The Garden Magazine 



Vol. XIV — No. 4 



Published Monthly 



NOVEMBER, 1911 



i 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.] 



After the Ground Freezes 



GOVER your lawn with stable manure, 

 unless it is so steep that all the 

 fertilizing elements will be washed off, 

 instead of into, it. 



Cover the strawberries with coarse, 

 strawy manure four or five inches deep. 



Similarly, cover the perennial borders 

 and your beds of lilies, iris and all the 

 spring blooming bulbs. 



The bush fruits and all the shrubs will 

 appreciate a mulch, which can be anything 

 from leaves and lawn cuttings to rich 

 manure. The rhododendrons must have 

 this protection, and generally it will be 

 best to cover the entire bushes with ever- 

 green boughs or some other shelter from 

 the extremes of winter. Small, newly-set 

 evergreen trees in isolated positions often 

 need this kind of protection, too. 



Study the winter aspects of your plant- 

 ings and devise means for improving them. 

 The bright berries and brilliant red, yellow 

 and green bark of various shrubs are 

 wonderfully attractive and "comfortable," 

 in cold, snowy weather. 



The Last Plantings of the Season 



THE planting season is not yet over 

 for — what do you think? Sweet 

 peas! If you plant them in November, 

 you will have blossoms earlier than you 

 ever did before. Dig a trench at least 

 eight inches deep; sow the seed and cover 

 it with two inches of soil and six or so 

 of coarse manure or litter. The plants 

 don't really start at all during the winter, 

 but they start earlier in the spring than you 

 can get them to by any other method. 



If your bulb man has disappointed you 

 and your bulbs for spring flowers are de- 

 layed, spread manure over the ground 



where they were to go, before the soil 

 freezes. It will make planting possible 

 even up to the time of the heavy snows. 



If you have not potted any bulbs for 

 late winter blooming, you can still do so 

 according to the directions given in the 

 October Garden Magazine; only of 

 course you must put up with the longer 

 time that it will take the bulbs to bloom. 



This is Chrysanthemum Month 



TF YOU are exhibiting plants or specimen 

 -*- blooms get them packed and started 

 off to the shows in good time. A big 

 rush at the last minute is almost sure to 

 result in careless work and injured speci- 

 mens. Moreover, the earlier your exhibits 

 arrive the better positions they are likely 

 to get. 



After cutting blooms store away the 

 plants from which you got the best results, 

 for future cutting stock. Put them in pots, if 

 they are not already there, and keep them 

 in a well lighted house with a temperature 

 of 40 to 50 degrees at night and 50 to 60 

 degrees on bright days if you want cut- 

 tings by the middle of December. If you 

 will not want them till January or February, 

 store the plants, with good balls of earth 

 about the roots, close together in a cellar, 

 cool but never below freezing. 



You may find traces of cutworm work 

 in the greenhouse these days. One of 

 the best ways to eliminate the pest is to 

 go through the house at nine or ten o'clock 

 at night, with a lantern. The worms do 

 all their feeding in the dark and can usually 

 be caught in the act. Or you can leave 

 poisoned baits of bran scattered about, 

 or bits of wood for them to hide under 

 during the day, when they may be dis- 

 covered and destroyed. 



Keep at the Insects Outdoors 



A NY time from now till April is the 

 ■**■ time to spray the orchard with 

 lime and sulphur to destroy the San Jose 

 scale, which is liable to be found also on 

 roses and a number of other ornamentals. 

 On a large place it will be cheaper to make 

 your own spray mixture. But for the 

 small garden, the proprietary mixtures 

 that can be bought ready for use after 

 being diluted, are much more convenient, 

 cleanly and preferable. 



As soon as the leaves fall you can see 

 the winter nests of the brown tail moths, 

 and the old unsightly webs of the tent 

 caterpillars. Remove both kinds and burn 

 them at once. Unpleasant consequences 

 are liable to follow a delay in taking the 

 latter precaution. On a large farm in 

 157 



the East last winter, they stored away in 

 a barn some fifty burlap sacks of brown 

 tail nests, to wait for a damp day on which 

 to burn them. Unfortunately the tem- 

 perature in the barn was very mild, and 

 in a couple of weeks millions of tiny worms 

 came to life. It took about a week and 

 much kerosene to thoroughly clean out the 

 store room. 



Don't Procrastinate 



f~\Y COURSE it is perfectly true that 

 ^-^ you can do your winter pruning any 

 time up to the first of April, but what do 

 you gain by delaying? Nothing; you lose. 

 Everything on the place will be calling 

 for attention at the same time next March, 

 and you will hate to take time even to 

 burn up the brush, if indeed, you find time 

 to get it off the trees at all. 



So prune, now: the hardy fruit trees 

 — apple, pear, quince, plum, cherry; all 

 the bush fruits; grape vines; ornamental 

 deciduous trees (although these ordinarily 

 need but very little trimming) ; ornamental 

 shrubs, if they do not bloom in the spring; 

 summer flowering woody vines; and 

 hardy roses (tender kinds are liable to have 

 their canes killed back a little and had 

 best be left till early spring). 



After pruning clean up and have some 

 bonfires right away. There is no more ex- 

 cuse for an untidy garden in winter than 

 in summer, nor as much, for there are 

 many days when the most you can do is to 

 shine up the looks of the place. 



The matter of bonfires is important. 

 Be sure you are not violating state or 

 town statutes, if you start fires with- 

 out getting a permit from the fire warden. 

 Such an offence, even an unwitting one, 

 is liable to cost from $25 to $100. And 

 even if there are no such laws in your 

 locality take great care that you do not 

 endanger any woodlots. We are losing 

 too many forests through fires started 

 by carelessness, and you can do good 

 work for conservation as a self-appointed 

 warden, even on a small scale. 



From some of the above items you can 

 see how much manure is needed at this 

 season. If you start now to make com- 

 post for next spring and summer, you will 

 be able to save all the summer's manure 

 for fall work. The very best way to make 

 good compost is to spread a six-inch layer 

 of inverted pasture sod, cover it with a 

 slightly thinner layer of cow manure, then 

 another layer of sod and so on as high as 

 convenient. The whole pile should be 

 turned completely over at least twice 

 during the winter, and moistened now and 

 then, if it tends to break down too slowly. 



