The Garden Magazine 



Vol. XIII— No. 6 



Published Monthly 



JULY, 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.] 



The Gardener's Golden Rule 



YOU must have known what it is to 

 be out in the full sunshine of a 

 scorching July day; and with what an 

 exquisite sensation of gratitude and con- 

 tent you found yourself in a comfortable 

 chair, on a shady veranda, with a glass of 

 cool, ice-tinkling moisture at your elbow 

 — or your lips. If so, you know what 

 the plants feel whenever you give them 

 a thorough soaking. Duplicate the com- 

 fortable chair by keeping the soil of the 

 beds loose, airy and congenial. 



And the plants will appreciate some 

 shade on the hottest days — especially 

 lettuce, large-flowered chrysanthemums, 

 and the house plants plunged in the border. 



Shade beds with cheap cloth screens, 

 light lattices, or, in some cases, newspapers. 



Whenever you cut your lawn decide 

 where the grass cuttings will do the most 

 good. They may be (a) left where they 

 fall, as a light mulch, (b) spread thickly 

 on rose and other perennial beds, around 

 shrubs or the small fruits, or (c) added to 

 the compost heaps, where, too, should go 

 all old pea vines, useless beet, carrot, and 

 turnip tops and any kind of decayable 

 animal or vegetable waste. Perhaps it 

 will pay to rotate, applying the cuttings 

 to each use every third time. 



Vines need comparatively little water, 

 while in flower. But it is absolutely 

 essential while they are growing. This 

 means, for the spring-flowering sorts, 

 now and all summer; for the late flowering 

 species, all the time until their buds open; 

 for evergreens, whenever they seem to 

 call for a freshening up. 



Remove flower spikes the moment the 

 blossoms wilt. Do this on roses, lilacs, 

 and all plants from which you don't take 

 the blossoms sooner for cut flowers. 



Clip your privet hedge this month. 

 Keep the pansies and sweet peas picked 

 clean. 



Study the Fruit to Improve It 



THE more healthy the fruit trees the 

 more fruit they will set and the more 

 thinning they will need. Peaches, plums, 

 pears, and early apples need this. 



Pinch or clip back canes of the grapes, 

 blackberries, and raspberries. 



Substitute hellebore for arsenate of 

 lead when spraying ripening crops. Am- 

 moniacal copper carbonate is the fungicide 

 to use under such circumstances. 



Kerosene emulsion will conquer oyster- 

 shell scale, aphis — black, green, brown, or 

 wooly, and various tree- and leaf-hoppers. 



Every female gypsy or brown-tail moth 

 killed before she lays her eggs means a 

 reduction, by several hundreds, of the 

 pests next year. Loose bark, crevices 

 in stone walls, old shingles thrown about, 

 tin cans, rough tree trunks, and decay 

 cavities — all these are her favorite nests. 



On all unused land and around all fruit 

 trees and bushes sow a cover crop about 

 July 15th. The best crops are crimson 

 clover, cowpeas, vetch, peas and oats, 

 barley, rye, and buckwheat. The last 

 is the best for poor soils where nothing 

 else will do well. 



Vegetables That Are Growing 



T/"EEP these cultivated all the time. 

 -1 *- Water them as often as you can. 

 Apply nitrate of soda now and then. 



Corn, tomatoes, eggplant, beans, squash, 

 and melons need especially the culti- 

 vating and watering. 



You must not cultivate beans while 

 they are wet. Anthracnose will land on 

 the thoughtless gardener who does. 



Lime on cabbages, melons and squash, 

 arsenate of lead on tomatoes, eggplant, 

 and potatoes, and hellebore on others 

 that need it, will disappoint the bugs. 



Bordeaux mixture is bad for blight, 

 leaf spot and mildew, but good for cucum- 

 bers, strawberries and all plants that are 

 subject to fungi. 



Just because you are not cutting as- 

 paragus, don't forget the plants. Salt, 

 5 pounds, and nitrate of soda 1 pound, to 

 100 square feet, will repay you well next 

 year. Cultivate to keep the weeds down. 



Celery needs attention from now till 

 fall. Water, nitrate of soda and bleach- 

 ing spell attention. Bleach by hilling, by 

 means of boards, or (individual plants,) 

 with pieces of drain tile; but, however 



343 



you do it, keep dirt out of the heart of 

 every head. 



Support the tomato vines well; also 

 the heaviest eggplants. 



Vegetables to Plant 



pERHAPS you have just "moved 

 *■ in." Don't worry, you can still 

 have a garden. See another page of this 

 issue for a planting table of July-sown 

 vegetables. And look back to The Garden 

 Magazine for July, 1906, for the com- 

 plete story of a Fourth of July garden. 



Now you begin to realize how many 

 celery plants you can use. Transplant 

 them from the seed bed or frame to every 

 bit of land that becomes vacant. (If it 

 seems poor, it will be better to sow a cover 

 crop on part of it.) 



Cucumbers will ripen, or be just right 

 for pickles, if planted by July 15th. 



The reason more people don't succeed 

 with late-sown peas, lettuce and corn, is 

 that they don't realize that summer con- 

 ditions are very different from those of 

 spring. The sun is hotter, the soil more 

 dry, water more scarce. Remedy these 

 defects by watering, spraying and culti- 

 vating thoroughly, and you can sow those 

 crops all the month. 



Crops to Harvest 



MUSKMELONS show when they are 

 ripe by parting from the stem at 

 the slightest touch. They know best; 

 don't try to hurry them. 



Eggplants, too, are often picked too soon. 

 Wait till there is a suggestion of softness, 

 as well as a rich color. 



Tomatoes ripen and color very evenly 

 if picked while firm and placed in a sunny 

 window, or on a shelf in the hotbed. 



Onions are ripening. Cut the tops 

 when they become yellow, or just before 

 and spread the bulbs on the ground to 

 dry for a day or two. 



Notice — 



1LJOW attractive a pond, stream, bog gar- 

 -*• -1 den, or other bit of water would be 

 these hot days. See if you cannot arrange 

 for one, for next year. 



The vines and shrubs that are blossom- 

 ing now in neighbors' gardens. Resolve 

 to have some another season. 



Where certain plants are doing better 

 than others of the same kind elsewhere, 

 and study out why. Then try to provide 

 the same favorable conditions wherever 

 you want that special plant. 



