The Garden Magazine 



Vol. X— No. 2 



Published Monthly 



SEPTEMBER, 1909 



One Dollar 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.] 



In the Vegetable Garden 



THERE is plenty of time yet to sow 

 vegetables for crops to be harvested 

 before winter. Radishes, lettuce, snap beans, 

 peas, and spinach may all be grown. But 

 you cannot expect full returns from ground 

 that has already been cropped and under 

 cultivation unless it is given some special 

 care. First of all, give a good dressing of 

 well rotted stable manure, which is to be 

 turned under one foot deep. This will not 

 only help to feed the growing crops but 

 will stimulate early growth because of the 

 increased warmth and moisture. 



Do not make large sowings of anything, 

 but rather several small sowings at inter- 

 vals for succession. 



Lettuce can be had with slight protection 

 up to the first days of December. 



By all means make a coldframe now if 

 your garden is not already equipped with 

 one. Directions for making will be found 

 on page 70. The cost of making such a 

 frame will hardly be more than the price of 

 a couple of dozen heads of lettuce, if you have 

 to buy them. Lettuce growing in frames 

 can be had all through the early winter. 

 As soon -as the lettuce is gathered, sow 

 spinach in the frames. 



Other lettuces for sowing up to the middle 

 of September are corn salad, endive, chicory, 

 and chervil. This is but little known, but 

 may be used in place of parsley, and is 

 somewhat more delicate in flavor. 



Sow Strap Leaf and Purple Top Globe 

 turnips in the first half of the month, but 

 remember that turnips require a well cul- 

 tivated, mellow soil and thin sowing. The 

 old adage had it that the successful farmer 

 left his seed at home when he sowed turnips. 



Nitrate of soda in a very light dressing at 

 the rate of 200 pounds to the acre (which 

 is about two-thirds of an ounce for one 



square yard) will accomplish wonders after 

 the young plants are up. Do not give this 

 material until the plants have started, and 

 on no account exceed the quantity given. 

 See to the asparagus bed. Keep it free 

 from weeds and pick off all seeds, or cut 

 down and burn all tops before the ripened 

 seed can fall. 



Preparing for Winter 



FOR winter lettuce sow seeds under glass 

 during the first part of the month. 

 Use such a variety as Grand Rapids Forcing. 

 Sow seed for succession every fourteen to 

 eighteen days in flats, potting the seedlings 

 into 2-inch pots as soon as they can be 

 handled. If you have a greenhouse transfer 

 them to the benches after they have made 

 roots in the pots. Successful lettuce culture 

 depends on a proper texture of the soil; 

 use a good loam, with cow manure freely 

 mixed in. Cultivate constantly and water 

 abundantly just at cutting time and crop 

 will be wonderfully improved by the use of 

 a little nitrate of soda — say a 3-inch potful 

 to a half barrel of water. 



Make preparations for carrying over the 

 winter a stock of tender bedding plants — 

 coleus and alternanthera, in particular, 

 will succumb to the first frost. The more 

 hardy plants need not be considered yet. 



Coleus in particular cannot stand a check. 

 Cuttings struck early in September can be 

 carried over in as low as 45 degrees. 

 These will make good stock plants for cut- 

 tings in the spring. Alternanthera can be 

 wintered over by lifting the old plants 

 and potting them up for winter, but better 

 take cuttings now and winter the young 

 plants in flats, allowing one and one-half 

 inches each way. Keep in the warmest place 

 you have, moderately dry and in the light. 

 The earlier the cuttings are taken the lower 

 temperature they can stand in the winter. 



Spray Elm Trees Now 



IF your elm trees have been attacked by 

 the elm leaf beetle, spray with arsenate 

 of lead in August. Where spraying has not 

 been done or done too late, it is worth while 

 to sprinkle boiling hot water on the pupa 

 (half formed beetles). They will be found 

 at the foot of the trees. If these are not 

 caught immediately, they will quickly go 

 into winter quarters to emerge next summer 

 in all their vigor. 



For large trees the best and cheapest way 

 is to buy a steam or gasolene engine capable 

 of throwing a spray at a hundred pound 

 pressure from eighty to one hundred feet. 

 Such an equipment may cost $60, but it is 

 better than the hand sprays for large trees. 



In the Herbaceous Garden 



T) Y all means plant some peonies. Begin- 

 U ning with September and through into 

 early fall is the ideal time — better to do the 

 work now than in the spring. 



The same is true of every herbaceous 

 perennial plant that makes very early 

 growth. 



The present month should be a busy one 

 in the herbaceous border. Pansies, forget- 

 me-nots, California poppy, Drummond 

 phlox, coreopsis, if sown now can be wintered 

 over and will be ready to bloom in spring 

 almost as soon as your neighbors will think 

 of sowing them. 



In transplanting and rearranging at this 

 time, take advantage of the opportunity to 

 manure the ground and give cultivation. 

 Lift and divide peonies, phloxes, bee balm, 

 funkia, goldenglow and the hardy orna- 

 mental grasses. If done early in the month 

 they will have ample time to make an 

 entirely new root system and get firmly 

 established before the winter. The impor- 

 tance of this is that the tendency to winter 

 heaving is counteracted. 



Greenhouse Flowers 



PLANT a few freesias as early in the 

 month as possible. You can keep 

 them later, but with a loss of vitality. Pots, 

 pans, or flats can be used. The latter is best, 

 because the pots do not make very decorative 

 objects. A flat 2x1 ft., and three to four 

 inches deep will take fifty bulbs. Keep 

 them in the dark until growth starts and place 

 them in rhe open until frost threatens. 

 After which take them into the greenhouse 

 or even the window of the dwelling house. 



Sow cyclamen seed for next year's plants. 

 Use a light, well drained compost. They 

 want abundant water and light at all times. 



If you want lilies for Christmas flowers, 

 get Lilium Harrisii immediately, and as 

 soon as the pots are filled with roots and 

 the growth two or three inches high, put into 

 a warm, moist and sunny place and keep 

 growing. 



An old-time favorite and not so much 

 grown now as itdeserves to be is the Madonna 

 lily. It is more statuesque and of purer color 

 than the Easter lily. Pot the bulbs as soon 

 as possible, one bulb to a 6-inch-pot, put in 

 a sunny place outdoors and leave there until 

 the frost threatens to break the pots, when 

 they may be put into a coldframe and forced 

 as wanted. 



You cannot have a more striking porch or 

 piazza plant in May and June. The bulbs 

 potted now can be forced into bloom early, 

 or held back until June as wanted, the flowers 

 opening two weeks after the buds show. 



