AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



May, 1 9 1 3 



Around the Garden 



A MONTHLY KALENDER OF TIMELY GARDEN OPERA- 

 TIONS AND USEFUL HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS 

 ABOUT THE HOME GARDEN AND 

 GROUNDS 



All queries will gladly be answered by the Editor. If a personal 

 reply is desired by subscribers stamps should be enclosed therewith 



THE GARDEN IN THE MONTH OF MAY 



AY, birthday of gardens! I wonder if there 

 is a more loved month in the whole cal- 

 endar? Surely not one that is more to the 

 poets' taste, when, as old-time Edmund 

 Spencer was wont to sing "the boughes doe 

 laughing blossoms beare." The practical 

 will tell us we should forget poetry and take to planting, as 

 though planting was not poetry, and as though Ancient 

 Virgil had not known how to make vegetable-growing as 

 luscious to literature as pepper pods are to the perpetually 

 prosaic! After all, what are our gardens for? Just to 

 furnish us with food? What joy would there be in the dig- 

 ging, the seeding, the cultivating if every cauliflower stood 

 to us for cookery, every cucumber as a pickle and every 

 lettuce as a salad! Of course, with the proper appetite ex- 

 pected of every normal one of us that our table should be 

 laden with home-grown things gives us a sense of satisfac- 

 tion, but is that not quite as 

 much from the pride we take 

 in our ability to grow all 

 these delicacies just as 

 much as from the knowledge 

 that they will serve as space- 

 fillers for empty man? 



WITH the coming of 

 May time I always 

 think of Hawthorn 

 boughs laden with billowy 

 white blossoms — here and 

 there a pink-domed shrub — 

 when the May days return, 

 and yet there are no Haw- 

 thorns where my garden 

 grows. That I have taken 

 from the poets, and have 

 given it to my cabbages, my 

 butter beans, my radishes 

 and my parsnips, to grace 

 their utility. But it is not, 

 gentle reader, that I neglect 

 my vegetables to go a-May- 

 ing; instead, the contempla- 

 tion of everything lovely in 

 nature lends to my enthusi- 

 asm for the rows and hills 

 and trellises of To-morrow's 

 table things. I make sure 

 that there is reasonable 

 doubt of late frosts, for ex- 

 perience teaches one that 

 rushing a season is often 



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Do not clutter your trees in this manner with garden "trappings" 



one way of ultimately being behind with everything. When 

 I am sure the frosts will not come again I transplant tender 

 growing things from hot-bed to garden. Then in May I 

 shall be sowing all the seed necessary to start the succes- 

 sion crops, late Peas, Beans, Cabbages, Brussel's Sprouts, 

 Lettuce, Parsley, Carrots, Spinach, Broccoli, Beets, Onions, 

 Cauliflower, and the like. 



THE flower-boxes for windows, porches, garden walls 

 and terrace balustrades should be planned in May, and 

 provision made for the plants which are to fill them. 

 Hardy Annuals should be sown, and those that have been 

 started in cold frames previously and hardened off can be 

 transplanted late in the month. Early in May the more 

 tender Annuals may be sown in cold frames for use late 

 in the season. 



WITH the ground free from frost there will be the 

 Hardy Perennials to be shifted in rearranging bor- 

 ders. This operation should be delayed until the end 

 of the month. As soon as the petals fall from the orchard 



trees the careful gardener 

 begins to spray the trees. 

 There is also spraying to at- 

 tend to in connection with 

 Rose bushes, whale-oil soap 

 is recommended for this pur- 

 pose. Rose plants may also 

 be stimulated at this time 

 with liquid manure. 



GLADIOLI for August 

 blossoming should be 

 planted this month early 

 and if this is followed 

 by other planting every two 

 weeks up to the end of June 

 a succession of bloom will 

 be assured. Select a sunny 

 location for the Gladiolus, 

 plant six inches deep and 

 eight inches apart, and in a 

 soil that is rich and which, 

 though well drained, has 

 plenty of water. Perhaps no 

 border-flower aside from the 

 Dahlia deserves more atten- 

 tion than the Gladiolus, and 

 it is to be regretted that its 

 culture is so neglected in 

 many gardens that need its 

 "personality" to add to their 

 attractiveness and complete 

 their charm. 



THERE never was a 

 truly successful garden 



