June, 1914 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



289 



been headed back the next spring, they 

 are ready to enter on their life-long experi- 

 ence of summer pruning. For summer 

 pruning is the one central secret in the 

 management of hedges, whether deciduous 

 or evergreen. While there is room for 

 the exercise of personal judgment, and while 

 some species naturally do better with 

 slight modifications of general rules in their 

 favor, yet the main features of this sum- 

 mer pruning practice are so definite and 

 uniform as to be capable of clear and simple 

 statements that anybody can follow. In 

 short the practically universal pruning 

 practice may be set forth thus: 



Two prunings each summer, with no win- 

 ter or spring pruning, is the best method. 

 There are exceptional cases where one 

 pruning will do just as well as two, and 

 other exceptional cases where three clip- 

 pings will be better; but these are distinct 

 exceptions. There are a good many hedges, 

 especially old ones, which can get along 

 very decently on one annual summer prun- 

 ing; and certainly one such treatment 

 annually is better than the common prac- 

 tice of one pruning every five years. 



Early in June is usually the best time 



for the first and most important pruning. 

 This should fall just at the time when the 

 hedge plants are completing their first vig- 

 orous spring growth. There will be strong 

 shoots, especially at the tops of the plants, 

 averaging one foot to two feet in length, 

 with hardening wood and firm side buds. 

 These will be cut back from one-half to 

 nine-tenths their length in this June prun- 

 ing, though the cutting will be done mainly 

 with an eye to smoothing the outlines of 

 the hedge and getting a good uniform found- 

 ation on which to build. 



During the second summer, and possibly 

 during the third, it may be well, if the hedge 

 is developing normally, to omit any other 

 pruning. Even this first early June clip- 

 ping may be made lighter than the usual 

 prescription of one-half to nine-tenths -of 

 the current growth — a prescription which 

 is better suited to the management of a fully 

 grown hedge where any further expansion 

 of size is undesirable. 



As soon as the job is well under way, how- 

 ever, and the hedge row begins to assume its 

 prescribed form, this early clipping becomes 

 a standing necessity, to be followed up every 

 year without fail. Also there ought to be 



given a second and lighter clipping, usually 

 about the middle of July. This is expected 

 to follow after the growth of the year has 

 been fully completed and the wood has 

 begun to ripen. It will help out by reduc- 

 ing the severity of the June pruning of the 

 following year, and it will also help to keep 

 the hedge smooth and tidy. It will be no 

 disadvantage, physiologically, to a vigorous 

 deciduous hedge, to be lightly clipped three 

 or four times each summer at intervals of 

 three weeks or so. Such treatment helps 

 to make a clean compact wall and to 

 keep it in the pink of good looks. Most 

 folks, however, find this clipping work too 

 strenuous to be indulged in without urgent 

 reason. 



The commonest defects in hedges are 

 ragged irregular growth and thinning out at 

 the bottom. The first is caused by poor 

 plants, poorly adapted to soil and situation 

 and insufficiently fed and cultivated. The 

 second is brought about by delayed, im- 

 proper and infrequent pruning. The early, 

 frequent and strictly annual pruning recom- 

 mended in this article must be chiefly de- 

 pended on to prevent this last and com- 

 monest and worst defect. 



Efficiency in the Backyard Garden, VI. — By A. Kruhm, 



Ohio 



THE JUNE PLANTED VEGETABLE GARDEN- 

 OVERCOMING THE WATERING PROBLEM 



IT IS never too late to start a garden. 

 Let this great truth, sink into your 

 mind for all time. Three principal 

 reasons prevent people from making a 

 start at anything in general and gardening 

 in particular. 



First. Delay at the critical time, and 

 the subsequent thought "it is too late." 



Second. Hesitation caused by the 

 thought "I don't know enough about it 

 to see it through to a successful finish." 



Third. Disbelief that a late start can be 

 a successful one. 



Planning a June garden is, in many re- 

 spects like planning the "toy garden," 

 discussed in the March issue. It revolves 

 largely around the elimination 

 of the impractical and giving 

 a maximum chance to varie- 

 ties and classes of vegetables 

 promising sure returns in time 

 to reward your efforts. The 

 biggest factor in your favor 

 at this time of the year is 

 nature's glorious mood and 

 condition to respond quickly 

 to treatment humoring her 

 activity. The soil is in fine 

 shape, contains sufficient 

 moisture for quick germina- 

 tion and the question of cool 

 nights is a matter of the past. 

 If there is one ideal month 

 during which a complete gar- 

 den may be made in one day, a snort 

 it is the month of June. 



Another advantage of the June planted 

 garden is its sureness to produce crisp, 

 fresh vegetables at a time when your 

 neighbor, who started early, will have to 

 work quite as hard as you, to keep up his 

 supply. Crops from his first plantings will 

 be exhausted when your June planted gar- 

 den comes into bearing. 



Let us then plan the practical June gar- 

 den for quality vegetables. Looking facts 

 squarely in the face, we find that there are 

 on an average 115 days of growing weather 

 between June first and the day that the 

 first heavy frost is recorded in the latitude 

 of New York. Of these 115 days, more 

 than half are too hot to produce "cool 



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Long Season 

 How to plant a successful vegetable garden in June 



season" crops in satisfactory fashion, while 

 during the last 30 days, the nights are too 

 cool to do much good for "long season" 

 crops of late planting. Therefore: 



"Cool season" crops, which should not 

 be considered at the start, when planning 

 the June Garden, are loose leaf lettuce, 

 early radishes, onion sets, mustard, peas 

 and spinach and taking for granted that it 

 will require at least a week before you get 

 through planting a garden of average size, 

 30 x 50 ft., it would be a waste of time, en- 

 ergy and seed to plant late bush beans, 

 late corn, pole beans, in fact any kind of 

 vegetable requiring more than 100 days 

 from time of sowing seed to reach maturity. 

 In the case of the June 

 planted vegetable gardens, it 

 will be well to disregard my 

 previous suggestion that you 

 try to do all the work yourself. 

 Now by all means, get some 

 one to dig your garden, even 

 if it costs you $5 to have it 

 done. I will show you how 

 this investment can be made 

 to bear handsome dividends 

 by fall. The comparatively 

 few vegetables which you 

 should not attempt to grow 

 on account of a late start sink 

 into insignificance, when you 

 compare them with the fol- 

 lowing list that you can grow 

 Section B with a full assurance of suc- 



cess: 



