242 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



May, 1911 



Thin out the seedlings until they stand 

 at proper distances apart. 



Reduce the hill-planted seedlings to two 

 sturdy plants to each hill. 



Transplant when the second pair of true 

 leaves appear. Do this on a cloudy day. 



Schemes for Small Gardens 



TT IS rather interesting to have a one- 

 -*■ color garden — that is to have a gar- 

 den of several kinds of plants all of one 

 color. One must consider two things in 

 such a garden: height of plants and sea- 

 son of bloom. 



Suppose one chooses a blue garden. It 

 must bloom the first year. Let us choose 

 for the border plant the blue star ageratum, 

 which grows six inches high. Then a 

 Victoria aster, which grows eighteen inches 

 high, might come next. And last plant 

 cornflower. It grows rather bushy and 

 so forms a fine background plant, although 

 it does not grow very tall. 



A yellow garden is another choice. First 

 put in dwarf snapdragon of six inches in 

 height, next dwarf nasturtiums twelve 

 inches high, beyond these African mari- 

 gold twenty-four inches in height, and sun- 

 flowers or cosmos, both tall annuals, might 

 form a background. 



Here is a red garden: double scarlet rose 

 moss, corn poppy, mammoth zinnia and 

 giant snapdragon. 



If you have a poor, rough piece of ground 

 make a yellow garden of Tom Thumb nas- 

 turtiums, California poppy and calliopsis. 



Another point to keep in mind when 

 planning the flower garden is that of dur- 

 ation of bloom. In some cases it would 

 be well to plan for a succession of bloom, 

 in other cases for continuous bloom. 

 When I look up sweet alyssum, for instance, 

 I find that it blooms twenty weeks. Is 

 there any other plant which can keep up 

 such a steady bloom? Cornflower blooms 

 until frost, dwarf lobelia blooms all sum- 

 mer, and so does Tom Thumb ageratum. 

 Still further, I find that some flowers start 

 blooming in May, some in June, some in 

 July, and so on for the summer. This 

 same cornflower begins its work in May, 

 ageratum in June, alyssum in early July, 



A home-made contrivance which insures straight 

 even drills 



and China asters in August. So here is 

 another point to hold in mind. 



BLOOM BY MONTH 



NAME 



MONTH 



Calliopsis 



May 



Cornflower 



" 



Annual phlox 



June 



X CCUJIU! 



Shirley poppy 



it 



Snapdragon 



ti 



Sweet alyssum 



July 



Larkspur 



" 



Stock 



" 



Verbena 



n 



China aster 



August 



Everlasting 



" 



Cosmos 



September 



The Playground Beautiful 



TT WOULD seem as if the public play- 

 ■*■ ground and the children's garden ought 

 to be a good combination. It is a rare 

 one. We seem to have lost sight of the 

 good, old-fashioned balance of play and 

 work. The idea seems to be a fixed 

 one that it is quite impossible to beautify 

 any place which children use as a play- 

 ground. Could we combine these two it 

 would be a financial saving as well as a real 

 benefit to the child. A playground super- 



visor or director should have a certain 

 amount of training along the garden line. 



What are the lines along which play- 

 ground gardening should tend? Perhaps, 

 first, along decorative lines. This sounds 

 almost absurd when the picture of the 

 usual dirt-packed, ugly playground comes 

 to mind. But the picture may be changed; 

 the fences may be covered with vines as 

 the first step. What vines are best to 

 plant? Scarlet runner beans, wild cu- 

 cumber, morning glory, moon flower, climb- 

 ing nasturtium and gourds are good annual 

 ones. The hop, clematis, honeysuckle, 

 Virginia creeper, and Dutchman's pipe 

 are excellent perennial vines. The last 

 named has big leaves and an interesting, if 

 small, pipe-like blossom. Perhaps the 

 Japan clematis is the most satisfactory 

 of all perennial vines. 



A few shrubs in one corner or at the en- 

 trance to the garden add considerable to 

 the general effect. The best for the pur- 

 pose are deutzia, Van Houtte's spirea, mock 

 orange, Anthony Waterer spirea, sweet 

 pepperbush, althea, rose of Sharon, and 

 hardy hydrangea, all of which bloom from 

 June to September. If one wishes beauty 

 in winter add to these barberry and dog- 

 wood. Poplars are quick-growing trees to 

 be used for the playground. Privet or box 

 keep in mind for hedge purposes. 



The garden proper is the other side to 

 consider. This may be decorative, too. 

 Where shall this garden be placed so that 

 it may be most sheltered from harm? 

 One corner may be fenced off. Cover the 

 fence with vines and make an attractive 

 gateway as an entrance to a formal treat- 

 ment. Or lay off into beds, or as one 

 long border, a strip of land all about the 

 playground, or on three sides of it. This 

 is the plan: First, a vine-covered fence 

 about the playground area; then a strip of 

 ground partly devoted to vegetables and 

 partly to flowers. The playground in the 

 centre may also have a vine-covered chicken- 

 wire fence around it. 



A third arrangement is this: Cut one- 

 third right off the playground; between the 

 playground and garden have a four-foot 

 path. Set cedar posts on both sides of it 

 and make a long vine-covered pathway. 



Begin work by clearing the garden of all rubbish and stones, placing them first of aU in the path, to remove later 



