170 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



May, 1919 



mums and all the soft shades of Zinnias— my 

 garden is full of flowers so arranged that one 

 crop follows another through the seasons. Dur- 

 ing June and July the garden is at its height with 

 great clumps of Clove Pinks roaming the beds 

 and falling out upon the walk, along with For- 

 Set-me-not and the annual Ageratum Heavenly 

 Blue. 



Here and there groups of Foxglove and Colum- 

 bine stand out against a background of Del- 

 phiniums in every shade of blue, and pale yellow 

 double Hollyhocks. Old fashioned, pungent 

 Fever few. Sweet William and Garden Heliotrope, 

 Pansies and Glow Daisies, Lemon Verbena, 

 Madonna Lilies, pale gold Calendulas and Can- 

 terbury Bells in rose and blue and lavender all 

 blend into each other in my "garden picture." 

 Many more, such as Baby's-breath, white Phlox, 

 the Japanese Ruby Lilies, Platycodons, Snap- 

 dragons, Butterfly-bush, China Asters in all the 

 mauve and flesh shades, lavender Convent: bells, 

 August Lilies, pale shades of curled and crested 

 Zinnias and many others are all to be found 

 growing side by side. 



The planting of a few annuals is of great value 

 and should never be omitted, as they fill in 

 bare spaces left by earlier perennials. 



Everything is planted in clumps — I do not 

 care for the polkadot effect of the mid-Victorian 

 garden pictures — and I have always tried to make 

 each color blend into the other, save where 



Seen from the end its appropriate furniture of combination 

 arched trellis and seat with bird fountains unite to give a 

 vista of charm 



contrasts were desired. No domineering red 

 has ever set its foot within my garden walls. 

 In the shrub garden such old time shrubs as 

 Lilacs, pink and white Flowering Almonds, 

 Forsythia, Mockorange, Boxwood, Bridal-wreath, 

 Azaleas, Snowballs and Flowering Cherries grow. 



A FTER three years of patient work my garden 

 -^*- has come into its own and more than repays, 

 me for the happy hours spent there. It is a 

 very modest, simple little place and yet I think 

 it reflects my efforts and is indeed a "lovesome 

 spot" — and when last summer along with all 

 the other flowers a tiny son came to leave his 

 baby footprints on the garden path (and pull 

 up all my choicest plants, perhaps) I felt it was 

 complete. 



Manure and Scab, a Correction 



/~"\UR attention has been called to an error 

 ^-' which inadvertently was permitted to appear 

 m the March Garden Magazine at the bottom 

 of the second column on page 70. The state- 

 ment is made that one of the actions of manure 

 is to " prevent the growth of the potato scab 

 organism," whereas, the facts are that both lime 

 and stable manure tend to augment rather than 

 reduce the disease in an infested soil. Fertilizers 

 causing an acid reaction are therefore generally 

 advised for use in connection with a potato crop. 



Potting Strawberries As an Art Archibald rutledge 



Get Your Runners Now — Why It Is Possible to Have a Full Crop of Berries From Plants Set During the Previous Summer 



The sunken pots of strawberries along the garden walk are 

 near the spigot and get all the water they need 



WELL, the old strawberry bed is running 

 out this year. We shall have to have 

 a new one next spring. That means 

 setting plants late this summer. But 

 we can't expect to have many berries from the 

 first crop. A new bed never does much the first 

 season." 



That is the kind of talk that I like to dis- 

 pute, — • for the benefit of the speaker and of 

 all who Ike to have an abundance of fine berries 

 every yea r . 1 here should # never be such a thing 

 as an off-year for the strawberry bed. And 

 there need not be if simple plans are carried out 

 faithfully. 



I do not claim that I have a new thing in my 

 method of starting a strawberry bed by means 

 of potted plants; but I do think that I have a new 

 and a very effective way of doing an old thing. 

 If the minuteness of the directions seems tedious, 

 it must be remembered that often success or 

 failure depends on a very small matter. All the 

 details given appear essential. 



HprlE first step in this matter of saving a year 

 -■■ on strawberries is to select a good place, 

 when the first spring crops are planted, for the 

 new bed. As most of the early crops come out 

 by the middle of July, I usually plan to have a 

 berry bed where early potatoes or peas or lettuce 

 or beans have been. Whether this bed requires 

 special preparation and fertilizing before the berry 

 plants are set must be decided, of course, by the 

 planter himself. I usually respade the alleys, 

 as the soil-strength from these has not been 

 sapped by a growing crop. 



— T 



As to Potting the Runners 



HE time to pot runners is as soon as they 

 can be had. This sometimes occurs during 

 the latter part of the bearing period; sometimes 

 it comes later. But as soon as stout runners be- 

 gin to take the alleys, catch them in pots. I 

 know that late May and all of June are busy 

 times for the gardener; but remember that a 

 little time spent then will mean the saving of a 

 whole season. By potting a few at a time, as they 

 appear, I distribute the labor so that it is hardly 

 noticeable. Therefore, for big plants to set in 

 July, get the runners into the pots early. 



The ordinary pot used for catching runners is 

 a 2-inch; it is seldom larger. For my way of 

 potting that is too small. I use 4-inch pots. 

 The roots have much freedom for growth and 

 development. Plants are not infrequently 

 stunted by being root-bound in pots that are too 

 small to permit of healthful development. 



The soil used in the pots i consider the most 

 vital matter of any of these considerations. I 

 experimented for a long time, — and by that I 

 mean about ten years, — before I found what I 

 thought to be the ideal soil for growing straw- 

 berry runners by this method. In the bottom of 

 each pot I put a small amount of old manure. 

 I his is to conserve moisture for the plant. Then 

 I fill the pot, firming the soil carefully, with earth 

 that has the following composition: one part 

 garden loam; one part of shredded manure (or 



any substitute in powered or fined form); three 

 parts of tough red clay. All these constituents 

 are thoroughly mixed and sifted. Some gar- 

 deners, I know, may wonder at the clay. It is 

 admirable! It beats a sponge for holding mois- 

 ture. And it gives to the ball of earth in the 

 pot a firmness that enables the transplanting to 

 be done without any falling apart of the soil. I 

 discovered by accident the value of clay for pot- 

 ting of this kind; and now I would never pot 

 strawberries without it. 



As soon as the pots are filled I transfer them 

 to what I call the ""saturator." This is nothing 

 more than a big shallow pan that has about an 

 inch of water standing in it. I leave the pots 

 there until the soil has, by capillary attraction, 

 become thoroughly saturated. This is better 

 than attempting to soak the pots from the top. 



Placing the Pots 



"\X7HEN transferred to the berry bed, of course 



* * the pot is sunk at the side of the alley, to 



a depth within an inch of its top. Then the 



Yes, you can be doing this very thing next year if you start 

 now with the new runners for the new bed 



