting practical?— Everything in the garden, shrubs, trees, lawn and border was fall set 



