REN'S GARDENS EVtRWVHERE 





WORK THE GARDEN FOR ALL IT IS 

 WORTH. DO THIS BY SUCCESSIVE 

 PLANTINGS. AS VEGETABLES MATURE 

 AND ARE TAKEN FROM THE GARDEN, 

 FILL IN WITH ANOTHER SOWING OF 

 SEED. SO THAT NO SPACE IS WASTED 



Conducted by 



ELLEN EDDY SHAW 



New York 



t-tdS&z.J^^r'T^ ^ 



Water and Weeds 



THIS month is a time of constant cul- 

 tivation. Constant cultivation pre- 

 vents surface evaporation. The desire of a 

 gardener is to keep all the moisture possible 

 in the soil. 



When water rising to the surface meets a 

 nicely cultivated soil it settles comfortably 

 back into the soil again. If the soil surface 

 is not stirred up, the water evaporates off. 

 Now perhaps you see why you should break 

 the outside connection. 



The weeds are another problem to con- 

 sider. Weeds seem to shoot up after 

 each rain. The smaller ones may be re- 

 moved with the weeding fork. But the 

 larger ones need to have more work done 

 on them. Weeds should come up by the 

 roots. Because if the root is left in the 

 ground and only the top cut off, a new top 

 will surely grow. So use a hoe or trowel 

 to dig up the big fellows. 



The garden begins to be attractive now. 

 It should be your object to have a round of 

 vegetables. The flowers should be con- 

 stantly blooming. 



One must be very careful to keep his 

 flowers well picked in order to have luxuriant 

 masses of blossoms. It is a case of the more 

 one gives away the more one has. Flowers 

 left on the plant interfere with new bloom. 

 Do not let the flowers go to seed on the plant. 

 That is an interference too. 



The church, the hospital, the pubhc 

 library should all be in your list for flower 

 contribution. There is a society called 

 the National Plant, Flower, and Fruit 



This bottle gourd is ttie family freak, 

 inakes up for lack in foliage 



Its size 



Guild. This guild distributes flowers to 

 the sick and unfortunate in crowded cities. 

 Why not send occasionally a box of flowers, 

 a crate of vegetables, to this society for dis- 

 tribution? Above all, be generous. 



If you do not know about your own 

 branch of the guild, write to the National 

 Secretary, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 



Things to be Attended to at Once 



EACH month read over the reminder 

 to the older gardeners on the first 

 page of the magazine. Then read carefully 

 your own reminder here below: 



(i) Weed early in the morning, before 

 the sun is hot. Leave the weeds baking 

 in the sun all day, if you like. Then after 

 the hot sunshine is over, collect them to 

 throw away or burn up. So all the work 

 is done in the cool parts of each day. 



(2) If the garden gets full of anthills 

 buy some carbon bisulphide. Pour about 

 a tablespoonful into each hill. Be careful 

 handling this. Get your father or older 

 brother to do this for you. 



(3) Make second sowings of annuals — 

 zinnia, mignonette, poppy, and nasturtiums. 



(4) Keep vegetables well thinned out. 



(5) When plants are to be taken from the 

 pot turn them upside down. Hold one hand 

 over the earth with the thumb at one side 

 of the plant stalk. Now tap the bottom and 

 sides of the pot with the trowel. This should 

 be done gently. A well potted plant should 

 slip, plant, earth and all, out of the pot after 

 tapping. 



Pick from the earth the drainage material 

 which may be left clinging to it. Make a 

 good hole with the trowel or dibble and set 

 the plant. It would be well to water this 

 hole the same as for lettuce. 



(6) Geraniums and such house plants as 

 one wishes to hold back through the summer 

 may be treated after this fashion. Lay the 

 potted plant on its side. Leave it thus in a 

 shaded corner of the garden all summer. It 

 will live, but not grow much. It is thus 

 ready to do good growing and blossoming 

 indoors the following winter. 



(7) If a hoe, spading fork or rake breaks, 

 why not make a dibble ? Cut off a ten-inch 

 piece of the tool handle and point this at 

 one end. This is fine to use in setting plants 

 and transplanting. 



26 



Garden Correspondence 



OUR teacher has told us about the contest and I 

 would like to enter in Class I. My garden is 

 quite a large one. My grandfather spaded mine 

 for me, all the rest I did myself. I have a path 

 going through it. I have radishes, lettuce, parsnips, 

 turnips, onions, and beans in my vegetable garden. 

 In my flower garden I have sweet peas, candytuft, 

 sweet Williams, lilies and violets. But I am going 

 to put tomatoes and cabbage in, too. 



Our school grounds need improving very, very 

 much. There are a lot of rocks in the back yard. 

 In the front there are lots of dandelions and they 

 look dreadfully. So we are going to fix it. 



Garrison, N. Y. Azelmaie M. Lewis. 



I AM proud to say that I was the only one in 

 the State of Ohio who won a prize in the 

 garden contest last year. I am anxious to enter the 

 contest again this year. 



While my hotbed is only 6x ii ft., I have sev- 

 eral thousand promising plants. Many I trans- 

 planted into cold frames hardening off for the 

 garden. I have drawn out garden charts. The 

 prize of four garden books which I won I find very 

 useful, and they are a great assistance to me. 



Cleveland, Ohio. Mabel J. Musser. 



w 



E HAVE done more work this year than last. 

 The results of last showed us that it was 

 necessary. 



First the school yard is filled in with coal ashes, 

 and flowers do not thrive. Next, if anything 

 was put out, we know there must be a fence to keep 

 the cattle out. 



Back of where we had our tent we decided to have 

 a flower bed. The boys dug out a foot and a half 

 of that earth and filled in with twenty wheel-barrow- 

 loads of rich, black 

 soil and one load of 

 good rotted manure. 

 These were given to 

 us. The boys wheeled 

 it up to the school, 

 which was quite a 

 distance. In this bed 

 we put cannas, salvia, 

 and asters, then put a 

 wirenetfence aboutit. 



One boy bought 

 four catalpa trees and 

 put them out. A 

 barbed wire fence was 

 placed about these. 



I forgot to say that 

 we have placed vines 

 about the outbuild- 

 ings. 



The Ardonia 

 School. 



Highland, N. Y. 



Contest B ul- 

 letin — Now is the 

 time to register in the 

 garden contest. Write The dibble, made now, 



the class you wish to may be used later in fall 

 be entered in. bulb-settlng ^ 



