Annual Round-up" of Gardening Achievements 



A CHRISTMAS SYMPOSIUM OF EXPERIENCE BY READERS OF "THE GARDEN MAGAZINE" WHO HAVE GOTTEN BIGGER 

 OR EARLIER FRUIT, VEGETABLES OR FLOWERS, OR SOLVED PECULIAR PROBLEMS IN SOME CHEAPER OR BETTER WAY 



$ 



Gardening for Profit 



By L. J. D-, Massachusetts 



THIS is the story of one man who 

 actually made money out of his 

 gardening hobby, with an invest- 

 ment of a very small amount. 

 He started in iooi with a coldframe 

 which he made out of second-hand boards, 

 the whole thing costing $15. In this 

 frame he made early plantings, one of the 

 secrets of his success, of Celosia cristata 

 seed, which cost $1, and of $1 worth of 

 annuals, and he also bought $5 worth of 

 geraniums. He potted the coxcombs and 

 made a big bed of them in his garden, and 



the annuals he planted in a border around 

 the front of his house. 



In the frame, after the seedlings had 

 been removed, he sowed pansy seed, the 

 best he could buy, which cost $7.50, and 

 from a few left-over hydrangeas he took 

 cuttings and struck them in sand. About 

 fifty rooted. 



In order to carry over these plants, he 

 enclosed a little veranda at a cost of $50, 

 which was heated by the warmth from the 

 house coming through the open windows. 

 Cuttings were taken from the geranium 

 plants and rooted in a mixture of loam and 

 sand, the old plants being stored in the 

 cellar in boxes, the roots covered with 

 loam. 



At the end of the season, he had spent 



In order to improve the quality of his 



soil he made arrangements to have the 

 leaves that were gathered in the streets 

 that fall distributed over his garden, over 

 which he spread one cord of manure ($5) 

 and four loads of loam ($6). 



He built a potting bench in the cellar, 

 the lumber for which cost him $2.50. He 

 also made another coldframe, digging it 

 out deeply and banking it up on the sides. 

 This cost him $19.50 — $5 for the boards, 

 $4 for labor and $10.50 for sash. 



In October he bought 300 pans from 

 a pottery for $30; 1,000 first hyacinths, 

 $65; 2,000 forcing tulips in variety, $24; 

 1,000 mixed tulips for the open, $10; 1,000 

 narcissus (Von Sion, Golden Spur, Prin- 



Leaf mold is provided by having the cleanings 

 from the streets brought in 



The house cellar became the potting shed. Bone 

 meal is freely used 



The first greenhouse was attached to the veranda, and it kept plants growing all winter. A better one was built later 



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