The Garden Magazine 



Vol. XIII— No. 4 



Published Monthly 



MAY, 1911 



j Oni Dollar Fifty Cents a YiaR 

 ' Fifteen Cents a Copy 



[For the purpose of reckoning dates, New York is 

 generally taken as a standard. Allow six days' difference 

 for every hundred miles of latitude.] 



Now or Not at All 



THE vital duties of May are planting 

 and cultivation. Peas, lettuce, 

 spinach and radishes should have been 

 planted some time ago and the musk- 

 melon hills prepared by the end of April. 

 If not, do these things at once. 



Were you planning to transplant any 

 shrubs or trees this spring? This is the 

 last call. Deciduous kinds cannot be 

 moved safely after their leaves open, but 

 the evergreens will move better in May — 

 or just as growth begins. Hemlocks, 

 spruce, cedar — all make splendid wind- 

 breaks, and a very attractive little shrub 

 that you can move now is the holly-leaved 

 barberry (Berberis Mahonia). 



Begin cultivation as soon as you have 

 anything in the ground — not deeply, but 

 just a surface scratching to yank the 

 newly sprouted weeds out of the soil. If 

 you prevent the first crop of weeds from 

 going to seed, you will eliminate the source 

 of a great deal of future weed troubles. 

 There is usually plenty of moisture at 

 this season, but applications of nitrate 

 of soda on the more advanced lettuce, peas 

 and spinach will be rapidly assimilated 

 and appreciated. 



Begin sowing in earnest the first of the 

 month. Plant carrots, turnips, kohlrabi, 

 beets and onions every two weeks, begin- 

 ning now. If you can, get in some string 

 beans by the tenth, and sow still another 

 row or two the end of the month. 



It may not always be safe, but it is 

 always wise, to sow a little corn the first 

 week in May. If not nipped by the frost, 

 it will have an especially fine flavor when 

 it ripens ahead of all the rest. Then put 

 in a more generous supply about the 15th 

 and a third sowing around the 30th. 

 Golden Bantam, Stowell's Evergreen, and 



Country Gentleman can be recommended 

 to anybody, while Black Mexican will 

 surely satisfy if you overlook the blue- 

 black color until you get a taste of the 

 honey-like flavor. 



Prepare some hills for cucumbers, squash, 

 pumpkins, and watermelon by the middle 

 of the month, and sow the seed a week or 

 two later. Mix half a barrowful of 

 manure in every hill, spaced from five to 

 ten feet apart. If you are pressed for 

 room, put these crops between the hills 

 of earliest corn. They will fill the space 

 after the latter is harvested. 



Crops that Need Care Every 

 Year 



LOOK to the perennial vegetables. Rhu- 

 barb and asparagus should be supply- 

 ing you bountifully. In return give the 

 asparagus bed two dressings of salt, about 

 twelve pounds to the square rod each time. 

 In cutting don't jab "" right through the 

 crown. If you like white asparagus, 

 hill up the earth around the stems. This 

 will also lessen the chances of cutting the 

 roots. If the rhubarb develops seed- 

 pods it is getting tired of its lodgings. 

 Make a memorandum to dig up the bed 

 next fall, manure it, and divide and re- 

 plant the clumps. 



Don't let newly set strawberry plants 

 bear this year, nor the one-year-old cur- 

 rant and raspberry bushes either. Just 

 nip off the buds before they begin to accu- 

 mulate strength that should go elsewhere. 

 You will be tempted to see how much fruit 

 you can get from the young plants, but it 



will not pay. They must get well estab- 

 lished before they are permitted to fruit. 



Around the Grounds 



YOU can now tell what your lawn is 

 going to look like this season. If 

 you are not satisfied with it, now is the 

 time to make it better. Scratch the 

 bad places with a rake and sow a mixture 

 of red top, timothy and white clover, 

 then scratch it again or sift more soil on 

 top. For a shady place add some orchard 

 grass seed. In very bad cases plow up 

 the whole lawn, drain it, level it again, 

 and resow. By this means you can still 

 get a velvety greensward by August, and 

 one that will last. 



Determine not to be without vines this 

 year, and plant them by May 10th. 

 Clematis, honeysuckle, Aristolochia mac- 

 rophylla, Akebia quinata and Hedera Helix 

 are among the best. 



Practically every annual flower can be 

 planted some time this month. Pansies, 

 iris, lilacs, peonies, sweet peas, and all 

 the bulbs are hardy and should be in the 

 first week of May. The tender annuals, 

 either grown in pots or right in the garden, 

 should be in their places by the end of 

 the month. Most of them can be started 

 in the house or hotbed, but mignonette 

 will not stand transplanting. There is 

 quite a list of perennials, too, that you 

 really ought to plant, especially since you 

 can have them flower this summer. Of 

 these, Bupthalmum salicifolium, Campanula 

 Carpatica, Centaur ea montana, and Pentste- 

 mon campanulatus, are very attractive. 



If it is the most productive 

 and the best managed plot 

 during the season of 1911. 



We want the actual records 

 of a well-managed home gar- 

 den — its plan, its operation, 

 yield, successions, etc. .because 

 we believe that besides better 

 living, there is actual money to 

 be made or saved in making 

 the garden work for you. 



This award will be made for 

 the best account of a well- 

 managed garden of a half- 

 acre or less in the year 191 1, 

 provided the account really 

 tells how the greatest pro- 

 ductiveness may be achieved. 

 This competition is open to 

 all, whether present subscrib- 

 ers or not. 



We'll Pay 



$500.00 



FOR THE 



BEST HOME 

 GARDEN 



OF 



Half an Acre 



OR LESS 



The only conditions are : — 



1. Notice of intention to com- 

 pete to be given not later than 

 May 20th, iqii. 



2. A complete record of work to 

 be submitted at the end of the 

 season, with names of varieties 

 grown, yields, etc , ana an exact 

 record, in detail, of all labor and 

 expense, with bills and vouchers. 



3. All entries must be accom- 

 panied by a plan of the garden 

 and its succession plantings, 



4. All contestants must submit 

 their manuscripts not later than 

 October jl, iqii. 



5. The prize-winning manu- 

 script,with photographs, etc., to be- 

 come the property of THE GAR- 

 DEN MA GA ZIKE. The right 

 is reserved to purchase any other 

 MSS. at our regular rates, or not 

 to award the prize at all, if the 

 MSS. submitted are not sup- 



ficiently worthy. 



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