The Garden 



Vol. XIII— No. 



Published Monthly 



azine 



JUNE, 1911 



( One Dollar Fifty Cents a Year 

 ' 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.] 



How to Make the Reminder 

 Really Remind 



THE reminder will just about double 

 in usefulness if you resolve to read 

 it once every week and check off the items 

 that you have already attended to. 



Bare ground in the vegetable garden in 

 June is a disgrace to a real gardener. 

 Make every inch of soil contribute to 

 the improvement of some crop. 



Every vegetable that can be planted 

 should go in some time this month. It is 

 warm enough for beans, squash, corn 

 and melons, and cool enough for lettuce, 

 peas and spinach. Sow all these once a 

 week until June 30th. 



Take away all shelter and frames from 

 melons, cucumbers, etc., that have already 

 been transplanted. Spread out the vines 

 and gently peg down the main stems. 



Bring tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and 

 okra out of the frames or hotbeds. 



Don't let the frames remain idle after 

 being emptied unless they are the collaps- 

 sible kind and can be stored away. Let- 

 tuce, radishes, beets, onions and all the 

 quick growers will do finely in the frames 

 all summer if watered and shaded. 



Maybe some of the earliest cauliflowers 

 can have their leaves tied up over their 

 heads pretty soon now. Be sure the heart 

 is dry and clean when this is done. 



Train tomatoes to one or two strong 

 stems. Support these well on stakes or 

 trellises. Then pinch off all other shoots 

 as they appear. 



Transplant the late cabbage, cauliflower, 

 broccoli and Brussels sprouts plants to 

 their permanent locations. 



There should be plenty of ripe vegetables 

 for everybody by this time. Gather them 

 all while they are young and tender. 



By the way, let up on the asparagus bed 

 about June 5th, and by the 15th, stop 

 cutting entirely. 



Beet thinnings are fine in place of, or 

 mixed with, spinach or dandelion greens. 

 Mixed? Why not? We mix divers things 

 in the delectable Irish stew. Why not 

 these closely similar delicacies together? 



There will be lots of other thinning to 

 do — carrots, parsnips, oyster plant, turnip 

 — in fact, any plant that is too close to its 

 neighbor for comfort must come out. 

 Many of them can be transplanted; others 

 devoured. 



As soon as the earliest pea vines have 

 borne throw them on the compost heap, 

 and get something else growing where they 

 came from. 



Scatter nitrate of soda, dry, or pour a 

 solution along the rows of New Zealand 

 spinach, lettuce and all crops that are to 

 stand all season. 



The bringing up of the fruit trees and 

 bushes determines their crop. This is 

 their period of adolescence. Care for 

 them in their impressionable youth. 



Begin summer pruning — that is, rub- 

 bing off suckers, pinching back random 

 shoots, thinning fruit that has set, and 

 cutting out crowded growth. There's more 

 about this elsewhere in this number. 



Dwarf varieties on trellises need lots 

 of care and training this month. 



All fruit should be sprayed. Use Bor- 

 deaux mixture with arsenate of lead 

 before the blossoms open and after they fall . 



Dig up strawberry beds that have 

 borne for two years or more. Manure, 

 dig over, and level the land and use for 

 late crops of vegetables. 



Cherries and strawberries will be the 

 more plentiful and the less pecked if 

 covered with mosquito netting. 



Every flower that will thrive in your gar= 

 den can be planted in May or June== 

 if not before. How many have you 

 planted? 



Take up all spring-flowering bulbs from 

 the borders, dry them in the shade, and 

 store them away in a dry place. This 

 does not include crocus, snowdrops, etc., 

 scattered about the lawn. 



Fill any empty beds that result with 

 annuals from the frames or indoors. 

 Perennials are better yet and will save 

 much work next season. 



Sow perennial seed everywhere out- 

 doors. The plants will not bloom this 

 summer but they will next season. 



Stake all tall-growing plants that are 

 likely to be broken by the wind, e. g., 

 gladioli, dahlias, cosmos, and lilies. 



293 



Loosen the soil in every foot of every 

 bed often. The seedlings will come up 

 more easily, and the moisture and plant 

 food go down more easily to their roots. 



Give hardy perpetual roses a gallon of 

 liquid manure per plant once a week after 

 May 25th. 



Move indoor, potted plants out into the 

 sunny or shady border, depending upon 

 their natures. Cut flowers are the true 

 house decoration in summer. 



Every shrub that has flowered by this time 

 should be trimmed lightly now== and 

 now only. This is all the pruning 

 they need. 



You can still do great things to an un- 

 satisfactory lawn. Renovate bad spots 

 with a little soil and good seed. Use this 

 same mixture for replacing all the promi- 

 nent dandelions, mulleins, docks and plan- 

 tains that you can remove. Mow the lawn 

 once at least, before any smaller weeds 

 can go to seed. 



If you want a real "quality" lawn, 

 top-dress with nitrate of soda (a quarter 

 of a pound per 100 square feet), or bone- 

 meal and wood ashes (five pounds to the 

 same area). Apply either just before a 

 rain storm if possible. 



Put a burlap band around every tree 

 on the place as soon as caterpillars begin 

 to roam. Examine them every other day, 

 eliminating all forms of worm life discov- 

 ered. 



Not Later Than 

 May 20th 



Contestants in our Prize 

 Gardening Competition must 

 have their entries filed with 

 us by May 20th. There is 

 just time if you act at once. 



Remember we offer 



$500.00 



For the Best Half 

 Acre Home Garden 



Full particulars in the previous 

 issues of this vear. 



