Successfully Moving a Garden — By Halvorsen Hough, 



TRANSPLANTING BODILY IN THE SPRING— A RENTER'S EXPERIENCE THAT SHOWS 

 HOW PERENNIALS MAY BE USED TO ADVANTAGE IN A TEMPORARY OCCUPANCY 



Maua- 

 chiuetU 



MOVING is at best a sorry busi- 

 ness, but as in seasickness, 

 college, longitude, and other ex- 

 periences, there are degrees. 



Did you ever move your garden even 

 from one side of the lot to the other, let 

 alone crossing the town? You would be 

 surprised to see what an appalling armful 

 that innocent little clump of perennials 

 becomes when lifted with its full quota of 

 roots; and if you have been gradually 

 accumulating plants for several years, you 

 will be amazed at the solid 

 phalanx that confronts 

 you, each warrior that has 

 fought to make your gar- 

 den glorious protesting 

 against being left behind. 



The neighbors had al- 

 ways preached the folly of 

 establishing a garden on 

 a rented place; they had 

 admired, envied, but not 

 emulated our never fail- 

 ing succession of blossoms, 

 venturing no further than 

 a conservative strip of 

 nasturtiums or window- 

 boxes of gay geraniums. 

 We, however, took counsel 

 with ourselves thus wise: 

 "It is our home while we 

 stay here, and why not 

 make it as fair as pos- 

 sible? Is there not a 

 danger that in being very 

 jealous to avoid benefit- 

 ing the landlord, we may 

 cut ourselves out of real 

 enjoyment?" So we 

 spaded and watered and 

 fertilized and planted and 

 mulched, and then some 

 more, and the desert blossomed as the rose. 



Then suddenly came the chance to buy 

 just the place we had always wanted and 

 we went, on a bleak, fall day, with our 

 perennial treasures stuck fast in a pre- 

 liminary freeze. We obtained permission 

 to move them in the spring. Meanwhile, 

 all we could do at the new home was to 

 select the spot for our garden, turn over 

 the sod, fork in a load of cow manure 

 and some bone-meal, and wait for it to 

 weather. 



In the spring, we again turned it over, 

 bringing the buried sod to the top. We 

 shook it, beat it, pounded it, hacked it, 

 until it was shredded to fine earth, added 

 some more bone-meal and some pulverized 

 sheep manure (to avoid fresh manure so 

 near planting time) and began to transfer 

 the plants. 



Before beginning the actual removal, 

 we took notes of combinations that had 

 proved especially effective. Here and there 



we took advantage of the moving to better 

 the composition of our garden pictures in 

 color and line. We had found especially 

 beautiful the juxtaposition of Madonna 

 lilies and delphiniums, with Shasta daisies 

 and cone flowers in front, edged by sweet 

 alyssum. At the right, were hollyhocks; 

 at the left, foxgloves in groups and singly 

 among the shrubbery. Behind the Mad- 

 onna lilies were old-fashioned tiger lilies, 

 which, coming after the former have gone 

 by, are just in time to catch the second 



All the plants in this garden were successfully transplanted from a garden at the 



other end of town 



crop of delphinium blossoms that may be 

 had by cutting down the first plumes after 

 they have spent their glory, and giving a 

 little bone-meal around the roots. The 

 cone flower will last through both periods 

 of bloom. 



In the new garden, these fell into line 

 in the same relative positions, and then the 

 oriental poppies (we succeeded in moving 

 them), gypsophila, gentians, ferns, wall- 

 flowers, lily of the valley, forget-me-nots, 

 roses, hardy chrysanthemums, garden helio- 

 trope, various lilies, golden glow, balm, 

 iris, and shrubs, one by one, we tucked in 

 wherever the picture and their own re- 

 quirements demanded. The geraniums, 

 heliotropes, fuchsias, etc., had been moved 

 in the fall as houseplants. 



A large basket, a wheelbarrow, a tire- 

 less lady, and a willing husband constituted 

 the modus operandi. We took up at one 

 time only so much as we could set out im- 

 mediately, and for a few days we protected 



344 



the transplanted things from the hot spring 

 sun with inverted peach-baskets, news- 

 papers, flower-pots, etc., watering thor- 

 oughly. 



The most critical problem was that of the 

 lilies, especially the Madonna lilies that had 

 made heavy rosettes of rich green foliage 

 with fairly high stalks before we could 

 attend to them. 



Though strongly advised to let the lilies 

 remain until late summer we finally decided 

 to risk it, after the manner of people to ask 

 advice and then disregard 

 it,' and this is how we 

 managed, managed so 

 successfully that the lilies 

 grew and waxed strong 

 and with their o 1 d t i m e 

 consorts, saved our new 

 garden from rawness. We 

 removed the earth from 

 the bulbs and roots, using 

 the fingers lest a trowel 

 thrust cut a bulb. We 

 laid the bulb absolutely 

 bare and dusted it thor- 

 oughly with powdered sul- 

 phur, thenhaving prepared 

 a rich earth foundation 

 for the roots to spread 

 into, we rested the bulb 

 itself upon clean sand, 

 packed the sa.; J all around 

 it and thus prevented earth 

 or manure from touching 

 it, covered the top with 

 ordinary garden loam, and 

 gave water freely. 



All the shrubs and per- 

 ennials bloomed generously 

 and fairly put to shame 

 the annuals, for whatever 

 their glory, it is as fillers 

 that they are most desirable, the perennials 

 being the backbone of the garden. 



July Planted Strawberries 



By Robert Seaver, Mass. 

 IT AST July I prepared a small bed for 

 ■*— ' strawberries by spading it deeply and 

 thoroughly, and raking into the soil a 

 liberal top dressing of commercial fertilizer. 

 I set out ioo pot-grown plants in the early 

 evening and gave them a good sprinkling. 

 Next morning all the plants were dead, 

 burned up by the fertilizer, applied too 

 liberally and too near the surface. 



Again I soaked the bed, letting it stand 

 all day; spaded it over that night and 

 soaked it again, until the water stood in 

 puddles and the mud was six inches or 

 more deep. Next morning I gave it still 

 another spading and soaking to dissolve the 

 fertilizer as much as possible. The second 

 nightlset out more plants, and all grew well. 



