72 



The Garden Magazine, September, 1919 



out all through this month. The shrub planting had best be de- 

 layed until after the fifteenth when the chances of frequent rains are 

 a little brighter. But the sooner the soil is prepared for them the 

 better. 



Plant Peony roots. Remember they are long lived and want deep 

 soil, plenty of plant food in it, and good drainage underneath. 



Continue to save seed from the best of the perennials as long as 

 vou have a place to put it. It can be sown all this month, either out- 

 doors or in a hotbed for future transplanting and subsequent indoor 

 or garden culture. 



Lift and pot any outdoor favorites for a second supply of flowers 

 indoors. Do this in at least two steps: First cut back the plants 

 and root-prune with a sharp spade. Then a week or so later really 

 lift them out of the soil and put them in pots. In all such opera- 

 tions spade up a much larger ball of earth than the pot you plan to 

 use will take; then with a pointed stick comb away part of the soil 

 so as to leave as large a mass of fibrous roots as possible. When in 

 the pot, work the new soil down around these with a stick. Lifted 

 plants in pots should not be allowed to check or wilt for even a min- 

 ute. To prevent it, put them in a shady place at first protected 

 from strong winds, and sprinkle frequently. After a week or so 

 bring them in to a little brighter light, and gradually accustom them 

 to increased warmth and the glass covering of hotbed or greenhouse. 



Bring in the soil and fill the greenhouse benches, providing, of 

 course, that these have been cleaned and disinfected as urged last 

 month. While you are at it put under cover enough good potting 

 soil for all winter operations and for filling flats and bulb pans early 

 in the spring. 



Keep the Chrysanthemums well supported and the side shoots 

 nipped off. Use sulphur to keep them free of mildew. Bring in 

 any that are still in pots outdoors. 



Any house plants that have been plunged all summer, and that 

 show signs of being potbound, should be repotted either into a size 

 larger pot or, if this is inadvisable, into new soil. 



Begin work on the indoor window boxes. Buy small plants from 

 the nearest florist if you have not been able to start any yourself. 



Make more cuttings of Coleus and other bedding plants. Re- 

 member always to use clean, healthy, well-ripened wood. You can 

 start Clarkia seed now for indoor flowers this winter. 



Things You Can Do For the Vegetables 



You can plant new asparagus and rhubarb beds 



now just as successfully as in the spring. In fact 



you can save time, for a bed planted now can be 



safely cut a year from next spring, while one started 



next March or April ought really to be left for two 



years before it is asked to yield. 



About all you can plant now for direct return — and that only if 



the season is moderately mild — is cabbage to be wintered in frames, 



and corn salad, dandelions, and a few other hardy pot herbs that can 



remain in the ground all winter to be used early next spring. 



But if you have greenhouse facilities with which to carry on 

 winter vegetable growing activities, now is the time to plant cauli- 

 flower for holiday season harvests and string beans for December or 

 possibly November eating. 



There is a chance, too, that you can mature one more crop of 

 lettuce, radish, beets, spinach, and very early beans in hotbeds. They 

 will need careful handling, however, in order that they shall enjoy 

 the benefit of all the sunlight and ventilation possible without being 

 caught by the first heavy freeze or smothered by sudden excessive 

 protection. 



Keep all ripe tomatoes picked promptly during the month, and 

 all diseased or injured specimens cleaned up from around the plants. 

 About the end of the month pick all full sized fruits that are just 

 beginning to color and put them in a sheltered, sunny place really to 

 ripen. Green fruits should then be used for pickle making. 



Dig the main crop of potatoes if the vines have died, and sow the 

 ground to rye at once. Unless you are ready to begin using this 

 crop store it in a cool and dark place. 



Speaking of rye as a cover crop, sow it constantly, wherever a little 

 ground is left bare in your harvesting operations. For maximum 

 results add some winter vetch seed. Use about a pound of the mix- 

 ture to every six hundred square feet. 



Pull the beets, twist off the tops and store in the cellar or a pit. 

 Get the onions in before frost. Be sure they are thoroughly dry 

 and well ripened before you put them away in sacks for the winter. 

 Use loosely woven sacks, too, so that the bulbs will be well venti- 

 lated and kept from heating. 



Handle winter squash and pumpkins with the utmost care. Decay 

 organisms enter through almost imperceptible bruises and abrasions. 

 Also leave about four inches of stem on each gourd NOT to serve as 

 a handle, but to avoid leaving a soft, unprotected spot where it 

 came off. These fruits keep best if kept for two or three days in a 

 very hot room — at a temperature say, of 100 degrees F. or more — 

 to dry out before being stored in a warm, dry place where the mer- 

 cury never goes below 65 or 70. 



Cut asparagus stalks any time now and burn them. Mulch the 

 bed well if not already done. 



Get plenty of mulching material together for use on other peren- 

 nial vegetable crops as soon as the ground freezes. 



Continue to hill up late celery as long as it keeps on growing above 

 the level of the soils. But do this only in the middle of the day 

 when the plants are dry. 



In harvesting the root crops, don't touch salsify and parsnips. 

 They are benefited by one or two good stiff frosts — in fact they can 

 be left out all winter without suffering any injury, to be dug and 

 used as needed. 



Don't let rubbish in the vegetable garden accumulate any more than 

 on the front lawn or in your work shop or private office. It is un- 

 sightly, it is a nuisance, it is an actual danger in more ways than one. 



Tie the leaves up around the cauliflowers as fast as the flower 

 heads begin to show. But do this only when both inflorescence and 

 leaves are dry or you will get nothing but a rotted head for your 

 pains (The cauliflower's of course, not yours). 



Kale, like parsnips and salsify, is improved by a frost or two. 



Wherever anything is still growing (and there ought to be a good 

 deal) keep up the regular garden care just as if winter were six months 

 off instead of two. Remember, weeds will grow just as long as, if 

 not indeed a little longer, than the more valuable plants you are 

 trying to raise. 



THE AUGUST PEONY ARTICLE 



To the Editor of The Garden Magazine 



ON PICKING up the August Garden Magazine I have been 

 amazed beyond expression to find that the Peony article under 

 the caption "Masterly Inactivity is the best thing for the Peony" 

 is simply a copy, word for word, of a little booklet, the text of 

 which I myself wrote, and which we send to every patron. I en- 

 close a copy. With the exception of the first three lines of the 

 article, as you print it, and a three line "interjection" by the Editor, 

 there is not a line or word that is not my very own. There is no 

 word, thought, or suggestion from any other specialist, nor — ex- 

 cepting three lines — from the "author." I am assuming that you 

 are unaware of the facts and believe that you will do something in 

 The Garden Magazine to mend this matter. — William W. Kline, 

 The Mohican Peony Gardens, Sinking Spring, Pa. 



— This article was not mailed to Garden Magazine by Mr. 

 Howell, its author, but came from one of the audience that heard 

 his lecture. Only the material published was received, and this 

 was accepted in good faith by the editors as "the substance of" 

 the address, whereas it was instead merely material to which 

 Mr. Howell referred. — Ed. 



