The Garden Magazine 



Vol. IX— No. 3 



Published Monthly 



APRIL, 1909 



One Dollar a Year 

 Twenty-Five Cents a Copy 



BiHWfl 







REMINDER 



[For the purpose of reckoning dates, New York is 

 generally taken as a standard. Allow six days' difference 

 for every hundred miles of latitude.] 



Fourth Annual "Life Saver" 



YOU can have twice as good a garden 

 and five times as much "fun," save 

 half the work and all the worry, by using this 

 page as your spring guide. 



You can absolutely cut out the spring rush 

 by doing the headwork indoors before April 

 ist. 



The thing to do now is to cross off all the 

 items on this page that do not concern you. 

 Then check off each item as fast as it is done, 

 date it, and you will have the best garden 

 diary you ever saw. 



The best working library any gardener 

 can have is the eight bound volumes of The 

 Garden Magazine. Get an extra set of 

 indexes, keep them in a patent holder, and 

 you can save handling heavy books and 

 much precious time. 



This is our fourth improved "check list" 

 or "spring guide." Tell us a better scheme 

 and you will be our everlasting friend. 



Indoors Before April First 



SEND a dozen postals to the best seeds- 

 men and nurserymen for catalogues. 



Get manure or fertilizer. 



Plan the vegetable garden. Draw it to 

 scale. Take the ten steps mentioned in 

 E. L. Fullcrton's "How to Make a Vegetable 

 Garden." 



Get the simplest planting table for vege- 

 tables. 



Have fresh vegetables two or three months 

 longer by providing a windbreak. 



Try two novelties, e. g., seakale, a delicious 

 vegetable which is as permanent as rhubarb, 

 and udo, the new winter salad plant. 



Plan the fruit garden. Buy Fletcher's 

 "How to Make a Fruit Garden." Have 

 only dwarf trees in cities or suburbs. 



Plan the flower garden. 



Secure perfect succession of bloom and 

 harmony of color in your hardy border. 



See if you can have a water garden. Buy 

 "Water Lilies and How to Grow Them." 



Avoid as you would a pestilence all cheap 

 seeds, free seeds from Uncle Sam, and old 

 seeds from the corner grocery. 



Order all seeds, flowering trees, shade trees, 

 shrubs, perennials, hedge plants, vines, and 

 bulbs for spring planting. 



Order improved tools that will pay for 

 themselves the first season. 



Order a complete spraying outfit and have 

 the best directions. 



Write all labels and mark on them the 

 distance apart the plants should stand when 

 thinned or transplanted. 



Gain a month by sowing vegetables and 

 flower seeds in hotbeds about March 15th. 



Clean and sharpen tools. 



Look over roots and bulbs in cellar. 



Take slips of geraniums and other bedding 

 plants you have carried over winter. 



Have the children plan their gardens and 

 get them to build bird-houses. 



Quit fool diaries and adopt Mr. Kayan's 

 vest-pocket system of garden records. 



Become an amateur plant breeder. 



Make every foot of your daily walk or 

 drive delightful the year round without 

 expense. 



Outdoors Before April First 



jDEFORE farmers begin to plow, or when 

 the peaches bloom, do these things: 



Plant while dormant all deciduous trees, 

 shrubs, and permanent vines. 



Plant while dormant dwarf fruit trees, 

 berry bushes. 



Plant while dormant all nut trees, e. g., 

 chestnuts, hazelnuts, hickory nuts, and 

 walnuts. 



Plant while dormant, or about March 

 25th, new hardy roses, including climbers. 



Sow sweet peas. 



Sow a few rows of extra early peas, beans 

 and corn only if you are willing to cover young 

 plants on frosty nights. 



Sow grass seed. Roll and repair the 

 lawn. Buy "Lawns and How to Make 

 Them." 



Prune fruit trees and grapes — not berry 

 bushes. 



Prune autumn-blooming shrubs, e. g., 

 hydrangeas. Prune spring bloomers after 

 flowering, except as follows: 



Prune hardy roses already planted by 

 March 15th. Prune tender roses after April 

 15th." _ 



Train berry bushes and grapes. 



Spray all fruit trees and berry bushes with 

 soluble, or miscible, oils before the buds open. 



Fertilize the lawn and vegetable garden. 



Fertilize asparagus and rhubarb. Use 

 manure or nitrate. 



Mend old trees. 



Get grading done before the rush. 



Get draining done before the rush. 



Trim paths, borders, walks, drives. Get 

 a trimmer that will save its cost in labor in 

 one year. 



Get brush, poultry wire, and poles for peas,, 

 beans, and tomatoes. 



Buy or make hotbeds and coldframes. 



Clean up the home grounds. 



Outdoors on April Fifteenth 



/IS SOON as the land is fit to plow and 

 before all danger of frost is past do 

 these things: 



Plow and harrow the vegetable garden or 

 dig and rake it. 



Sow seeds outdoors of all hardy vegetables 

 for the main crop. 



Sow outdoors all hardy annuals, flowers, 

 and temporary vines. 



Plant early potatoes and onion sets. 



Plant evergreens as soon as the soil is 

 warm, both narrow-leaved and broad- 

 leaved. Plant gladioli and other half-hardy 

 bulbs, but not tender kinds like cannas and 

 dahlias. 



Plant hardy perennials, divide old plants,, 

 and rearrange the border. 



Don't plant peonies or lilies in spring, 

 unless it is unavoidable, rather make perfect 

 beds for them. Manure heavily now and get 

 better bulbs in the fall. Transplant hardy 

 vegetables from frames to open ground. 

 "Harden off" tender vegetables. 



Be "loaded" for Jack Frost. 



When in doubt consult our Readers' Service 

 Department. 



MAKE MONEY OUT OF YOUR FAILURES! 



Invitation to Every Reader of the Magazine : We are very anxious to hear more of our readers' actual experiences in gardening — not 

 necessarily successes, because failures may often teach a very valuable lesson. What we do want is the record of the individual's experience, the 

 little discoveries about peculiarities of different varieties and their adaptations to different purposes and situations. Also, records of actual profits 

 made by or through the garden, which is a very important issue in most communities. We are willing to pay for any acceptable, short personal 

 experience along these lines; and more so, if they are accompanied by illustrative photographs. Short articles will be much preferred to long ones. 



