MID-SUMMER IN THE GARDEN 
Photographs by T. C. Turner and Others 
ca]| UNE and her Roses, yesterday’s glory, may 
| have passed, but Mother Nature has not 
been forgetful of July’s place in her affec- 
tion, and there are lovely things in the gar- 
den that belong to this month of mid-Sum- 
mer. Sweet Peas, Marigolds and hundreds 
of other annuals will be bursting forth in prolific blossom 
and the garden-beginner should remember that they must 
be kept carefully picked, for if the garden flowers are al- 
lowed to bloom without cutting they will soon go to seed 
and by the middle of August such a garden will become a 
sorry sight. The late-blooming flowers, such as Dahlias, 
Cosmos, and Chrysanthemums, should be encouraged to 
take on a bushy form by the process of “pinching,” as thus 
they will attain the ever to be desired compact growth. 
OSES—the hybrid perpetuals—will need cutting back 
five or six inches after their June blooming period 
One should try to keep sane paths as neat in appearance as this one Several evenings in succession. 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Around the Garden 
A MONTHLY KALENDAR 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. 
reply is desired by subscribers stamps should be enclosed therewith. 
If a personal 
is over. If they are 
carefully and patiently attended to, 
without lapse of vigilance one may hope to coax forth a 
second crop of blossoms before frost. 
MONG those flowers which reach their height of 
beauty in July, the garden-beginner should expect to 
see Achillea, Campanula, Candytuft, Coreopsis, Digitalis, 
Evening Primrose, Japanese Iris, Silium Auratum, Phlox, 
Vinca and Yucca. The garden-maker should not allow the 
soil of his garden beds to become hard and flat and baked. 
Flowers, as well as vegetables, need to have the soil from 
which they spring constantly cultivated and stirred up. The 
provident gardener will look around for those plants which 
produce the loveliest flowers and lose no time in marking 
them so he may be enabled to secure their seed later when 
the pods ripen and thus assure himself of planting stock 
for the next season of his own growing. Of course, one 
probably will not raise all his own seeds, but there is great 
pleasure and satisfaction in being able to say ‘“This lovely 
flower has sprung from the seed of another which I myself 
planted in my garden.” 
S for the vegetable garden, July will find one busy 
there. ‘The garden-maker will be sowing seed of tur- 
nips, bush beans, beets (early varieties), during the early 
part of the month and later he will be sowing spinach seed. 
If there is a bit of idle ground which the harvesting of an 
early crop has left vacant, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, and 
celery can be transplanted and set out there. The wise 
vegetable gardener never lets a square foot of earth lie 
unproductive. He harvests his early crops speedily and 
puts the idle ground to some good use. Readers of AMERI- 
CAN HoMEs AND GARDENS, who may have missed the 
article on “Summer Work in the Vegetable Garden,” by 
Mr. F. F. Rockwell, in the June, 1912, issue of the magazine 
(page 200), should turn to it without delay, as its sugges- 
tions will prove of great value to everyone interested in 
home garden topics. Finally a word about watering: When 
watering your garden remember that one good, thorough 
wetting down of the soil will be worth more than half a 
dozen sprinklings. Surface wetting may be better than noth- 
ing at all, but plants are watered not to remove the dust 
from their foliage, but to afford the thirsty, hard-working 
roots ample moisture for sustenance. 
SLUGS IN THE GARDEN 
N amateur gardener has written the editor of this de- 
partment to ask for suggestions as to the best way to 
rid a garden of slugs, having been bothered by the havoc 
these plant pests wrought last season. Now, slugs are fond 
of moist places and thrive on moisture, except that which 
lime-water supplies. A good plan, then, is to put a lump 
of lime twice the size of one’s two fists in a pail of water, 
leaving it there four hours. Next strain off the liquid, and 
as slugs are nocturnal in habit, water the plants they trouble 
Slugs may also be trapped 
