THE MONTH'S REMINDER, DECEMBER, 1918 



The purpose of the Reminder is to call to your attention the things which should be thought about or done during the next few weeks. For full details as 

 to how to do the different things suggested, see the current or back issues of The Garden Magazine. An index of contents is prepared for each completed 

 volume, and is sent gratis on request. Prepare now for next year s garden. 



DO NOT stop fall work by the calender, 

 but continue until everything is frozen 

 up tight. 



Taking advantage of the last week 

 or two will enable you to "get the jump" on 

 next year's work. 



Prepare now for plowing or spading the 

 vegetable garden as soon as frost is out next 

 March. Is everything out of the ground? 

 Oyster plants and parsnips can remain where 

 grown, but it is better to take out and store 

 or trench them. 



Don't leave any refuse in the garden to get 

 frozen in. If you haven't done the job already, 

 remove pea brush, bean poles, old corn stalks, 

 cabbage tops, vegetables that froze before matur- 

 ing, and anything else that may be in the way 

 next spring, or serve to protect or harbor insect 

 eggs or disease germs during next winter. Make 

 that part of the garden "clean as a whistle." 

 Burn all the weeds and refuse. The clean flame 

 is the only sure cure for any left-over which may 

 be infected. Don't take a chance by putting it 

 on the compost heap. 



For safe and easy burning, make a cylinder of 

 chicken wire or something a little heavier, if 

 available, stand this on end, turn out the lower 

 edge, and hold it in place with a few large 

 stones or bricks and burn your rubbish in it. 



Soil for Spring Use 



TF YOU expect to start plants in the house 

 early in the spring, get in a supply now of 

 finely sifted garden loam, leaf mold and sand. 

 You can do this work now in a half hour or 

 an hour; while it may take several hours of hard 

 work when the ground is frozen next spring. 



Winter Mulch in the Flower Garden 



npHERE is no hurry about actually getting 

 * it on the ground, unless by the time you 

 read this severely cold weather has already set in 

 and the ground has frozen hard. Leaves or 

 short, clean, dry manure make a good mulch 

 material. A convenient way to hold it in place 

 is to use short stakes and a border of 12-inch 

 chicken wire to hold the mulching material in 

 place where it would otherwise be likely to get 

 scattered about the lawn or grounds or blow off. 



Beds for Spring Planting 



TF YOU are planning to make any new flower 

 beds or a rose bed next spring, this is the last 

 chance to do the work (if the ground hasn't frozen 

 up yet.) The advantage of doing it now instead 

 of waiting until spring is not only that there is 

 more time but also that the job will be done 

 much more thoroughly than it is likely to be 

 done then, and the soil being prepared several 

 months in advance will be in a very much bet- 

 ter state than if fixed just before it is wanted 

 for planting. Remove all soil for a distance 

 of a few feet or so, carefully give the next 

 six or eight inches of loam in the bottom a 

 first breaking or loosening with a pick, if it is a 

 hard clay sub-soil, and put in eight inches or so 

 of coarse cinders. Then fill in with soil and 

 manure to within half a foot or so of the top, and 

 finish off" with good, clean loam, heaping up 

 slightly to allow for settling during the winter. 

 If this work is done now, setting out your flowers 

 or rose garden next spring will be the easiest kind 

 of work — nothing to it but to add a little bone 

 meal or fertilizer and to stick in the plants! 



Flowers for Indoors 



\yfOST of the hardy perennials will bloom 

 *■**■ early in a frame or even indoors if taken 

 up and potted now, and started into growth in 

 February or early March. Things of this kind, 

 blooming weeks ahead of those outdoors will be 



much more appreciated than they ever were 

 when flowering in the open. Simply take up 

 carefully, put in generous sized pots with good 

 drainage, water thoroughly, if the soil is dry, and 

 store in a moist place or in a frame outside where 

 they will not freeze too hard. An occasional 

 touch of frost will not hurt them. 



Pot up Cuttings Early 



TF YOU are starting new plants from cuttings 

 — and that is the quickest and the surest way 

 to obtain a supply of most of the new things you 

 may be interested in — take them out of the sand 

 just as soon as the roots begin to be put out. 

 But don't put 'em in big pots! The smaller the 

 pots the better, at first. "Thumb" pots, or 

 2-inch pots are the best. Use light soil with a 

 good proportion of sand in it, for the first potting. 

 If only larger pots are available, put three or 

 four cuttings around the edge of a four or five 

 inch pot. Pot firmly; water thoroughly; then 

 leave quite dry for a few days, and keep shaded 

 from hot sun until growth starts. 



Tricks of Weather 



BE CAREFUL with watering, even if you 

 have only a single frame. There is a simple 

 rule to try to follow — water in such a way that 

 the foliage and soil surface will be dried off by 

 night. Keeping that in mind, you will be guided 

 by circumstances. But remember also that the 

 less frequently you have to water the better — 

 and during the next few months comparatively 

 little water is needed. Also that it is much 

 easier to water a second time than to get soil that 

 has been over-watered dried out again at this 

 season of the year. 



