292 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



June, 1907 



Never put flower beds in a turn-around — too trifling. Shrubs are better. A good The bed nex, the house is appropriate; the one in the lawn is not. It interrupts the 

 heart-shaped bed and bacKground. Geraniums and coleus open green space every yard should have 



The average man begins at one end, turns 

 the whole thing over and when he gets to 

 the other end, finds that he has a big hole 

 with nothing to fill it. It takes longer to 

 fill this hole by pushing the soil back with 

 the rake than it would to dig it over again! 

 Besides he pulls half of the manure to the 

 surface in doing so. 



To show a better way, let us first take the 

 case of the square bed and assume that the 

 manure is already spread. 



First. Cut the edges of the bed evenly all 

 round with an edging knife, using a garden 

 line as a guide. 



Second. Commencing at one end, take off 

 a strip of manure, say twelve inches wide, 

 along one side, and put this into a wheel- 

 barrow, or dump it at the opposite side upon 

 a piece of canvas, or bagging, to keep the 

 lawn clear. 



Third. Dig a trench a spade deep and 

 twelve inches wide in the same place, i. e. 

 directly under the place from which you, 

 removed the manure, and leave this in a 

 wheelbarrow, or dump it in another heap 

 as in the case of the manure. This will 

 give you a good opening to start with. 



Fourth. Get into the bed and push a strip 

 of manure, say eight inches wide, into the 

 bottom of this opening, and then turn the 

 soil under this into the opening, on top of 

 the manure. This will still leave an opening 

 in front of you. Repeat the same thing 

 right along, being careful always to keep the 

 opening clear for the manure, and when 

 you come to the last spit fill in the manure 

 which was taken from the other end and 

 cover up with the soil taken from the opening. 



By following this method, an even surface 

 will be maintained without any trouble, and 

 the manure will be well and deeply buried 

 instead of sticking up in lumps above the 

 surface to interfere later with the raking and 

 planting of the bed. 



DIGGING A ROUND BED 



If the bed is to be a round one, the first 

 thing to do is to find the centre and then drive 

 a stout stake right into it, letting the stake 



project one foot or more above the sur- 

 face. 



Second. Make a loop on the garden line 

 and put it over the top of this stake and 

 stretch the line to the outer edge of the bed. 

 Make a loop here again and place it around 

 the handle of the edging knife, just above the 

 blade. Keep your line taut and cut the edge 

 right around. By this means you will 

 describe a complete circle quickly and 

 correctly. 



Third. Beginning at one side of the bed 

 take off a strip of manure twelve inches wide 

 (as in the case of the square bed) half way 

 across the bed, i. e., a continuous strip from 

 the edge to the stake in the middle. 



Fourth. Take out a spadeful of soil as in 

 the other case for an opening. Proceed as 

 before by putting your manure in the bottom 

 and the soil on top, but in this case make a 

 complete circle and finish at the point where 

 you began. The important point is never 

 to pass the centre stake. Mind this and 

 you will surely end in good style where you 

 started. 



WHY THE CENTRE SHOULD BE HIGHER 



Keep the centre of the bed highest, and 

 if the opening should get filled towards the 

 edge, throw a spadeful or two to the middle. 

 It is much easier when you come to rake the 

 bed. A round or oval bed should always 

 be mound shaped, and indeed, all flower beds 

 should slope up from the edge more or less. 

 A flat bed never shows off as well. You 

 have to stand almost on top of it in order to 

 see it properly, while a well mounded bed 

 can readily be seen from a distance. 



Another important point is to have the 

 edge of the bed one or two inches lower than 

 the lawn, or you will have trouble keeping 

 the edge trimmed. 



Raking is usually a laborious job but it 

 ought not to be if the spading was thoroughly 

 done. The holes and lumps should all be 

 regulated with the spade, and the only thing 

 left for the rake to do should be a light 

 scratching to pulverize the surface. 



There should not be any moving backward 



or forward of the soil with the rake, but it 

 should pass over the surface lightly like a 

 comb, leaving no ripple or furrow and merely 

 catching any stone or other material that is 

 too large to pass through the teeth. This 

 is the hardest of all the manual part to learn. 

 One can always tell an adept workman by 

 the way he handles a rake. 



PLANTING — MINUTE INSTRUCTIONS 



Whenever planting a bed of formal design, 

 first draw the plan on the bed with a sharp- 

 pointed stick, just as you would on paper, 

 and then plant each variety separately to 

 make sure there is no mixing of plants. 



In the case of a square bed, line it off with 

 the garden line, and plant one line at a time, 

 marking off the distances apart before laying 

 the plant down. If the bed is round, use 

 a central stake, as in digging, and the garden 

 line with a loop in it. Begin in the middle 

 and draw two or three circles before beginning 

 to plant. 



If the bed be a large one, get two or three 

 boards to stand on, or you will make holes 

 with your feet that will be hard to fill. The 

 boards need not reach quite to the centre 

 as you can always stretch a foot or two. 



When two or three lines have been drawn, 

 pull out the stake and set a plant in its 

 place, level off the surface between this and 

 the next line before commencing to plant, 

 and so on. Pull the' boards back as you 

 finish each line. The experienced operator 

 can always measure the distance between the 

 plants with his eye, but the amateur should 

 not attempt this. Measure the distances 

 accurately and mark off each place before 

 knocking the plants out of the pots. Then 

 knock out enough plants at one time to finish 

 each line. In this way you will do the work 

 much more quickly and the roots will not 

 have a chance to become injured from 

 drying. 



REMOVING PLANTS FROM POTS 



The easiest way to get the plants out of the 

 pots is to stick your spade or spading fork 

 as far as you can into the lawn or bed, 





