74 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 1910 



The Advantage of a Coldframe 



Go AROUND and visit neighboring gardens 

 this month, making notes of their size and 

 also of the manner in which they are laid out. 

 Ask the successful gardeners what varieties they 

 use of certain crops that are particularly fine, and 

 make a note of it. 



Radishes can still be sown out-of-doors on the 

 ist and the 15th. Spinach should also be sown 

 twice, and if it does not mature before cold weather 

 cover it later with hay and it will be a very early 

 spring crop. 



If you have a coldframe keep right on sowing 

 lettuce and, as it reaches planting size, transplant 

 to the frame where it can be protected on cool 

 nights and the crop will last until the holidays. 

 If you do not have a frame, however, make only 

 one sowing as near the first of the month as possible. 

 Some folks sow cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli 

 now, and then transplant to the frames later on, 

 carrying the plants over all winter and planting out 

 in the gardens in spring. There" is nothing to be 

 gained by doing this, for you can get as good plants 

 by starting a hotbed in the latter part of February. 

 Spinach and radishes can also be sown in the 

 frame, and will be ready for use before severe 

 weather checks growth. 



Keep right on hilling celery as suggested in last 

 month's Garden Magazine. It is growing fast 

 now and must not be neglected under any circum- 

 stances. If the ground is at all dry don't hesitate 

 to water the plants. Good celery cannot be grown 

 in a hot, dry location. 



Keep the cultivator working this month. After 

 September you can probably dispense with it for 

 another season. Also See that all vegetable plants 

 that are through bearing are cleaned up and placed 

 on the rubbish heap, because otherwise they decay 

 and breed insects. All places cleared should be 

 sown down with winter rye, a process very bene- 

 ficial to the ground, but which very few people 

 seem to realize. Sow rye in fall for a good heavy 

 stand, and plow it under in early spring. 



BUILDING the COLDFRAME 



There are, of course, several ways of building 

 coldframes, but the cheapest and best is a brick or 

 concrete frame. Do not build a 2x4 ft. frame 

 and expect to raise a wagon-load of seedlings in it. 

 If you crowd the plants you ruin them. Estimate 

 on one sash for every 1,250 square feet of garden 

 space. A garden 50 x 50 ft. would need two sash, 

 a garden 100 x 100 ft. would need eight sash, and 

 so on, though, of course, it is possible to get along 

 on much less than this. Besides using the frame 

 for raising early spring vegetables, it can be utilized 



r' 



during summer for the long English greenhouse 

 cucumbers or some large thick-fleshed melons; 

 and in fall for radishes, lettuce, ate. You could 

 raise your own eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, etc., 

 you could have early celery, early cabbage and 

 cauliflower. 



While brick and cement are the best materials to 

 use I favor cement because it is cheaper. Any 

 workman can build the forms. There are only 

 two important points in concrete work of this kind 

 to remember; Have the form thoroughly braced 

 so that it cannot move in any way, and have the 

 mixture wet and well mixed. Pound it after put- 

 ting it into the form until the water rises to the 

 surface. 



Always lay out the frame so that it faces south 

 and have it so that the plate that the sash rest on is 

 6 inches higher in back than in front. Don't butt 

 your sash; use proper sashbars. They come up 

 flush with the sash and are about one inch wide on 

 top. Have the frame one inch longer for each 

 sash it contains. The sashbars can be purchased 

 cheaply and they give a neat finish to a frame. 

 Place buttons on the sashbar which will prevent 

 the sash from blowing off and being smashed or 

 damaged by a windstorm. 



Place the frames near enough to the house so 

 that a pipe can be run out from the boiler. This 



l_ 



Concrete or cement "walls are practically indestruc- 

 tible 



A comparison of brick (at the rear) and -wood frames. 

 A single run of pipe helps wonderfully 



will turn it into a miniature greenhouse for growing 

 lettuce, spinach, etc., during the winter, besides an 

 occasional bunch of flowers. It requires very little 

 heat to keep such a small space up to the growing 

 temperature — about 50 degrees. For the vege- 

 tables mentioned a couple of 2-inch pipes would 

 do it nicely. Wherever this is possible I would 

 strongly urge it, as it does away with the necessity 

 of preparing a hotbed in spring. Another point 

 is the cheaper construction of a frame of this kind. 

 If you heat )'our frame the walls only need go about 

 six inches below grade level; but if you intend 

 using it as a hotbed in spring, the wall should go 

 down as deep as the hotbed, which would be about 

 two and one-half feet below grade level. 



