The G 
Vout. VII—No. 3 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY 
arden Magazine 
APRIL, 1908 
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR 
TWENTY-FIVE CENTS A COPY 
[For the purpose of reckoning dates, New York is 
generally taken as a standard. Allow six days’ difference 
for every hundred miles of latitude.] 
How to Avoid the Spring Rush 
and Have a Better Garden 
ae the work of making a garden is 
summarized below in such a way 
that you need not forget anything and 
may master the work instead of having it 
push you. ‘The thing to do now is to cross 
off all the items that do not concern you 
and then concentrate on the items that 
should be attended to before April rst. 
Check off each item as fast as it is done and 
have this check list handy for reference 
every day through the planting season. 
The figures in parenthesis refer to the 
volume and page of THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
where you can find out more about each 
particular item. 
This is our third improved check list. 
Use it faithfully and you will have more 
“fun” than ever before because your results 
will be so much better —more and _ better 
vegetables with less work and no worry. 
INDOORS BEFORE APRIL IST 
Send a dozen postals to the best seedsmen 
and nurserymen for catalogues (7:9). 
Arrange for manure or buy fertilizers 
(ARS DACs AACS) 
Plant the vegetable garden as carefully 
as you would a house, drawing it to scale 
on a large sheet (2:261) and take the ten 
steps mentioned in (5:137). 
Plan the fruit garden (4:124). 
Plan the flower garden (1:17; 5:334). 
Order seeds, plants, trees, shrubs, vines, 
bulbs for spring planting; also labels to tag 
them with as they are set out. 
Get a wheel hoe and some other improved 
tools. . 
Get a complete spraying outfit and the 
best spraying calendar (5:142). 
Buy a good book on gardening, e.g., 
Fullerton’s “How to Make a Vegetable 
Garden,” ““The Seasons in a Flower Gar- 
den,” by Shelton, or Fletcher’s “How to 
Make a Fruit Garden.” 
Get the best planting tables for vegetables 
(5:160), and last month, page 609. 
Write all labels and mark on them the 
distance apart the plants should stand 
when thinned or transplanted (1:174). 
Sow vegetables and annuals for the early 
crop in hotbeds about March 15th, so as 
to have the hardy ones ready to set outdoors 
April 15th and the tender ones }._ay roth, 
or whenever danger of frost is past. 
If you have no hotbeds, start some flower 
seeds in the window (1:74) and a few vege- 
table seeds. 
Clean and sharpen tools (1:57). 
Look over roots in cellar (1:57). 
Take slips of geraniums and other bed- 
ding plants you have carried over winter 
(2:164). 
Plan a children’s garden and build some 
bird houses. 
Start a garden diary (1:265) or better, 
adopt Mr. Kayan’s vest-pocket system of 
garden records (5:21). 
Join a civic or village improvement society 
or start one. 
OUT OF DOORS BEFORE APRIL IST, OR 
BEFORE FARMERS BEGIN TO PLOW 
Clean up the home grounds. 
Put all the manure you can get upon the 
vegetable garden (3:69). 
Spray all fruit trees and berry bushes with ‘ 
lime-sulphur or miscible oils before the buds 
open. This takes the place of the former 
practice of spraying with Paris green and 
Bordeaux mixture while the trees are dor- 
mant (5:142). 
Get pea brush or poultry wire and pro- 
vide poles for beans and tomatoes. 
Trim paths and borders. 
Buy or make some hotbeds (1:58; 3:76) 
and coldframes (1:30; 5:65). 
Plant deciduous trees (6:68), shrubs 
(6:129) and permanent vines (5:26). 
Plant fruit trees (1:122, 183), especially 
dwarfs (6:119), berry bushes (1:106, 125) 
and nut trees (6:194). 
Manure asparagus and rhubarb beds or 
fertilize with nitrate of soda (z:140). 
Fertilize the lawn (1:82), roll and repair 
it (5:162). This is a good time to make 
a new lawn. Barron’s “Lawns and How 
to Make Them” is the authority. 
Any grading or draining to do? 
Prune fruit trees (1:64) and _ grapes 
(1:18)— not berry- bushes. 
Prune hydrangeas and other autumn- 
blooming shrubs, but not the spring bloom- 
ers. Prune these after flowering. 
Prune hardy roses aiready planted by 
March 1tsth. “Roses and How to Grow 
Them” is an excellent book. 
Plant new hardy roses about March 25th 
(1:129), including climbing roses (5:330). 
Train berry bushes (1:88) and grapes 
(1:18). 
Put new life into old shade and ornamental 
trees by cutting out decayed matter and 
filling cavities with cement (4:288). 
Sow sweet peas (5:62). 
Risk a few rows of extra early peas, beans, 
and corn (5:228) and be ready on frosty 
nights to cover young plants with news- 
papers (3:204). 
OUTDOORS ON APRIL I5TH, OR AS SOON AS 
THE LAND IS FIT TO PLOW AND BEFORE 
DANGER OF FROST IS PAST 
Plow and harrow the garden or dig and 
rake it. i 
Transfer from coldframes to open ground 
hardy vegetables for the early crop and 
gradually let in air to the tender vegetables 
started in hotbeds as all such vegetable plants 
must be “hardened off” before setting out- 
doors. The hotbed in which the seeds were 
started is gradually converted into a cold- 
frame as the heat subsides. 
Sow seeds outdoors of all hardy vege- 
tables for the main crop (r:110). This 
includes nearly all the important vegetables 
except beans, corn, vines and the tomato 
family. 
Plant early potatoes and onion sets. 
Sow seeds of all hardy annual flowers 
(@:117; 5:154) and temporary vines (5:225). 
Divide perennials and rearrange the hardy 
border. 
Plant evergreens both coniferous (4:17; 
6:12; 6:290) and broad-leaved. The latter 
include rhododendrons (3:334), laurel, 
hollies (4:234), etc. 
Prune tender roses (1:129). 
Spray roses with whale oil soap toward 
the end of April (1:129). 
Prepare for frost (1:169; 3:205). 
Plant gladioli and the other half-hardy 
bulbs (5:156), but not the tender ones like 
cannas and dahlias, for they cannot endure 
even a slight frost. 
We believe there is no other important 
operation that cannot be postponed until 
May or later when there is more time, but 
if you think of anything, will you not tell 
us? The readers of THE GARDEN Mac- 
AZINE have helped to crystallize this plan 
of operations into its present form, which 
seems to us the best time-saver and 
result-getter we know. If, however, you 
know a better one, will you not tell us 
about it and we will make grateful acknowl- 
edgment? 
= hong aT CT LT I 