Read last month's Garden Magazine for the 

 routine of greenhouse management at this season. 



Plants Inside the House 



PLANTS which have been taken in for the 

 winter window garden are likely to begin to 

 show signs of trouble about this time. To keep 

 them in good condition you must do three things: 



1st. — Water frequently enough to keep the 

 ground evenly moist, but never over-saturated 

 or muddy. 



2nd. — Give plenty of fresh air, and all the 

 sunshine the variety needs (many things will do 

 well without direct sunlight). 



3d. — Spray, fumigate or dip the plants regu- 

 larly in nicotine sulphate solution, to control 

 aphis or other sucking insects, which cause 

 ninety per cent, of plant insect troubles indoors 

 other than those of air conditions. 



Keep house plants well fed. Plants in pots 

 soon exhaust the available food supply in the 

 soil, if it is not replenished. There are several 

 good complete plant foods for flowers, especially 

 designed for house use. A teaspoonful or two of 

 fine bone flour worked into each pot is excellent. 

 A little diluted ammonia, applied when the soil 

 is already moist, is also good. Do not use olive 

 oil, castor oil, beef tea, or any similar concoction 

 which you may chance to hear recommended 

 or even see advised in print. 



The Bulb Border 



MANY bulbs have come in very late this 

 year. If you did not order American 

 grown stock — which by the way is proving to 

 be in every way as good as the imported — you 

 may still be waiting for 1 some of the varieties 

 that are usually in the ground by this time. 



Get ready for planting, even if the bulbs are later 

 than ever before. After the border is prepared, 

 a mulch of straw or manure will keep it from 

 freezing, so that you can plant as late as you 

 please. 



148 



Warning! Do not put the mulch in place 

 where bulbs have been planted until after the 

 ground begins to freeze; it makes a harboring 

 place for mice, which are likely to injure the 

 bulbs, or the first growth in the spring. 



Orchard and Small Fruits 



' I V IME now to get the mulch on the straw- 

 ■*■ berry bed, as the ground freezes up. A few 

 pieces of board or small cord wood will be handy 

 to help hold it in place, until settled by rain or 

 snow so that it won't blow about. 



Attend to the cane fruits, raspberries, black- 

 berries, etc., now. Prune out all old wood, and 

 cut the tall canes back a little. If left until 

 spring this work is likely to be neglected in the 

 push of other things. 



Trenches for Next Year 



CPADE up or trench the soil for next spring. 

 ^ Except where you have sown cover crops, 

 spade up the ground this fall just before freezing 

 weather. Do not rake off, but leave the ground 

 rough and the sub-soil in lumps on the surface. 

 In this way you can make valuable use of your 

 sometime enemies frost and snow, as alternate 

 freezing and thawing during the early spring will 

 so disintegrate and pulverize the soil that it 

 will be in prime condition for making a seed bed 

 in the spring. 



Put in the Winter's Celery 



MOST of the celery which has been blanched 

 out of doors for fall use will be exhausted 

 this month and any heads left out of doors and 

 banked up until now for holiday and winter use 

 should now be put in the celery cellar or vegetable 

 pits outside. Cover pits with hay or straw on 

 the approach of hard freezing adding to the cover- 

 ing as cold weather increases sufficiently to pro- 

 tect the celery. For storing inside, use long, 

 narrow boxes as deep as the celery is tall, leave 

 soil on roots and pack in as tightly as the plants 

 will comfortably go. If the soil is dry, wet 

 slightly around the roots, but leave the tops and 

 stalks dry. Growth will continue in storage. 



Mulching and Feeding 



A FTER the ground freezes, protect any fall 

 **■ plantings. Remember, this mulch also 

 is not to keep things from freezing but to keep 

 them frozen after they do freeze, and so prevent 

 undue starts. 



Wherever you have sown a cover crop, rye, 

 or rye and vetch, to grow through the winter 

 it is a good plan to use whatever manure or com- 

 post you may have on hand as a top dressirig late 

 in the fall. The rains and melting snows will 

 wash this down to the roots, and you will get it 

 all back again when you spade the cover crop 

 under in the spring. 



Greenhouse Fuel 



| IGHTNING changes are the order of the 

 *— d day, and what is prohibited to-day may be 

 legal by to-morrow! At all events the famous 

 "50% fuel order" for greenhouses has been mod- 

 ified in part. As this is written the governing 

 rule for private greenhouses in New York state 

 permits the 50% of bituminous coal, "but under 

 no circumstances are they to receive or be al- 

 lowed to burn anthracite coal." All state fuel 

 administrators have been instructed that "florists 

 may burn bituminous coal, steam, anthracite, 

 or coke breeze" without having such fuel apply 

 on their quota, if in the opinion of the local 

 administrators there is a surplus of such fuel 

 "which can be spared." Or, in other words, 

 greenhouses generally may use coal other than 

 domestic anthracite sizes up to requirements if 

 they can get it ! 



