CHAPTER XI 



SEASONAL REMINDERS 



The author assumes that a person who is intelligent enough 

 to make a garden, does not need an arbitrary calendar of 

 operations. Too exact advice is misleading and unpractical. 

 Most of the older gardening books were arranged wholly on 

 the calendar method — giving specific directions for each month 

 in the year. We have now accumulated sufficient fact and 

 experience, however, to enable us to state principles; and these 

 principles can be applied anywhere, — when supplemented 

 by good judgment, — whereas mere rules are arbitrary and 

 generally useless for any other condition than that for which 

 they were specifically made. The regions of gardening experi- 

 ence have expanded enormously within the past fifty and seventy- 

 five years. Seasons and conditions vary so much in different 

 years and different places that no hard and fast advice can be 

 given for the performing of gardening operations, yet brief hints 

 for the proper work of the various months may be useful as sug- 

 gestions and reminders. 



The Monthly Reminders are compiled from files of the 

 ''American Garden" of some years back, when the author had 

 editorial charge of that magazine. The advice for the North 

 (pages 504 to 516) was written by T. Greiner, La Salle, N.Y. 

 well known as a gardener and author. That for the South 

 (pages 516 to 526) was made by H. W. Smith, Baton Rouge, 

 La., for the first nine months, and it was extended for "Garden- 

 Making" to the months of October, November, and December 

 by F. H. Burnette, Horticulturist of the Louisiana Experiment 

 Station. 



501 



