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T1IK (JARDKN MAGAZINE 



165 



Last on the list arc the delight of Friend 

 Neighbor's heart, and of mine as well — 

 "those little things that creep and nestle 

 around and cover themselves with glory 

 whenever they have a chance." These 

 are the ccrastinms and the hardy candy- 

 tufts. 



The blue-green tamarix, (T. hispida, var. 

 astivalis), growing out of a solid mat 

 of Cerastium tomentosum and waving its 

 rose-pink plumes above a carpet of gray 

 leaves dotted with the white stars of this 

 little perennial, was the very best bit of 

 planting I did last year. This little gray- 

 leaved creeper makes a fine bed, whether 

 it is used with the shrubs or as an edging 

 to the border. Five cents' worth of seed 



will establish a fine mass of it in a year, 

 and it is a little beauty when at the height 

 of its flowering season. 



Another plant that covers the ground 

 and rambles around, in and out, and pokes 

 up its snowy heads as a foil for more 

 brilliant bloom is the hardy candytuft, 

 Ibcris sempervircus. My Darwin tulips 

 were never so beautiful as when they 

 sprang from a mat of this candytuft with 

 its dark, evergreen foliage. A liberal 

 supply of candytuft seed has been sprinkled 

 over Friend Neighbor's tulip bed. Iberis 

 Gibraltarica is not so hardy and has pale 

 purple heads. 



It is the little things that count in mak- 

 ing a border; even the little plant louse 



counts, and heavily at times! And while 

 it does not seem like orthodox gardening 

 to encourage any one starting a border for 

 the first time to ignore the commoner and 

 almost indispensable species, I am not at 

 all sure but that more genuine enjoyment 

 can be attained by watching the develop- 

 ment of the little perennials, which never 

 give exactly the same effects two years in 

 succession, than from watching for the 

 foxgloves and Canterbury bells and others 

 of more stately growth, which present an 

 identical appearance year in and year out. 

 In all the borders I know of there isn't 

 enough attention paid to occupying all 

 the space. And there are so many tiny 

 plants just waiting for a chance! 



The Cost of Making a Perennial Bed — By Werner Boecklin, ss 



IT IS vain to expect good or even 

 ordinary results from a cheaply pre- 

 pared perennial bed. Cheap materials, 

 cheap labor, skimp quantities are not con- 

 ducive to lasting qualities. If you have 

 reached the age of wisdom you will say 

 "give me the best or else I will go without. " 

 A recent experience of mine will show the 

 foolishness of preparing flower beds on the 

 short measure principle. Four large formal 

 beds had been made in a garden. The 

 work was done under the direction of a so- 

 called "gardener." Flowers there had 

 been none, or practically none, for two 

 successive years. I secured the consent of 

 the owner to make over the beds and found 

 them to be only one spade deep, made of a 

 very poor clay soil with practically no 

 humus and with a slight coloring of manure 

 at the bottom. The beds were in the open 

 and baked throughout the summer. 



Two feet deep is little enough for a 

 perennial bed and since I do my work in a 

 neighborhood where materials are ex- 

 pensive, I limit the depth to this amount. 

 Of course everything is conserved so far 

 as possible, for when top soil costs $2.50 a 

 team load, manure $2.50, and labor $2.00 

 to $3.00 per day people are not inclined 

 to rush into garden work without carefully 

 considering the expense. 



So when I started on a large perennial 

 bed I saw that the sods and top humus, 

 about 8 inches in all, was carefully placed 

 to one side and kept separate from the 

 clay subsoil. With labor and materials 

 at the amounts named I found the itemized 

 cost as shown below : 



This is equivalent to $0,064 per cu. foot of 

 bed or $0,128 per square foot. 



These unit prices are convenient and 

 although not applicable to all conditions 



are a great help in arriving at a near 

 approximation to the cost of a proposed 

 piece of work. 



Area of Bed, 546 sq. ft.; depth of bed, 2 ft.; 8 

 inches top soil, and sod 16 inches stiff clay. Ma- 

 terial excavated, 1092 cu. ft. 

 Labor, including excavation, refilling, 



mixing manure and finishing . . . $36.94 



10 loads manure at $2.50 25.00 



Bone meal, 160 pounds 3 .66 



2 Loads finishing soil at $2.50 . . . 5. 00 



Total $70.30 



In the bed here considered six inches 

 of manure was placed in the bottom and 

 some of both the clay and top soil, with 

 all the sods, were then thrown in and 

 thoroughly mixed with the manure. Top 

 soil was kept for the upper layer and 

 some screened soil was finally spread over 

 the top. 



After all. the success of a bed or border depends on the proper preparation. Dig deeply and give good soil for the roots 



