The Garden Magazine 



Volume XIX 



APRIL, 1914 



Number 3 



AN EXPLANATION 



For the purpose of 

 reckoning dates the 

 latitude of New York 

 City is taken as the 

 standard in these 

 Reminders. To 

 adapt to other local- 

 ities allow approx- 

 imately six days' dif- 

 ference for every 

 hundred miles of 

 latitude 



«* FTER the frost leaves the ground it is in 



/% good shape for easy digging and for turning 

 / % under what is left of the winter mulch. 

 "^- -^- Fencing, if any is contemplated, should be 

 done now. 



This is the last chance to look over the trees and 

 :shrubs for scale. And do not pass over the roses; 

 scale is one cause of poor, unproductive rose 

 bushes. 



Burn the meadows to sweeten and clean ^j 



•up things. It also leaves some little fer- 

 Lawns and tilizer in the ashes. Old ne- 

 Grounds glected lawns that are to be 

 renovated had better be burned over. Per- 

 ennial grasses, such as the eulalia, are better 

 burned off instead of being cut. You do 

 not get so much stubble. 



Any new lawns to be seeded down need 

 •attention as early as possible, or the dry 

 weather of summer will burn them up. Do not use cheap grass 

 seed. Our consistently dry summers have made white clover 

 in grass mixtures quite necessary, as it so successfully resists 

 drought. For the same reason do not use much red top but 

 more Kentucky blue. 



Keep a sharp lookout for the cutworm. This is a hard pest to 

 fight. The plant collar is perhaps the most common preventive 

 but unfortunately it does not kill any of the worms. If they are 

 not very thick you can look over your plants at night with a lantern 

 and see the worms crawling around, or by running your ringers 

 through the soil near your damaged plants you will find them con- 

 cealed just below the surface. 



Do not forget to prune the magnolia immediately after the 

 flowers have dropped — also other early flowering trees or shrubs. 

 And do not be timid; the magnolia rather enjoys pruning. 



PLANTING can be carried on all through the month and in 

 ■"- fact, a good part of next too but, as with life insurance, the 

 sooner it is attended to the better. 

 Planting Look over hedges and fill up any bare spots or 

 Time hollows. 



When trees are received 

 from the nursery saturate 

 their roots with water as 

 soon as received, and if they 

 are not planted at once, have 

 their roots well covered. 



Cover with straw the 

 trunks of any large trees that 

 have been transplanted. 

 Similar covering is also very 

 beneficial to small trans- 

 planted trees preventing the 



As soon as the frost is out of the ground, turn over the 

 surface, with spade or fork, and bury the winter mulch 



Plant a strawberry bed. Be careful not to buiy 

 the crown 



sun from drying up the bark, and so easing the flow 

 of sap in the tree. 



Mulch any large trees that have been moved, apply- 

 ing it now during moist weather and leaving it on all 

 summer. 



Prune hard any trees or shrubs which, by accident or 

 otherwise, have had their roots mutilated in planting. 

 The latter part of the month go ahead with 

 your grafting, which was fully described in 

 The Garden Magazine for May, 191 2. 



IF YOU haven't sown some of the ornamen- 

 tal annual grasses, now is the time for it. 

 Sow in shallow flats and when about one 

 inch high break up into small clumps and 

 Seeds pot in two inch pots. That is 

 Worth all the handling necessary. 

 Sowing Sweet peas can still be sown 

 out of doors. Keep the colors separate and 

 give them plenty of manure. Dig it in deep, to attract the roots 

 downward. Sweet peas which were sown in pots in the green- 

 house can be planted out toward the middle of the month. 



How about some annual vines for screens, such as the hop vine, 

 cobcea, moonflower and cypress vines, etc. 



CHANGES in the perennial garden should not be postponed 

 any longer. Wherever the plants are too thick, cut them in 

 two and throw away half, or give to a neighbor, or fill gaps in 

 other parts of the garden. 



. If you have any really low ground in your garden 



Perennials wnere vou wou ld like to see something growing, try 

 bamboo. It is very attractive, and will turn a wet. 

 soggy spot into good wholesome growth. Get some iris and tri- 

 toma for the low end of the garden where nothing else seems to 

 succeed. 



And if you haven't any montbretias, make their acquaintance. 



Dahlia roots can be set out toward the end of the month. (This 

 does not apply to plants that were propagated and raised in the 

 greenhouse. You can keep right on propagating these until the 

 first of May.) 



You may commence plant- 

 ing gladiolus this month. Do 

 not put them in all at one 

 time; plant them in batches 

 about a week apart for suc- 

 cession of bloom. 



SOW at once the more hardy 

 annuals, and others such as 

 poppy, calliopsis, sweet sultan, 

 Centaur ea Americana, annual 

 chrysanthemum, cosmos, 



Put outdoors early started seedlings 

 hardening off 



after 



161 