A temporary frame can, of course, be constructed 

 of boards and would cost very little outside of the 

 sash that would take to cover it, but spring is the 

 time for doing that. 



Long Island. W. C. McCollom. 



[Editor's Note. — Next month's article will he 

 devoted to protection from early frost, cleaning zip 

 for the winter, etc.] 



Moth Balls for Beedes 



ONE of my neighbors is using a method of 

 driving away the striped cucumber beetle 

 that is new to me. 



He places a few moth balls on the surface of the 

 ground near the roots of the plants and the odor 

 does the rest — the beetles leave the plants severely 

 alone. 



Massachusetts. W. H. W. 



Fall Planted Vegetables 



EVERY one knows that many vegetables self- 

 sow; in the early spring we find the young 

 plants coming up Last year I determined to 

 experiment a little. The first week in September I 

 sowed a half ounce of large red Wethersfield onion 

 seed. By the time cold weather came on, they 

 were the size of lead pencils. During the latter 

 part of October I planted lettuce, corn salad, land 

 cress, and parsley in a bed which had been well 

 manured and spaded. Then I paid no more 

 attention to my winter garden. 



This spring, as soon as the snow was off the 

 ground, the onions began to grow and we enjoyed 

 tender young green onions until the sets, which 

 were put out in April, were ready to use. The rest 

 of the seeds soon germinated, and the tiny plants 

 appeared above the ground in March and early 

 April, and lasted until those sown in April were 

 ready for use. 



We consider leeks a great delicacy. Last fall I 

 transplanted a quantity, leaving the smaller ones 

 in the rows. In the spring, as early as the soil 

 could be worked, I transplanted the rest of the 

 smaller leeks, which had been left in their original, 

 rows all winter. March 19th, I set, out thirty feet 

 of them, putting them four inches apart in the rows. 

 As they grew I hoed the earth about them, and they 

 took the place of asparagus when that vegetable 

 was too expensive in the markets to buy and had 

 not made its appearance in the garden. 



Leeks are prepared for the table by leaving on 

 a third of the green stalk. Put into salted boiling 

 water for about half an hour and serve with either 

 a cream sauce or drawn butter. 



Connecticut. Julie Adams Powell. 



How to Keep Squash 



IT IS more difficult to keep the Hubbard and 

 hard-shelled squash until Christmas than it 

 is to keep apples or potatoes, yet with care it is 

 possible to have them until February or even March. 

 In the first place they should be well matured when 

 pulled from the vines and the stem must be left 

 on. Pile them up in the field and leave them for 

 several days so that the warm sun will harden the 

 shell. Be very careful when hauling, as the slight- 

 est bruise or abrasion will cause rot. 



Do not store in a cellar, but keep the squashes 

 where they will be perfectly dry at a high tem- 

 perature, and pile them up on the floor or on 

 shelves, being sure that there is not too much weight 

 on the bottom tier. Leave them so for two weeks 

 to thoroughly cure. 



The prime essentials in keeping squashes are that 

 they be well matured and perfectly dry when stored, 

 and that they be handled as carefully as the most 

 perishable fruit. The loss in weight from evapo- 

 ration of moisture in two or three months will be 

 about 15 or 20 per cent, and it should be remem- 

 bered that as much as possible of this moisture 

 should evaporate before bringing them indoors. 



Missouri. H. F. Grinstead. 



Killing the Pocket-Gopher 



IN THE West, gardeners are often annoyed by a 

 little animal called the pocket-gopher. He has 

 the peculiar habit of throwing up hills of dirt which 

 do not look well, and by the use of his pockets he 

 carries away vegetables. The pockets are situated 

 one on each side of the head, and, when full, hold 

 one-half pint or more. I lost all but a few of my 

 potatoes last year on account of the pocket-gophers 

 because I knew no way of getting rid of them. At 

 last an idea came to me which, when carried out, 

 worked very nicely. 



The gopher, in throwing up his mound of dirt, 

 fills the hole several times and then pushes it out. 

 Place an ordinary mole trap over the hole so as to 

 have the lever that springs the trap directly over 

 it. Press the prongs into the ground several times 

 so as to get them to working easily and then set the 

 trap. Of course the trap must be set after the 

 gopher has filled the hole or it would not work. 

 Neither will it work if placed there after he has 

 finished the mound. 



South Dakota. Ernest Ellerman. 



