The Garden Magazine 



Vol. XV— No. 6 



Published mon i hi v 



JULY, 1912 



i One Dollar Fifty Cents a Year 

 ! 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.] 



July 4th and the Gardener 



INDEPENDENCE DAY is rightly 

 -1 named, for it is just about the date 

 that brings freedom from the depredations 

 of the rose chafer. Don't let up on him, 

 however, just because he disappears in 

 July. Every bug you kill in the freshness 

 of its youth means several hundred less 

 eggs to hatch next year. 



Speaking of freedom, no one can better 

 appreciate its meaning than the owner of 

 a successful garden. He is independent 

 of the supplies of the grocery store and the 

 peddler of fresh (?) vegetables (with plenty 

 of "greens" on hand, even the meat bill 

 can be greatly cut down); he is inde- 

 pendent of the doctor, for the man who 

 tends a garden rarely lacks appetite and 

 suffers few pangs but the almost enjoyable 

 ache of healthful weariness; he is inde- 

 pendent of the need of excitement and 

 expensive amusements, for the care of 

 flowers and vegetables is a fascinating 

 entertainment in itself — for children as 

 well as grown folks. It takes a garden to 

 transform a house into a home. And in 

 July every garden should be at its best. 

 Is yours? 



Are you getting plenty of color and cut 

 flowers every week? 



Are you getting vegetables enough in 

 proportion to the space occupied and the 

 time and money expended? 



Are the color combinations in border 

 and edging harmonious? Are the peren- 

 nials correctly placed as to height and 

 mass? 



Are you keeping all the land busy all 

 the time by means of succession, inter- 

 cropping and transplanting? 



How easy is it for you (or someone else) 

 to find weeds in your garden? 



Your answers depend largely upon how 

 your garden was planned and executed. 

 Is it as successful as you expected? Then 

 tell The Garden Magazine about it. 



Have some of your schemes failed? 

 Then talk them over with us just the same. 

 Perhaps we can evolve a cure; your experi- 

 ence will certainly help many a fellow 

 gardener. 



The Midsummer Routine 



UOR the sake of the daily results keep 

 ■* up the watering and the cultivating. 

 Notice the methods of thunder showers 

 and in using the hose imitate them. 

 In other words, when you see that the 

 ground needs water, soak it thoroughly. 

 A light sprinkling is about as useful as 

 a glass of salt water for a thirsty man. 



If your rows are long and straight — 

 as they should be — your best cultivating 

 tool is the wheel hoe or hand cultivator. 

 But a pretty close second, in my estimation, 

 is the English type of scuffle hoe. For 

 shallow soil loosening close to the tomatoes, 

 cabbage and other individual plants it 

 cannot be excelled. 



All this for present day needs. For 

 future returns plant and transplant all 

 the time. The mid-season celery should 

 be set in its permanent rows without delay; 

 the late crop may now be sown in a seed- 

 bed. 



Start cucumbers for late pickles where- 

 ever there is extra space and let the plants 

 set all the fruit they will. By pinching 

 back the terminal buds you can get earlier 

 fruits but not so many of them. 



String beans, radishes, beets, corn and 

 kohlrabi may be planted at two-week 

 intervals. 



Lettuce should go in every week or ten 

 days but it will not stand much hot sun- 

 light. Better sow it in a bed where it can 

 be shaded with a cloth sash. Cover 

 transplanted heads with old paper pots, 

 berry boxes or newspapers until they are 

 well recovered from the shock. 



Sow the winter varieties of turnip and 

 radish. The latter aire still somewhat of 

 a novelty in this country, but they are not 

 nearly as strong as their size would indicate. 



Early potatoes are about ready. After 

 digging, rake up and destroy the tops, 

 work over and level the soil and hustle in 

 some one of the crops mentioned above 

 Use a variety that your seedsman recom- 

 mends for late season planting. 



The fruits need some attention. Pinch 

 back the young raspberry and blackberry 

 canes to two and a half and three feet 

 respectively, and their laterals in propor 



349 



tion. This gives you a low, stocky, strong 

 growth for next year's fruiting and en- 

 ables you to cut out the old canes as soon 

 as they have borne this summer. 



Currants are liable to attacks by worms. 

 Use hellebore in preference to arsenical 

 preparations at this time. 



Some paper or mosquito-netting bags 

 on bunches of grapes and clusters of cur- 

 rants will insure just that much early 

 fruit of the best quality. 



Begin a preliminary thinning of the 

 larger fruits. 



The cucurbits or gourd family of vege- 

 tables are especially liable to injury by 

 squash bugs and blight. Slaked lime and 

 tobacco dust for the former and Bordeaux 

 mixture for the latter are standard defen- 

 sive weapons. 



The majority of H. P. roses will soon 

 cease blooming for the season. Then cut 

 them back and shape them so as to develop 

 a well formed bush by fall. The subse- 

 quent winter pruning will result in a strong 

 spring growth and high class blooms. 



Send in your orders for all autumn 

 bulbs now. They will be delivered about 

 the same time that a special article on their 

 care and management will appear in The 

 Garden Magazine. Besides, the first 

 orders always get the best and promptest 

 attention. If you order (as you should) 

 your spring seeds in January, it is 

 logical that you get your fall order in 

 by July. 



As the muskmelons swell slip a piece of 

 shingle under each fruit to keep it clean 

 and to prevent the development of rot. A 

 melon is not ripe till it parts from the stem 

 at the slightest touch. Don't try to pick 

 them until then. 



To reward the asparagus bed for what it 

 has already done, work in a dressing of 

 salt — five pounds to one hundred square 

 feet. 



Nitrate of soda is the necessary stimu- 

 lant to overcome the lassitude of the hot 

 weather. Scatter it thinly along the rows 

 of all crops in which a good growth of vine 

 or foliage is desired. 



The one time when chickens may be ad- 

 mitted to the garden is when there are 

 asparagus beetles to be destroyed. In 

 the same way the services of a few ducks 

 should be obtained to eliminate potato 

 bugs. 



In tying up cauliflower heads be sure 

 there is no moisture in the centre, or the 

 head will certainly rot. 



By cutting cabbage instead of pulling 

 it, you stimulate a growth of small shoots 

 that are deliciously tender and mild. 



