T he gardener may consider him- ' 
self entitled to an August X 
vacation, but if he takes it he 
is likely to feel certain that someone 
has been putting nitrate of soda and liquid 
manure around his weeds when he resumes 
work. Work in the garden should be so 
well in hand by this time that one can take 
it easy — at least so far as the routine of 
weeding, watering, etc., is concerned; but 
even a few days of absolute neglect will 
make things begin to look ragged. And there is always plenty of 
planning to be done, and study of the season’s work by which to 
profit another year. 
HE MONTH 
REMINDER 
S 
md 
AUGUST, 1916 
For reckoning dates, the latitude of New York Cicy is generally 
taken as a standard. In applying the direction^ to other 
localities, allow six days’ difference for every 
hundred miles of latitude 
npHERE are some gardeners who 
-*■ stick so close to the job, or are so 
well satisfied that their own plants 
methods are the very best, that they 
, seldom get beyond the 
Don t be a j * l 
Garden Hermit gate except when 
they are rushing to catch 
the trolley! If you have been falling into 
this habit, make a desperate effort to shake 
it off. Get out and “gad about” a bit; see 
what your friends and neighbors are doing; 
possibly they have got some absolutely new ideas. 
The Month’s 
Big Jib 
T ET “bigger and better and all-red berries” be your strawberry 
slogan for next season’s campaign. Did you ever hear of a home 
garden which produced too many strawberries? No! So plan to 
establish your new bed in good season, and give it 
the best of care. The first few months will not pro- 
duce any berries, it is true; but on the care the plants 
get then will depend the crop which will eventually reward your 
trouble. 
First of all, a few words about varieties. If you now have kinds that 
are satisfactory, don’t be in a hurr\' to drop them in favor of some- 
thing new and apparently attractive. A dozen or two plants are 
enough to order of a variety with which you are not yet acquainted. 
On the other hand, don’t be too sure you’ve got something so good 
that there can’t be anything better. Try some of these: Early 
Ozark, Early Jersey Giant, very early; Big Joe, Warren, mid-season; 
the best strawberry I 
' I 'HE last plantings of a number of quick-growing vegetables, 
-*■ mentioned in the table herewith, may still be made this month, 
but remember that every day counts now even more than it did in 
the spring. Delay in spring planting means a late crop; delay now 
may mean a total loss by frost just when 
a fine crop is maturing. Several days may 
be saved and a more certain stand obtained 
in many cases by soaking the seed to the point of sprouting before 
planting. After partial diyfing in the air the seed may be rolled in 
dry dust or gypsum plaster to make it more convenient to plant. 
Get Late Plantings 
in Early 
Chesapeake 
have ever tried; and Rewastico, late. 
If you want quick and sure re- 
sults, by all means use pot grown 
plants. Even if you have to buy all 
your plants, the cost for the bed will 
probably be but a few dollars more, 
and you can have a Tull crop next 
season, instead of having to wait 
until a year later. After the first 
year, you can readily get your own 
supply of pot plants each season, 
from such varieties as you like best 
of those you may set out now. A 
dozen each of the six sorts mentioned 
above, costing $3 or so, will make a 
nice little bed, which should be cap- 
able of yielding from tw'enty to sixty 
quarts next season. 
I RAWBERRIES are not as par- 
ticular as many crops about soil 
it is only rich enough. Don’t 
'T'HE success you will have with celery will depend very largely 
-*■ on the growth made during the first two or three weeks after 
planting; it is hard to make up lost time with this crop. If you are 
buying plants, by all means pay a little more and get the “re-rooted” 
or transplanted plants. Use in the rows, before planting, a starting 
mixture such as that recommended for strawberries. If the soil is 
.. . dry and irrigation 
Instirmg - 
Good Celery 
Plant this Month 
^Vegetables, last planting: Beans, beets, celery (plants), 
lettuce, peas, turnips. 
For fall and winter: Lettuce and tomatoes for greenhouse 
or frames. 
*)Flowers; Sow perennials and biennials for wintering 
over, in variety: Including Pansies, Beilis perennis (English 
Daisies); Myosotis; Canterbury Bells (Campanula); 
Hollyhocks; Dianthus, etc. Transplant On&nt id Poppy, 
Iris, Madonna Lily, etc. 
liTrees and Shrubs. Ornamental evergreens in variety. 
