350 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 1911 



to a simple arrangement for running off 

 the water, which must be done from time 

 to time to keep the ponds clean. 



The waste or overflow from the pond 

 or series of ponds must be provided for, 

 and when the garden slopes toward the 

 house the most convenient way is to carry 

 it into a gully in connection with the house 

 drainage system . When the slope is in 

 a contrary direction the best expedient 

 is to make a "soak-away" drain. This 

 is merely a pit sunk in the soil and filled 

 with rubble, into which the overflow pipe 

 is conducted. 



Fig. 3 shows both the mode of forming 

 the bottom and of building up the sides. 

 If rock or rubble sides are used, as in D, 

 they must be built in cement, and the 

 joints made watertight. The floor may 

 then be made with six or eight inches of 

 concrete, faced with cement. The surface 

 should not be finished to a dead level, 

 but with a slight fall toward the outlet, 

 to facilitate running off the water. 



If the pond sides are built of cement 

 the scheme shown at C must be followed, 

 making the edges battered, and finishing 

 them neatly at top with a rounded nosing. 

 Fresh cement of good quality should be 

 used, using one part of sharp sand to 

 two parts cement. 



Pipes for inlets and outlets should be 



inserted when the sides of the pond are 

 being made. If a single pond is installed 

 it will only be necessary to carry a waste- 

 pipe from its bottom to the drain, a 

 straight line, if possible, to facilitate 

 unstopping in case of obstruction. The 

 most suitable piping is i|-inch iron gas 

 pipe. A plug must be provided to close 

 the inlet, and this may be a simple cone 

 of wood. 



When two or more ponds are made, 

 they should be connected by piping into 

 a single system, the waste-pipe connecting 

 the one nearest the drain to the latter. 



If all ponds stand at the same level, the 

 connecting pipes may enter and leave 

 at the bottom ; but if the levels are stepped, 

 as would be the case on sloping ground, 

 the overflow from each pond to the next 

 lower one of the series must be placed 

 at the water-line, otherwise the water would 

 all flow to the lowest pond. This point 

 is made clear in the diagrams A and B. 

 The filling up and renewal of the water 

 may be done conveniently with the garden 

 hose. 



A constant movement of water is quite 

 unnecessary. Water lilies will thrive in 

 perfectly stagnant water which has not 

 been changed for months. 



When the gardener has done his work, 

 he should fill up the ponds, mark the 



water-level, and allow them to stand for 

 a week, noting whether there is any leak- 

 age which would show itself by a drop 

 in the surface level. If all is satisfactory, 

 the water may be run off and the ponds 

 will be ready for planting. 



The soil may be a compost consisting of: 



Pond mud 2 parts 



Loam 1 part 



Leaf-mold . 1 part 



Road scrapings 1 part 



If the first ingredient cannot be obtained 

 double the quantities of loam and leaf- 

 mold. A layer of drainage material 

 (broken tile or brick rubbish) should be 

 spread upon the pond floor, on which 

 the compost is heaped to the water- 

 level height at the points where the plants 

 are to be placed. The water should 

 stand for a couple of days to assume the 

 temperature of the atmosphere. The 

 plants may then be inserted in their 

 mounds, which by this time will have 

 settled down considerably below the water- 

 level. 



The water may be run off and renewed 

 every two weeks. Twice a year the ponds 

 must be thoroughly cleansed. 



Goldfish are useful in restraining un- 

 desirable vegetable growth, water-snails, 

 and they also devour the larvae of the 

 mosquito. 



The Most Rugged of the Hardy Evergreens —By c. L. Meller, 



A DOZEN TREES THAT WILL POSITIVELY WITHSTAND THE WINDS OF THE PRAIRIES AND THE 

 COLD OF THE NORTHWEST— WINDBREAKS AND SCREENS FOR EXPOSED PLACES IN ANY SECTION 



North 

 Dakota 



TV/TORE than any other section of our 

 ■*-» A country does the Northwest need 

 the cheer of evergreens. It is not so 

 much a matter of soils or of tempera- 

 ture, this growing of evergreens in the 

 Northwest, as it is a question of winds 

 with their resultant evaporation. The 

 dry winds, as they sweep across the miles 

 of unobstructed prairies, absorb moisture 

 at a tremendous rate, a vital matter to 

 an evergreen with its large evaporating 

 surface active throughout the entire year. 

 The windy month of March is the severest 

 in this respect, for then there are days 

 when the moisture is fairly sucked out of 

 the foliage, while the roots, in ground as 

 yet frozen, are powerless to replenish the 

 loss. Under such conditions an evergreen 

 may turn brown as if scorched by fire. 

 Nevertheless, we find enough hardy ma- 

 terial to enable us to bring warmth into 

 our winter landscape and to add a touch 

 of coolness to our summers. 



For specimen planting there is no pine 

 available. Only two of the larger pines 

 are reliable on the prairies and these,, 

 unhappily, are the poorest of all as far as 

 landscape work is concerned. The bull 

 pine (Pinus ponderosa) is a large tree with 

 dense foliage and a somewhat coarse 

 character throughout. It will endure ex- 

 tremes of drought, while no degree of cold 



The Black Hills spruce on the left. Other trees 

 are the Norway spruce 



seems to affect it. Its long tap root 

 makes success in transplanting very un- 

 certain. Naturally, the smaller the plants 

 set out the better are the chances of getting 

 this evergreen to start. It makes an 

 excellent windbreak, which loses not in 

 effectiveness by eventually overtopping the 

 buildings. For enclosing a formal garden 

 out on the prairies nothing surpasses it, 

 though the compact wall of green which 

 it is capable of producing requires years 

 of growth. The bull pine bears its long, 

 coarse needles in groups of both twos and 

 threes, a feature whereby it may be recog- 

 nized. Out in the western part of the 



Dakotas this tree grows to sawlog size. 

 The jack pine (Pinus divaricata) is fully 

 as hardy as the bull pine and transplants 

 more readily, though its sparse, open top, 

 which nearly always presents a wind- 

 tousled appearance, precludes its use in 

 landscape work. As a windbreak it is 

 serviceable, but by no means the equal 

 of the bull pine. We must not infer, 

 however, from the fact that we at present 

 have only two pines reliably hardy in the 

 Northwest that this establishes a hard and 

 fast limit, for some of the other pines have 

 not as yet received a fair trial. 



Thus the dwarf mountain pine (Pinus 

 Montana, var. Mughus) is proving itself 

 hardy. These trees are exactly what the 

 Northwest wants — low, compact globes 

 of green that with their dark needles seem 

 cool in the heat of summer and warm as it 

 were in the snows of winter. At an angle 

 of a path or flanking the steps to either 

 side they are splendid. Where the limited 

 extent of a lawn makes a more or less 

 formal treatment necessary the use of the 

 dwarf mountain pine is advisable, even, 

 perhaps, to the exclusion of everything 

 else, for such a lawn will be neat and 

 attractive from year end to year end. 

 There are a considerable number of hardy 

 perennials that bloom joyously after the 

 frost has defoliated trees and shrubs, and 



