The Garden Magazine 



Vol. XVI— No. 1 



Published Monthly 



AUGUST, 1912 



J 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.] 



Bridging Over the Hot Weather 



THIS is the hardest month of all for 

 the garden. Yet it ought to be at 

 the height of its beauty and abundance. 

 Only by giving it plenty of water, constant 

 cultivation and an occasional feeding with 

 nitrate of soda or, better still, liquid manure, 

 can you obtain the best results. 



THREE WAYS OF CONSERVING MOISTURE 



i. Supply plenty of water at all times. 



2. Cultivate shallowly and continually. 



3. Mulch with lawn clippings or other 

 light, fine trash. 



With plenty of water on hand you can 

 start a lawn even now. But you will have 

 to roll the newly seeded ground and shade 

 it with straw or brush. Birch branches 

 stripped of leaves are fine for this. 



Clip the hedge. This is a shaping 

 process and should not be as severe as the 

 winter pruning. 



Some say that August is the only right 

 time for planting evergreens. We would 

 modify and say that it is, at all events, a 

 very good time, provided the ball of earth 

 about the roots is kept intact and moist. 



But a real and important planting season 

 is at hand. Begin to look over fall cata- 

 logues and make lists of bulbs for autumn 

 planting. Order them at once. The longer 

 they are in the ground this summer, the 

 earlier they will bloom next spring. 



The oak pruner may begin his work 

 among the shade trees soon. The only 

 thing to do is to promptly collect and burn 

 the twigs that he bites off and in which he 

 falls to the ground. 



Band all trees with burlap strips or some 

 sticky, weather-proof preparation, against 

 the gypsy moth and brown tail larvae. 

 The burlap is cheaper and just as effective 



but it necessitates a visit to every tree at 

 least every other day, to kill the trapped 

 worms. Or you can buy " ready-to-use " 

 devices. 



Whatever spraying is needed by the 

 ripening fruits should be done with ammon- 

 iacal copper carbonate which doesn't spot 

 or discolor them. 



Thin the apples, plums, peaches, pears, 

 and grapes. There is no rule for this but 

 common sense. However some grape 

 growers figure that the average grape vine 

 can support one bunch for every foot of 

 cane, and thin on that basis. 



Cut out the old blackberry, raspberry 

 and currant canes. The too strenuous 

 younger growths can be headed back a 

 little in the interests of next year's fruit. 



Herbs and Flowers 



KEEP the flowers picked constantly, 

 pansies, dianthus, poppies and roses 

 especially. Do this if possible only in 

 the morning and evening while the sun is 

 not bright and the plants are fresh. 



The best time to harvest vegetables is 

 just when you are ready to use them. 

 Next best is the early morning while the 

 dew is still on them (except beans). Wrap 

 them in leaves or moist cloths and leave 

 on the ice till wanted. 



Try a sowing or two of corn on the 

 chance of some late mild weather. Gol- 

 den Bantam, Peep o' Day, Aristocrat, or 

 other very early varieties should certainly 

 ripen in time. 



Bush beans, beets, carrots (to be used 

 when very small), lettuce, peas and kohl 

 rabi should go in at two week intervals. 

 Fall spinach had better not be planted for 

 a couple of weeks, but every year we plead 

 the cause of New Zealand spinach for the 

 hot weather. Have you tried it yet? 



Late celery should be set out now. Keep 

 the plants wet and water the soil thor- 

 oughly as soon as they are set. An extra 

 early crop is about ready for blanching. 

 What are you going to use — boards, earth 

 or individual drain tiles? The best is 

 usually the one that you can get most 

 easily and cheaply. 



Blight is the worst disease bugbear at 

 this season. Spray melons, cucumbers, 

 tomatoes — whatever plants begin to show 

 a dusty, yellowish foliage — with bordeaux. 

 If the cabbage worm is troublesome you 

 will find the best deterrent is lime, but 

 hand picking is really more certain. 



Stop cultivating the fruit trees and 

 bushes by August 1st. Sow a cover crop 

 between the larger trees. For the small 

 and bush fruits, a light mulch of manure 



to keep the weeds down and prevent 

 evaporation is better. 



If you are practising a rotation of crops 

 in the garden, now, after harvesting a half- 

 season crop, is the time to sow rye, clover, 

 millet, oats or cowpeas for a winter cover 

 crop and green manure. 



Plant a new strawberry bed now. The 

 plants may be either those that you potted 

 last spring from the runners of the old bed, 

 or bought from the florist or seedsman. 

 Treat them much as you would violets. 

 If you want berries in the winter simply 

 transfer the plants to larger pots and 

 plunge them outdoors till fall. 



Speaking of winter plants, it may be tow 

 hot to build a greenhouse right now but. 

 it is a great time to sit in the shade and 

 plan one. The manufacturers' catalogues 

 and back numbers of The Garden Maga- 

 zine and Country Life in America will give 

 you ideas for structures to fit every pocket- 

 book — from little six by twelve shacks 

 costing less than $100 to magnificent,, 

 ornate conservatories and glass-roofed gar- 

 dens worth hundreds of thousands. But. 

 the possible enjoyment is by no means in 

 proportion to the cost. Even a little 

 home-made, roughly-built glass house in 

 which you can carry over some carnations 

 and violets and start next season's seeds- 

 in February, is wholly worth while. It 

 keeps your interest alive and gives you 

 something to do in the cold, dark winter 

 days; and, besides, it makes you more of 

 a real gardener. 



Don't let the onions rot in the ground. 

 Pull them as soon as the tops turn yellow; 

 then clip these, leave the bulbs in the sun 

 for a day or two, and spread them out in a 

 dry shed for a few more days before sack- 

 ing or crating. Of course the little green, 

 bunch onions are ready to eat almost any 

 time. But you will have to plant sets 

 every few days to keep up the supply. 



Gardening Retrospections 



THIS is a good time to study carefully, 

 but leisurely, the arrangement of 

 your grounds and gardens. Comfortably 

 ensconsed on a shady veranda, with a 

 paper and pencil before you, and a tall 

 glass of a frosty, tinkling concoction from 

 the fruit garden at your elbow, you can 

 accomplish results in the form of plans and 

 determinations that are far more valuable 

 than whatever you could do struggling 

 out there in the heat. 



What do you see that you don't want to 

 see next summer; and what don't you see 

 that you really miss from the garden 

 scheme? 



