OUR GARDEN OF "GLADS" 



ROSE BLAIR MARSH 

 A 30 x 60 ft. Plot Where Four Thousand Gladiolus in Sixty-three Named Varieties Flourish 



|^OME ten years ago we, then shelf dwellers, purchased 

 a couple of lots in a new addition some three miles from 

 the heart of the city on a wonderful old farm where 

 &£t||lg some big trees had been left standing. 



We put up a simple little bungalow on the north lot, which in 

 its unadorned state we called "The Shack"; but now, with its 

 rich planting of vines and shrubbery, it bears the title of "Tawno 

 Ker," Gypsy for "little house." 



For a year or more the south lot was a sorry looking spot, 

 overgrown with Burdock and Plantain. The lots had been 

 graded down from a hill and covered with hardpan and small 

 stones, the original top soil some four feet under ground. The 

 man of the house, fortunately, was not easily discouraged, and I 

 think he made a game of picking up the stones, many a wheel- 



"TAWNO KER" 



After we did some planting our little house 

 took on a friendly aspect and became a home 



barrow load, and of preparing the soil 

 for our first garden, during his leisure 

 hours. In the neighborhood was a team- 

 ster's barn whence came stable manure, 

 and at one time thirty loads were spread, 

 along with good black earth from a build- 

 ing site near. 



THE first venture was a garden which 

 supplied our table with fresh vege- 

 tables, some of them actually looking like 

 the pictures in the seed catalogue, but as one must have food for 

 the soul as well as the body, some Dahlia roots were also 

 planted; they bloomed and were a joy to behold. 



Trees were allowed to grow around the sides, until a thick 

 screen shielded the garden from the street, giving a delightful 

 privacy, and three drooping Elms in the side yard we call 

 'The Bower," and in the shelter of their shade were chairs, a 

 couch and the afternoon tea table. The northern mocking 

 birds built a nest in the little Haw tree right by my bedroom 

 window and greeted my waking each day, and saucy robins 



would follow the man of the house wherever he went. In the 

 meantime the vegetable garden and the small boy grew apace, 

 and a small corner was given to the latter for his very own, to- 

 plant and tend. 



One of our purchases was a dozen Gladiolus bulbs of well- 

 known varieties. When they bloomed we were so entranced 

 with their exquisite loveliness that we then and there decided 

 it was the flower of all others that we wanted to grow. It took 

 a lot of experimenting to prepare the soil. For one thing, the 

 ground lacked humus, which we supplied with great piles of 

 fallen leaves and decayed vegetable matter. 



At the time of planting, a trench six inches deep and six inches 

 wide was dug and the bottom heavily fertilized with sheep ma- 

 nure thoroughly worked in. The corms were then planted about 

 the distance of a number-one corm apart, and the rows 

 six inches apart. These double rows were planted 

 about sixteen inches apart, for ease in cultivating and 

 to get the greatest number in a given amount of space. 

 It was found advisable, because of the stiffness of the 

 soil, to use a little clean sand right on top of the corms. 

 This makes a parting strip and greatly facilitates 

 harvesting the corms in the fall. 



The bed, about thirty by sixty feet, last summer con- 

 tained four thousand corms in sixty-three named varie- 

 ties of Gladiolus. 



At first we grew Gladiolus for our own pleasure and 

 the joy that comes from giving. During the War many 

 flowers were sold for the benefit of the French Relief; 

 in fact, we called it our patriotic flower, as it helped us 

 in doing our mite. 



A market for our flowers came unsolicited when, two 

 years ago, a florist called to see if we would sell the 



blooms. It had 

 been a season of 

 drought and he 

 was having diffi- 

 culty in obtain- 



"THE SHACK" 



What a rootless, un- 

 lovely thing is a house 

 without growing green- 

 ery to knit it to the 

 earth — no wonder we 

 delight in the transfor- 

 mation pictured above 

 and in our garden of 

 "Glads" (running 

 along the left of the 

 bungalow screened 

 from view by shrubs, 

 etc. 



ing Gladiolus. The first year's sales netted over fifty dollars, 

 and this last season's almost one hundred and twenty. 



TO WALK in the " garden of the Glads" in the early morning 

 is to feel the very presence of God; no evil thought can enter 

 your consciousness and, gazing at the indescribable beauty of 

 the, to me, most wonderful flower in the world to-day, you can- 

 not fail to absorb some of its nature into your own. The Gla- 

 diolus grower who perfects a new variety performs a mission 

 for all mankind. 



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