222 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



April, 1913 



"The Iris Catalog" Will Help 



You to Know the Finest of the Flowers 



THIS Biltmore Nursery book will make you acquainted with the 

 new and glorious forms of the Iris. It will show you how, by 

 judicious choice of varieties you may have magnificent flowers from 

 the first breath of spring until summer's arrival. 



To make clear to you exactly what the 

 choicest kinds are, in both form and color, 

 Biltmore Nursery has reproduced seven va- 

 rieties of unrivaled beauty in all the colors 

 of nature — the rich purple, golden yellow, 

 lavender, white and other markings and shad- 

 ings are pictured with wonderful fidelity. 

 B ut the illustrations are not confined to beau- 



tiful individual flowers or clumps of them. 

 Engravings of plantings, like the one shown 

 above, are added to suggest landscape effects 

 that you may duplicate at little cost. 

 The most noteworthy varieties in every 

 section are described in detail, making selec- 

 tion easy. To aid the amateur still further, 

 an "introductory collection" is offered. 



This book will be sent gladly to anyone who contemplates planting 

 Iris soon. The edition is limited, so early requests are desired. 



OTHER BOOKS OF BILTMORE NURSERY 



"Hardy Garden Flowers." The 



illustrations suggest many pleas- 

 ing forms of hardy perennial 

 planting, from the simple door- 

 yard effect to the elaborate vista. 

 The descriptions are full and 

 complete, yet free from techni- 

 cal terms. 



"Flowering Trees and Shrubs." 



Many of the best of the trees and 

 shrubs producing showy blos- 

 soms are shown from photo- 

 graphs, as grown in typical 

 gardens, lawns and yards. The 

 pictures and text give useful ideas 

 for planting the home grounds. 



"Biltmore Nursery Catalog." A 



guide to the cultivated plants of 

 North America, 196 large pages, 

 fully illustrated. Cost $1 a copy 

 to complete. Intended to help 

 those who have large estates 

 and contemplate planting many 

 varieties. 



Ask us for the book you need 



BILTMORE NURSERY, Box 1542, Biltmore, N. C. 



Three Magazines 

 For Every Home 



Country Life in America 



Beautiful, practical, entertaining. $4.00 a year. 



The World's Work 



Interpreting to-day's history. $3.00 a year. 



The Garden Magazine — Farming 



Telling how to make things grow. $1.50 a year. 



DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. 



GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 



Andromeda 

 Sorrel Tree 



Fine Specimens 



Send for Catalog 

 The Elm City Nursery Co. 



New Haven Dept. J . Connecticut 



* 



Let Me Plan Your 

 Vegetable Garden ! 



You wouldn't think of planting ornamentals around 

 your home without consulting a landscape architect. 

 Then why plant your kitchen garden — the pi-ofitabie 

 end — at random ? Tell me how much space you have 

 and what kind of soil, also what vegetables you like 

 best. I'll lay out the garden for you on paper and 

 arrange it for a succession of crops. I shall supply 

 you with lists of the best varieties of vegetables for 

 your individual needs and tell you where the seeds can be bought. Try 

 my service. Have planned many prize gardens. Charges very moderate. 

 ADOLPH KRl'IIM, Garden Architect, - - COLUMHUS, OHIO 



A Glorified Back Yard 



ABACK yard was all that it could properly be 

 called — just a square lot about 30 x 30 ft. 

 with a sort of "L," about 15 x 20 ft. running up 

 between the house and the next property — and 

 it seemed positively hopeless for anything in the 

 way of beauty or pleasure. At the lower end of the 

 "L" was an old apple tree, the only hopeful feature. 

 The yard was overlooked from all directions by 

 neighboring houses. This "L" part was the only 

 possible spot and the difficulties here were great 

 because the man who built the houses carefully 

 arranged that all the windows on the two floors 

 at the back of both houses Overlooked this place, 

 and the two back doors were exactly opposite each 

 other; a 3-foot fence was the dividing line between 

 the lots. Not much chance for privacy there! 



Every member of the family had a growl at this 

 yard, but for years nothing was done more than to 

 keep the grass green and to grow flowers in the 

 borders. This plot would have been excellent 

 for a vegetable garden — vegetables are not 

 annoyed by the oversight of neighbors — but the 

 members of this particular family had no vegetable 

 qualities, and were all in varying degrees annoyed 

 by the supervision. Did one hope to sit in the sun 

 and air for a minute there came almost at once a 

 neighborly greeting over the 3-foot fence. 



Trees would help, but they would take so long 

 to grow to a sheltering size that relief seemed too 

 far away to plan for and they were never planted. 



Then the idea of vines was presented and the 

 swift growing Virginia creeper was planted. That 

 soon covered the fence, and an addition of several 

 feet of wire netting was put up and covered. This 

 helped some, but still there were those rows of up- 

 stairs windows! A man was found who would do 

 as he was told even if he did not approve, and he 

 was instructed to erect several tall scantlings at 

 intervals along the fence the length of the "L." 

 A cross piece was fastened at the top, and other 

 pieces from this frame to the side of the house. 



This arrangement was most unsightly, and the 

 originator of the idea was much laughed at, and a 

 good deal discouraged at first; but those swiftly 

 growing vines kept up their good work until 

 by the middle of the second summer the uprights 

 were fairly well covered, enough for a screen, and 

 not so close as to exclude the air. The vines 

 started nicely across the top pieces and this summer 

 the name "Pergola" will be quite as applicable to 

 this inexpensive erection as to the very elaborate 

 and costly ones. 



Ontario. G. M. Lediard. 



Street Sweepings as a Fertilizer 



TO THE suburban gardener this has long been 

 an ever present question, but nobody knew for 

 a fact what the answer was, although street sweep- 

 ings have often been suggested as a cheap and 

 useful fertilizer. 



The Bureau of Soils has recently investigated 

 this practice. 



In experiments with wheat, corn and radishes 

 there were used (1) street sweepings gathered with 

 brush and shovel, (2) those gathered with the help 

 of a sweeping machine, and (3) those taken from a 

 dump pile where they had decomposed for some 

 time. The results from their use were compared 

 with those obtained by the use of stable manure 

 and those on untreated check plats. 



The Readers' Service will gladly furnish information about Retail Shops 