^Grasses. Pasture and lawns grasses, alfalfa, etc., may 
be sown about the middle of the month if weather con- 
ditions are favorable. 
Hflerry Plants. Strawberries from pots to make a 
fruiting bed next year. 
of the furrow’s 
IS not available, 
give the bottoms 
a thorough soaking 
just before setting. A w’ide board 
held in place on edge along the row' 
w’ill keep the plants shaded and help 
materially in giving them a quick 
start. Just as soon as they have 
taken new root, a generous applica- 
tion of nitrate of soda w’ill do mori 
than anything else to get the crop 
safely started. 
O NE of the most freqi 
nf infpnnr fruit nf ^ 
Soil for 
Strawberries 
if It IS _ 
hesitate to use all the manure you can get and plenty of fertilizer. Be 
very careful, however, about using chemical fertil- 
izers in the hill as the roots are easily injured. A 
mixture of dried blood or guano and fine bone, one 
part each, to two to four parts humus, will be safe to work into the 
hills and give the plants a very strong, quick start. A broadcast 
top-dressing of wood ashes will help to ripen up the new growth and 
put the plants in shape for the winter. A convenient arrangement in 
planting is to space the plants fifteen inches or so apart each way, 
leaving out every fifth, sixth or seventh row’, in large plantings. Set 
the plants verj' firm and deep, being careful not to get any soil over 
the crowns, and w’ater thoroughly after planting. The sooner you can 
get your plants in the better for next year’s crop; but any time in the 
next five weeks or so will not be too late. After that there are only 
two things to do until fall: i. Keep the ground hoed; and, most 
important, 2, keep all new runners pinched off as they appear. 
uent causes 
of inferior fruit of all kinds — 
apples, peaches, plums, grapes, etc., 
is over-production. Careful spray- 
ing will 
keep the 
trees 
healthy, but w’ill not insure good fruit 
when the tree or vine, especially if 
is staggering under a greater load than it can 
Thin the fruit! This should be just as much a 
as 
Spare the Scissors — 
Spoil the Fruit 
It IS a young one 
properly mature. 
matter of course as the thinning out .of the vegetables as soon 
a safe stand is assured. Don’t be afraid of overdoing it; the great 
difficulty is to bring one’s self to remove enough, or to get any one 
else to do it. If you have never tried fruit thinning, try at least part 
of your crop that way this year, and note the difference. 
BEFORE THE END OF THE MONTH 
TT MAY seem 
-*■ hotbeds, but 
premature to begin to talk about coldframes and 
in reality it is not. Plants for fall use and for 
wintering over must be started soon to ensure early results. Another 
advantage of early planting is that a possible 
failure will not be a very serious set back. Order 
at once, such seed as you are likely to need. 
Again Coldframes 
and Hotbeds 
EARLY THIS MONTH 
W HY w’ait until w’inter to make a list of the garden tools, imple- 
ments and equipment that you may be in need of? Why not 
do it now’, w’hile everything is fresh in mind? You may not get the 
things until another year, but the point is that if you make a mem- 
orandum of them now, they will not be overlooked or entirely for- 
gotten w’hen ordering time does come again. I he same holds true of 
plants, and particularly of hardy vines and out-of-the-ordinary shrubs, 
w’hich would fit nicely into your planting scheme; when you notice 
something particularly striking, or some especially attractive and 
novel use of a plant, do not trust to memory to duplicate it in your 
own garden another year, hut get it down in black and white on your 
list of “ Planting Suggestions.” 
Know Your 
Pansies by Name 
T he Pansy is the most important of all plants for w’intering over. 
Nineteen gardeners out of twenty buy the seed in “mixtures,” 
but that does not alter the fact that for most purposes the most strik- 
ing effects may be had by using named varieties or solid colors. Make 
at least part of your sowing this year of 
named varieties, such as Emperor W illiam. 
King of the Blacks, Snow Queen, etc. The 
critical period in Pansy growing is during the first two weeks after 
sowing the seed. Use very light soil; w’ater thoroughly before sowing; 
cover lightly, harely from sight; shade slightly until the seeds have 
germinated; dust the surface as the seeds begin to sprout w’ith flowers 
of sulphur; do not allow seed-bed or seedlings to dry out. 1 ransplant 
the seedlings, as soon as they begin to crowd, to frames or sheltered 
beds where they may be W’intered over, d ry a frame full under a 
double-glazed sash and you can have Pansies during most of the winter. 
18 
