The Garden Magazine 



p m ^HIS is an important month. 

 It is usually safe to set out 



COMPILED 

 THE HOME 

 DIARIES OF 



For reckoning dates, the latitude of New York City is generally taken as 

 standard. In applying the directions to other localities, allow six 

 days' difference for every hundred miles of latitude 



Lawns and 

 Grounds 



anything by the latter part 



"*- of May. Decoration Day 

 is the greatest "bedding-out" day 

 of the year, when cannas, geraniums, 

 coleus, etc., are s*et out for the sum- 

 mer season. Do not permit Arbor 

 Day to pass without planting some- 

 thing. 



Spring work opens with a rush 

 now and everything seems to need 

 attention at once. In a garden 



that was well in working order last year, much can be done to 

 help along things that have been carried through the winter. 



/^UT the grass early. Do not postpone it; it is much harder to do 

 when the grass gets too long for the mower. 

 Any Spring seeding of lawns must be done at once. It would 

 perhaps be better however to postpone the sowing of lawns until 

 early fall as the lawns that are sown now are very apt 

 to be full of weeds. 

 If you intend mixing your own grass seed you can use 

 Kentucky blue and Rhode Island bent in equal quantities, with 

 white clover added at the rate of five pounds per bushel of mixture. 

 This will stand dry weather. Mixtures are useful for general pur- 

 poses and can be bought "ready for use." 



Moles are very troublesome in new lawns (and in old ones, too, 

 some times). If you can't catch them in traps, use a four tined 

 pitch fork in the early mornings or just at dusk and you will surely 

 get them. 



Sodding must be done as early as possible this month. If it is 

 necessary to do this work late you must be specially careful to 

 keep it well watered until it is well rooted. 



15 E GIN the campaign against the elm leaf beetle. The latter 



part of the month spray the trees with arsenate of lead. If 



properly attended to the elms will 



hold their foliage all summer. 



Look over the trunks 



Shrubs' 1 °f a ^ trees and do any 

 repairing that is neces- 

 sary, painting all the exposed wood, 

 if you do nothing else. 



All deciduous shrubs should be 

 pruned just as they drop their 

 flowers. Each kind requires, per- 

 haps, a little different treatment, 

 but the proper time to do any 

 cutting is just as the flowers are 

 gone. Some of the more important 

 that flower around this time are 

 wisteria, lilac, exochorda, forsythia, 

 deutzia, spireas, viburnum, weeping After deciduous planting is done 



CUerry, tamariX, etc. you can move evergreens 



THE MONTHS 

 REMINDER 



WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO 

 GARDEN, FROM THE TEN YEARS' 

 A PRACTICAL EXPERT GARDENER 



It is still not too late to do some 

 planting. Deciduous trees and 

 shrubs can be handled this month, 

 but the earlier the better. If any- 

 thing must be shifted, attend to it 

 immediately. 



Evergreens can be transplanted 

 all this month — in fact, it is a 

 most excellent time for doing this 

 work. Ensure success by watering 

 them well during the dry weather. 

 Boxwood edging, hedges and 

 formal bushes should now be clip- 

 ped. This is a fine time too to set out a boxwood hedge of cuttings. 

 These cuttings should be well set, pounded firm with a brick and 

 kept well watered. They root very readily under such conditions. 



All evergreen 

 hedges should be 

 clipped just before 

 growth starts. 



This is the proper 

 time to prune 

 maples. If cut any 

 time after the mid- 

 dle of the month 

 they will "bleed" 

 very little. 



REDDING out 



be started 

 the latter 



the month. 



make the 



mistake 



can 

 toward 

 part of 

 Do not 



By the end of the month it is usually safe to put out 

 tender bedding plants — cannas, geraniums, etc. 



Flower 

 Garden 



of attempting this too early, however; the 

 25th of the month is the earliest safe date near New 

 York for such plants as ageratum, amaranthus, bego- 

 nia, canna, celosia, centaurea, coleus, geranium, grasses, alter- 

 nanthera, lobelia, castor oil plant, salvia, achyranthes, alyssum, 

 caladium, lantana. Start setting out the more hardy plants, such 

 as the geranium finishing with the tender coleus. 



No plant, should be planted in the open ground directly from 

 a warm greenhouse. Prepare them thoroughly by a gradual 

 hardening process of at least two weeks. 



A few bulbs for the summer garden which it is timely to grow 

 are tuberose, dahlia, gladiolus, and montbretia. 



Keep the perennial border well cultivated and the tall plants 

 properly staked and tied. Keep the dead flowers cut off. 



Give the iris an abundance of water. If the Japan iris is given 

 all the water it needs and an abundance of plant food it will pro- 

 duce large flowers on stems fully four feet in length. 



As soon as the achillea is past blooming, cut it to the ground 

 and you will have a second crop of flowers. 



Plant some pansies or small flowering plants between the peonies 

 as a ground cover, since the peony itself is not very attractive 

 during the summer. 



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