The Garden Magazine 



Vol. XV — No. 5 



Pll Bl isnt D MON 1HI.V 



JUNE, 1912 



j One Dollar Fikty Cents a Year 

 I 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.) 



Lots of Work and Some Reward 



VIGILANCE and care are now the 

 watchwords. Cultivate often for three 

 reasons: 



i. To hasten growth. 



2. To conserve moisture. 



3. To kill weeds. 



But take warning: Don't cultivate or 

 touch in any way beans while there is 

 moisture on them. Anthracnose germs are 

 nearly always present under moist, warm 

 conditions, and the cultivation scatters 

 them broadcast. 



If showers are scarce water copiously 

 now and then, not morning and evening, 

 just enough to lay the dust. 



Quality in vegetables is the result of 

 quick, unchecked growth, and this means 

 plenty of water at all times. 



Pull radishes just as soon as they are 

 big enough to bite. Pick peas when well 

 filled out, but before they grow firm and 

 begin to turn light colored. Spinach is 

 delicious only in direct proportion to its 

 youthfulness. 



Nitrate of soda, scattered along the row 

 dry, or dissolved in the water will work 

 wonders. Use a teaspoonful to a watering 

 canful at least. 



Rose buds and rose bugs arrive about 

 the same time. The latter cause trouble 

 among the grapes, too. So far, no better 

 treatment than pressure between the thumb 

 and finger and immersion in kerosene has 

 been discovered. What is your plan of 

 action? 



Flea beetles bite holes in the leaves of 

 tomatoes, dahlias, etc., and in sufficient 

 numbers are a real pest. But kerosene 

 emulsion, tobacco dust, or pyrethrum effect- 

 ually dispose of them. 



The aphides' feeding and breeding seasons 



are practically all the time. If you can- 

 not find them clustered on the tender tips 

 of any of your vines, bushes or plants, 

 you are indeed lucky. Use a proper 

 spray for them. 



Remember, the one year old asparagus 

 bed is forbidden ground, no matter how 

 attractive the stalks may look. Even a 

 bed in full bearing should not be cut for 

 more than six weeks. An expensive lux- 

 ury? Well, yes, if you are very short of 

 space. But you can grow onions, lettuce 

 and radishes between the rows. 



By the way, is the asparagus knife bright 

 in readiness? 



Planting must of course, go on briskly. 

 Lettuce, corn, radishes, peas, beets, kohl- 

 rabi, all these in small quantities every 

 two weeks. New Zealand spinach, for 

 cutting all through the summer. All the 

 ultra-tender melons, cucumbers, peppers, 

 eggplants, tomatoes and okra can come 

 out of the frames now . And late potatoes, 

 turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, etc., 

 can now be planted. 



Don't wait for the beetles to appear on 

 the early potatoes before you spray. 

 Cover the foliage with paris green or arsen- 

 ate of lead as soon as the plants are six 

 inches high and prepare a deadly morsel 

 for the first comers. It will help in other 

 ways, too, for: 



Some paris green on young pertaters 

 Keeps bugs from eggplants and termaters. 



Now is the time to decide how you are 

 going to support the tomatoes. You can 

 train them to single stems and keep these 

 tied to strong stakes, one to a plant; you 

 can make a circular fence of barrel hoops 

 for each vine or support them on a trellis 

 of wood or wire running the length of the 

 row. Or, if you don't care much, you can 

 leave them unsupported to roam over the 

 ground. But you will not get as much 

 fruit, nor as good nor as early from this 

 method. 



A strawberry bed that has borne for two 

 seasons has passed its greatest usefulness, 

 as far as high quality berries is concerned. 

 The third year you may get a good crop 

 but the berries will be small. So plan if 

 you can for a rotation in which straw- 

 berries will bear for two years and then 

 be plowed under in time for a summer 

 crop. 



Two of Loudon's rules for gardeners that 

 are especially applicable at this season are: 



"In gathering a crop take away the 

 useless as well as the useful parts." 



"Let no plant ripen seeds, unless they 

 are wanted for some purpose, useful or 



297 



ornamental, and remove all parts which 

 are in a state of decay." 



If your fruits don't set, especially plums, 

 grapes and pears two solutions are possible: 

 Either you have varieties that are self- 

 sterile (cannot be pollinated by their own 

 pollen) or there are lacking bees, breezes or 

 other agents of fertilization. The latter 

 trouble can be remedied by buying a colony 

 of bees which is not only easy to take care 

 of, but will bring you in a little cash now 

 and then if you can bring yourself to dis- 

 pose of genuine, home-made, comb honey. 



Not a few persons ask us how they can 

 store hen manure so that it will be avail- 

 able for the garden. One way is to sprinkle 

 the dropping boards with dry dirt or land 

 plaster every morning and clean them off 

 every three or four weeks, when the manure 

 can be harrowed in between the rows with 

 good results. The droppings may be saved 

 in barrels or boxes (out of reach of the 

 weather) if an absorbent is used. When 

 applied all lumps must be broken and the 

 whole mass pulverized. 



If you can leave the hardy bulbs where 

 they are all summer and winter they will 

 bloom about two weeks earlier next spring 

 than if they are dug up and replanted. 



If you must take them up, let them 

 ripen for a fortnight or more after they 

 have bloomed, then brush off all dirt and 

 let them dry in a free circulation of air be- 

 fore storing them away in a cool, dry place. 



Gardening for the Late Comer 



PERHAPS you have just moved in and 

 have almost given up the idea of a gar- 

 den this year. Don't do it. You can not 

 only start perennials for next year's effects, 

 but also get some splendid results this 

 season. 



These annuals will bloom abundantly be- 

 fore frost: Alyssum, California poppy, cali- 

 opsis, candytuft, love-in-a-mist, mignonette, 

 nasturtiums, phlox, portulaca, and scarlet 

 sage. But for good results don't let the 

 blossoms ever go to seed. 



These perennials may bloom this year, 

 and if you use pot-grown plants from the 

 florist instead of seeds, they surely will: 

 Campanula carpatica, Centaur ea montana, 

 delphinium, dianthus, gaillardia and Pent- 

 stemon campanulatus. 



Buy some potted vines, too. You save 

 all the delays and possible dangers of the 

 germinating and early tender periods. Clem- 

 atis, morning glory, hop (Hamulus lupulus), 

 English ivy, trumpet, canary-bird, and cup- 

 and-saucer vines are especially quick growers 

 if well fed and given a good support. 



