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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



June, 1911 



Seedlings as they are thinned out may be trans- 

 planted elsewhere in the garden 



the plant was lifted and broken into eight 

 parts or eight plants which bloomed finely 

 all the next summer and fall. 



The third spring I went through the 

 same process of lifting and dividing them 

 and planted a bed of forty. This I take 

 great pride in calling my tritoma bed. 

 It is 7 x 8 ft. From this bed I sold twenty- 

 three plants at ten cents each. The fourth 

 spring I sold six dozen at one dollar a 

 dozen and exchanged some for peonies, 

 rose bushes, and lily bulbs. The fifth 

 summer, which was 1910, I disposed of 

 seven and one-half dozen at one dollar a 

 dozen and sold one dollar and twenty cents 

 worth of bloom at two and one-half cents 

 each. I displayed about three dozen cut 

 flowers at the Cleveland Garden Festival 

 which won for me the first premium. 



Why shouldn't my tritoma bed be the 

 pride of my garden, as it is the most attrac- 

 tive, most showy, and the best money- 

 maker there? Tritomas require but little 

 care. No worms or bugs seem to bother 

 them. The plant is a hardy perennial and 

 has most attractive flowers. 



In my little bed of forty plants I had 

 one hundred and twenty blooms and buds 

 at one time. They commenced blooming 

 August 1st, and I cut my last flower 

 November 1st, giving about three months 

 continuous bloom. Now is there any way 

 by which a person can have more pleas- 

 ure and get better results from a fifty- 

 cent investment? 



Cleveland, O. Mable Jane Musser. 



This makes my third year with a garden 

 and I am much interested in it. My first 

 year I had but a small place about 20 x 10 

 ft. Last year my father enlarged it for 

 me. I now have a garden which is 

 36 ft. square and of which I am very 

 proud. I will do my very best to win a 

 prize and hope I shall be successful. This 

 is my first year taking The Garden Maga- 

 zine and I like it very much. 



Last year in my garden I had twenty- 

 one tomato plants from which I picked 

 enough for eating purposes for our family 



of five, besides giving some to my 

 neighbors. Finally my mother put up 

 twenty - seven quarts of them. Besides 

 this we had seven rows of corn in my 

 garden. I planted StowelFs Evergreen 

 for a late corn and without exaggeration 

 the majority of the ears were from ten to 

 twelve inches long with beautiful large 

 kernels. You may enter me in Class I. of 

 the contest. 

 Detroit, Mich. Robert L. Plxjes. 



These are the dimensions of our garden 

 summer house shown in the picture. It is 

 10 feet long, 8 feet wide and 8 feet high. 

 It has a cottage roof which is 4 feet high 

 from the plates to the centre of the ridge. 

 Scantlings 2 inches by 4 inches and lattice 

 work if inches wide, placed the same dis- 

 tance apart, were used. For roofing we 

 used siding which we lapped 1^ inches. The 

 door is 6 x 3 ft. There are two windows 

 in front and two at the side. We have the 

 roof painted green and the sides white. 

 Ontario, Canada. H. M. Gayman. 



Garden Hints 



LJERE are a few suggestions for your 

 *• -■■ small gardens. These may help some. 



1. An inch of mulch or earth stirring 

 is quite sufficient. Do not neglect to do 

 this. It is a sort of watering scheme. 

 The mulch cuts off the escape of moisture 

 from the lower part of the ground. It 

 also gathers and holds the evening dews. 



2. Do not forget to label the rows of 

 plants and vegetables. This helps you to 

 know your seedlings from weedlings and is 

 also a guide to the garden. 



3. When this magazine reaches you it 

 is not too late to start garden work. Put 

 in some radish seed, lettuce, beets and 

 onion sets. Before school closes you will 

 have radishes, lettuce, beet tops i-for 

 greens, and small but very tender young 

 onions. 



4. Study the special weeds which spring 

 up in your garden. Do more than this, 

 root them up. 



5. Send to the Department of Agri- 

 culture at Washington, D. C, for a pam- 

 phlet called "Garden Operations." 



This summer house in a Canadian school garden 

 was used as a resting place and tool house 



6. You can keep right on sowing seeds 

 in the coldframe to use for transplanting 

 purposes. 



7. Plant sunflowers. The seeds are 

 good food for squirrels. 



8. Here is another garden plan. Plant 

 alternate rows of vegetables and flowers. 

 As the school children take out the vege- 

 tables, the flower rows are left. So at 

 no time is the garden or any section of it 

 completely despoiled. This is a good 

 plan for schools, especially where it seems 

 to be desirable to plan for only early 

 summer and late fall crops. The vege- 

 tables may be .early, for example, radishes 

 and lettuce. The flowers may be for 

 fall effect, say asters, zinnias, marigolds 

 and corn flower. Sweet alyssum and 

 mignonette fit into this arrangement. 



9. This is a good time to plant cannas. 



10. After the young plants are up four 

 inches begin to thin out. Thin so that 

 they stand at the proper distances apart. 

 Be sure to keep the sturdiest. 



11. Note the following distances for 

 thinning some of the most common garden 

 flowers: Alyssum, 6 to 12 inches; aster, 

 1 foot; canna, 2 to 6 feet; marigold 

 (African variety), 15 inches; French mari- 

 gold, 10 inches; and dwarf, 6 inches; 

 zinnia, 2 feet; poppy, 9 to 18 inches. 



12. It would be well this year to slip 

 a few perennials into your gardens along 

 with the annuals. Hollyhock, perennial 

 phlox, larkspur, foxglove, and harebells 

 are worth having for fixtures in the garden. 



If you start certain perennials very early 

 they will bloom the first year. It is too 

 late for that now but write this list in your 

 diaries and start a few anyway: Sweet 

 William, snapdragon, perennial coreopsis, 

 larkspur, Iceland poppy and forget-me-not. 



13. Consider, therefore, as you work 

 out the flower garden color, the time and 

 duration of bloom. Add these facts to 

 your garden diaries. Note what effect the 

 season has on both. One may often make 

 a second sowing of annuals and so keep 

 the garden constantly blossoming. 



14. A garden bench or a garden seat, 

 a summer house and tool house covered 

 with vines, add to beauty and fill a need 

 in the garden. 



Contest Bulletin — Do not delay en- 

 tering the children's garden contest. If you 

 have not received a contest poster send 

 directly to us for one. This poster tells 

 all about the classes of entry and the 

 prizes too. These latter are sets of books, 

 single books and free subscriptions to The 

 Garden Magazine. The books are gar- 

 den and nature books, which will help you 

 garden better and more intelligently. You 

 will understand the outdoor world better too. 



This contest is not only for individual 

 boys and girls but it is for schools as well. 

 Your entire school may enter. The prizes 

 are sets of books for such good team work, 

 as schools do in their big gardens. Com- 

 munity gardens are not left out of this 

 either, for these may enter on the same 

 footing as the school gardens. Make 

 your entry at once. 



