The Garden Magazine 



Vol. XVI— No. 2 



Published Monthly 



SEPTEMBER, 1912 



I One Dollar Fifty 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' differ- 

 ence for every hundred miles of latitude.] 



Keep the Garden Growing 



THE real gardener turns his back on 

 "vacations" with the advent of 

 September. This is, indeed, an ideal month 

 for the amateur who wants to get results 

 next year. For instance: 



FROM AUGUST 20TH TO SEPTEMBER 1ST 



Plant peonies (and indeed through Sep- 

 tember), evergreens and spring-flowering 

 bulbs. 



Sow seeds of hardy perennials, grass seed 

 for new lawns or bad spots on old ones, 

 peas, beets, radishes, lettuce, spinach, 

 kohlrabi, and cabbage. 



Divide clumps of perennials — golden 

 glow, dianthus, phlox, hollyhock, etc. — ■ 

 rhubarb, horseradish, mint, and chives. 



Pot for winter the surplus from the 

 perennial clumps, strawberry plants started 

 from runners in the spring, parsley and a few 

 chives. 



Harvest beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, 

 melons — in fact everything that your 

 garden produces should be at its prime, 

 or at any rate very nearly ready for use. 

 Gather all vegetables a little too soon rather 

 than too late. Eggplant is an exception to 

 this; in the home garden the "eggs" can be 

 allowed to become rather soft as well as a 

 rich dark purple before they are gathered. 



Let the onions he in the sun for a day 

 or two after they are pulled; then top 

 them and spread them on racks, shelves, 

 or a wooden floor, indoors, for a week be- 

 fore sacking or barreling them. 



Stop all cultivating around fruit trees 

 and bushes. If you have not already 

 sown a cover crop, broadcast some rye or 

 millet at once. Or else begin to mulch; 



but lightly, and don't use rich manure as 

 it will stimulate late growth. Cut straw, 

 chaff, and lawn clippings are best. 



SEPTEMBER 1ST TO SEPTEMBER IOTH 



Keep the celery hilled up and copiously 

 watered. Now is the time for it to make 

 its greatest growth. 



Pick the tomatoes as they become full- 

 sized and turn pink, and ripen them in a 

 sunny window. This sends more life 

 into the younger fruits and hastens them 

 along. Even if all do not mature, the more 

 green ones you have for pickles the better. 



Perhaps a sowing of extra early peas 

 about the 7 th will ripen before frost — why 

 not try it? Anyway more radishes, lettuce 

 and spinach should certainly go in. 



Fix up the coldframes in readiness for 

 young lettuce, parsley, spinach and cab- 

 bage plants. You can have all these 

 right up to Christmas if you get them under 

 glass in good season. Don't bother to 

 transplant radishes; start new ones in 

 the frame. The larger cabbage heads if 

 nearly mature can be "pitted" over 

 winter. You can therefore leave them in 

 the ground till frost. 



Start the Christmas flowering bulbs, 

 both the Cape and the Dutch sorts, either 

 in soil, as befits tulips, freesias and hya- 

 cinths, or in bulb glasses and shallow dishes, 

 as in the case of Japanese lilies, narcissus, 

 jonquil, etc. Put all these in a dark, cool, 

 well ventilated place for six weeks or so. 



For the window garden, nasturtiums, 

 sweet peas, mignonette and other small 

 annuals — really the outdoor kinds — can 

 be started in pots. Simply keep the con- 

 ditions around them as nearly as possible 

 like those under which they succeed in the 

 garden. 



SEPTEMBER IOTH TO SEFTEMBER 20TH 



Pick out the cool days for getting on the 

 roof of the greenhouse to replace broken 

 panes, oil the ventilator hinges and fix 

 things up generally. Inside the house 

 the benches should be looked over carefully, 

 the soil mixed and put in place, and pots, 

 flats, sand boxes for cuttings, and all 

 implements gotten together. If you have 

 had any severe fungus epidemics in your 

 benches, you had better completely replace 

 the soil or bake it, a little at a time. Also 

 paint the inside of the benches with an anti- 

 septic paint that is made for the purpose. 



Cuttings of begonia, geranium and other 



house plants, shrubs and fruit bushes, 



grapes and other woody vines can be taken 



now. Put the former, from which blossoms 



41 



are expected this winter, in pots or flats of 

 sand to root as soon as possible. Bury 

 the others in moist sand in a cool, damp 

 place till early spring. 



This is the time to make a mushroom bed. 

 If it is well made, if the temperature and 

 moisture conditions are right, and if good 

 spawn is obtained, mushrooms are among 

 the very easiest of plants to raise. The 

 essentials are some good loam, some 

 fresh horse manure, and a somewhat dark, 

 damp place that can be kept at about 

 60 degrees Fahrenheit all the time. 



If the brambles ha.ve made much growth, 

 cut back the longest canes so that they will 

 not be whipped about and broken by the 

 wind. 



The worst of the fly season is over; 

 you can start a compost pile — if you have 

 not been accumulating one all the season. 

 For the best results spread alternate 

 layers of sod and cow manure, building 

 a rectangular mass with steeply sloping 

 sides and a flat top slightly concave in the 

 centre. Water accumulating in this de- 

 pression will seep through the pile, prevent- 

 ing its burning and hastening its rotting. 



Ammoniacal copper carbonate is about 

 the only suitable spray for this season if 

 any is needed. Ordinarily all that is 

 necessary is to gather and burn all plants 

 and parts of plants that show any traces 

 of disease. Do not throw these on the 

 compost pile. 



For the Future 



WHEN you decide that the lawn will 

 need no more cutting, thoroughly 

 clean your mowing machine, taking it apart 

 and washing it in kerosene if you are 

 mechanically inclined, sharpen it, oil it, 

 and put it away. Assuredly you will be 

 grateful for this advice next spring when a 

 dozen duties call for attention all at once. 



If you are among the "lucky ones" 

 having an open fireplace, give strict orders 

 that all wood ashes be saved for the garden ; 

 you cannot put on too much. If cut worms 

 have been especially troublesome all .sum- 

 mer dig or plow in a heavy application 

 of lime as well. 



Has this year's garden taught you any- 

 thing? Have you learned any new tricks 

 for destroying insects, diseases or weeds; 

 any new combination or succession plant- 

 ings for saving space and time; any un- 

 expected possibilities of certain varieties 

 of plants? Garden makers all over the 

 country are hungry for such information. 

 Let The Garden Magazine carry the 

 helpful news from your garden to theirs. 



