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I HaJibaei 'ami Pictorial 
morale ISampartiari 
Ipmtroj Smelting* 
MY FLOWER GARDEN. 
Ladies, do you love flowers ? I do; and I think if 
I have been successful in my attempts at floriculture, 
any of you who have a reasonable share of health and 
the control of a few feet of earth, can, in time, be 
the possessor of a few flowers. Shall I tell you 
some of the difficulties I have surmounted in 
order that I may have a flower garden f In the 
first place my husband does not care for flowers, 
and I clearly understand that I must not look for 
his assistance in their culture. I determined to 
see what I could do myself. In the upper part of 
the garden was a large plot of ground which was 
not used, and this I concluded should he the home 
of my pets. But it was stiff clay soil, full of 
stones, and had an inclination to the east. I had 
it dug at the same time the vegetable garden was, 
and then, with line in hand, proceeded to lay out 
the beds. On one side was a path leading from 
a gate to the lower part of the garden, so that I 
did not make a path (as I otherwise should have 
done) through the middle of my plot. In the 
centre I made a large round bed, with a path 
three feet wide extending all around. Above this 
I formed an oval bed, and a similar one below the 
central bed. On the north side a bed, half-moon 
in shape, and its counterpart on the south side. 
At each corner I formed a bed, right angle in 
shape, and around the whole a border three feet in 
width. I had paths around all the beds three 
feet wide. Next I took a spade and a basket, 
went to the orchard, cut sod in narrow strips, 
tilled the basket, and by going several times every 
day I had time, I bordered all my beds. I watered 
the borders in the evenings until the sod was well 
rooted. The autumn previous I commenced prepara¬ 
tions for enriching the soil. My husband kept a horse, 
and I could have manure, provided I could get it to the 
garden. I took the basket and shovel, tilled the basket 
with manure, and carried it to the garden myself. 
This I did several times 
•a day for a long time, 
when I had a great 
quantity of manure. To 
this I added sods dug 
here and there in leisure 
moments, and sand ob¬ 
tained from a small 
brook near by. On 
wet days I would con¬ 
vey bushels of leaves 
from the orchard, and 
over all threw a quan¬ 
tity of lime that I found 
in an old barrel. E very 
wash-day I threw the 
suds — frequently boil¬ 
ing hot — on this com¬ 
post heap, stirring it 
up every day or so 
until it was decom 
posed. In the spring 
I spread this a foot 
deep over the flower 
beds, dug this under and covered the surface again a 
foot deep. When I transplanted my plants to the 
March. I nailed four boards together for a frame, dug 
a place a foot deep the size of frame, filled it with 
fresh horse manure, put a few inches of good soil on 
top, and placed an old window sash over the top. I 
let it sweat a few days, then sowed seeds in rows, 
placing a label with name of seed at the top of each 
row. 1 then covered with several thicknesses of news- 
One half-moon bed had Japan Pinks, the other Asters. 
The four right-angle beds had respectively Scarlet 
Phlox, Snapdragons, Candytuft, mixed Phlox, with 
a Tuberose in the centre of each bed. In the other 
beds were Balsams, Four-o’clocks, Zinnias, Dahlias, 
Tigi’idias, Petunias, Gladiolus, and others. Some 
commenced blooming in June, amd a continual bloom 
of flowers until I gathered my last bouquet of 
Pansies on the 13th of December. 
Such flowers ! It would do your eyes good to 
see them. And, my lady friends, one word in 
conclusion : It only cost me five dollars for seeds 
and bulbs. Wilt thou not go and do likewise ? 
Trellis for Pot Plants. 
papers, watering well, closed frame, and kept paper 
wet until seed sprouted, then removed paper and kept 
the soil moist; protected the tiny plants from the 
noon sun; on warm days let air in by placing a board 
between frame and sash; covered with boards and old 
carpet at night. I commenced transplanting the sec¬ 
ond week of May, covering each plant with a burdock 
Victoria Regia, the Mammoth Flower of Brazil. 
A CHEESE-BOX FERNERY. 
I see a great many delightful plans broached in 
the Floral Cabinet for decorating the yard and 
garden, but so many of these require the stalwart 
aid of a “John” in order to execute them in a 
proper manner, that it is enough to fill the hearts 
of the “lone women” with despair. For the 
benefit of those, who constitute so large a propor¬ 
tion of the flower-lovers in our country, I wish to 
give the plan of a pretty fernery I once made. 
Some time in April I procured a cheese-box, 
about a foot in height, and after boring some 
holes in the bottom, placed it in the center of a 
grass-plot where it was somewhat shaded by the 
trees and shrubs. I filled it to the top with good 
rich earth, but I did not stop to weigh the ingre¬ 
dients of which it was composed. In order to 
conceal the outside of the box I put a few shovel¬ 
fuls of dirt about it, and gathering all the nice- 
looking stones I could find, heaped them around 
it, filling the interstices with earth. Now that 
the mere prosy drudgery was accomplished, the 
poetry came in, which consisted in scouring the wood 
near by for Ferns, Partridge Berries, and the wild 
Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis), with which to 
adorn it. These I strove to arrange as tastefully as 
possible between the stones. In the centre of the box 
I placed an earthen basin containing a few Lycopodi¬ 
ums, and around the edges were planted small clumps 
of the Lady Fern and 
Maiden’s Hair, inter¬ 
spersed with Kenil • 
worth Ivy and Lobelia 
Erinus. As I was 
careful to give the 
woodland plants a gen¬ 
erous supply of their 
rich native soil, as 
well as to water them 
thoroughly, they soon 
grew and flourished; 
and before the' summer 
was over the trailing 
vines had quite hidden 
the edges of the box 
and crept over the 
stones. But it was not 
until the second sum¬ 
mer that it began to 
look like a real bit of 
the woods. Try it. 
Thyme. 
beds I would go to the woods, a fourth of a mile distant, 
and get a basketful of leaf-mold, using a small quan¬ 
tity to each plant. I made a hot bed the last week of 
leaf for a few days. In the central bed I planted Ver¬ 
benas with a border of thirty-two pansies. One oval 
bed had in it foliage plants, Cannas, the seed of which 
I sprouted by pouring boiling water over them ; Ama- 
ranthus, tri-color and bi-color ruber, and Coxcombs. 
Complimentary. —I am delighted with the Cabi¬ 
net. It is one of the handsomest papers published, 
and the information it gives about flowers is worth 
many times the price of subscription. 0. P. A. 
Palmer, Mass. 
