The Garden Magazine, June, 1924 
297 
of the motor car has abstracted garden space for its accommo¬ 
dation; but what about your ultra-suburban fringe? 
In a great many cases, surely, this has been developed by the 
very agency that has been so destructive in the closer-in belt. 
The greenhouse builders report that during the last ten years 
the call for the small greenhouse on the suburban plot has 
dwindled almost to the disappearing point because the plot that 
used to be given to the greenhouse is now taken by the garage. 
Subdivisions of land for building purposes tend to become larger 
in this wider outlying belt, and the convention that the garage 
must supplant the greenhouse will resolve itself into a new con¬ 
ception where space is adequate and the garage and greenhouse 
together can become an ornamental and fitting accessory to the 
practical garden. 
Both features require heat if they are to be fully efficient so 
why not tie them together? Design them as a unit with one 
heating plant to meet the needs of both. It is a very simple 
matter and adds greatly to the practical utility of the ultra¬ 
suburban space. And they are about equal in cost. If mod¬ 
ern unit “private” greenhouses, such as have been demonstrated 
at the big flower shows, be adopted, the gardener who has once 
felt the ecstasy of cultivating the garden hobby all winter will 
never let go. It makes for great efficiency, for long before the 
outdoors can be enjoyed the under-glass garden can be stocked 
up with seeds to get an early start outdoors as soon as the 
weather warms up, to say nothing of the opportunities of carry¬ 
ing over and propagating during the winter almost unlimited 
quantities of desired plants. 
Every garden needs a workshop, not necessarily a large one, 
but a convenient place in which tools can be kept in good con¬ 
dition and in order, ready for use on demand. In building your 
garage why not include such a workshop with benches upon 
which work may be profitably done all winter and which pro¬ 
vides shelter from sunheat in summer, thus making many a 
garden task easier? Looking at gardening merely as a recrea¬ 
tion and a hobby, winter is full of occasions for making prepara¬ 
tions for the outdoors. 
Tools that Lighten Labor 
I T USED to be that a piece of ground plus a spade, rake, and hoe were 
considered sufficient to “make the desert bloom like a rose.” Not so 
any longer! There is a desire to make the garden look as though it 
were really cared for, which requires labor, of course. It was com¬ 
paratively easy to get that a few years back, but now a man must do a 
lot for himself and if he take advantage of a multitude of handy gar¬ 
den helps designed to make hard work easier and easy work a snap, he 
positively enjoys the occupation. The average small lot gardener, 
however, pays all too little attention to the sundries and accessories 
offered in the catalogues. 
Nor is the necessity of a great variety of garden tools always due to 
man’s desire for greater ease or speed. Soils become over-civilized or 
overworked or maltreated. In run-down condition they develop ail¬ 
ments, the same as man. And so, perfectly practical soil testing 
outfits are offered to determine what is the matter, whether the soil 
needs lime or not, what sort of manure will do it the most good, how 
to build it up systematically, etc. 
Many a gardener in the course of seasons moves tons and tons of 
soil and tools and seeds and bulbs and plants and moves them the most 
difficult way—carrying them about piecemeal, by the sweat of his 
brow, when he might as well use a wheelbarrow. There is all the 
difference in the world between moving all your garden paraphernalia 
to the work spot at one operation and between making 57 trips to 
round up labels, line, seeds, hose, rake, etc. etc. Another thing: 
even a small tree or shrub can not be moved by a single pair of hands 
alone if the ball of earth is to be kept intact. It can be moved by one 
man with the help of a wheelbarrow! And a garden barrow is dif¬ 
ferent from any other, for it has high straight sides and a loose remov¬ 
able end. 
Most gardeners consider planting the garden the greatest fun and 
subsequent work a job. That’s their fault! Any garden job can be 
turned into joy if the right kind of tool is taken to work with. That 
job of hoeing, for instance—between the rows, a wheelhoe will do, but 
for closer work, handhoes are needed. The very mention of a hoe, 
to most gardeners, raises a vision of a cumbersome, square piece of 
metal 6 to 8 inches wide, attached to a long handle. As a matter of 
fact, not half of the cutting surface of the average hoe is ever busy. 
Single and double pronged pointed hoes, heart-shaped hoes and scuffle 
hoes do the job much better and require a lot less exertion in operation. 
The average gardener does not have enough tools. As the result, 
he tries to cultivate mostly with a hoe, when a shorthandled scratch- 
weeder or a trowel or even a dandelion digger would do the work much 
better. Even on a small suburban lot the gardener can use three or 
four different scratchweeders with 5 or 7 prongs and handles of various 
lengths from eight to thirty-six inches. Many a plant is broken or 
bruised in an attempt to free it from rubbish or surrounding weeds with 
a clumsy rake or hoe—a tool that does not fit the job. 
Keeping the Lawn in Condition 
T HE properly maintained lawn is quite as ornamental a part of the 
garden as the flowerbeds or shrubbery border. Many a gardener 
attempts to maintain the lawn with the help of a lawn mower, an edger 
and a pair of shears. That’s just like attempting to operate.your 
garden efficiently with only a spade, rake, and hoe. For one thing, 
the lawn needs food! Grass is a hungry customer. The covering of 
the lawns during the winter with manure carries many dangers; it is 
unsightly, and introduces the element of weeds. Sprinkling artificial 
fertilizers on top of the grass helps only partly. He who has con¬ 
siderable lawn would do well to look into the various sizes of spiked 
rollers available for this particular kind of lawn culture. The spikes 
pierce the sod, thus enabling the plant food to reach the roots quickly. 
Another essential lawn maintenance tool is a roller. As sod becomes 
thicker, it is apt to become “hidebound.” Air spaces, due to alternate 
freezing and thawing during the winter must be excluded or the lawns 
will suffer. Of the various types of available lawn rollers perhaps the 
most practical are those that the gardener can fill with water up to any 
weight, incidentally let the “desired weight” be as heavy as the 
operator can manipulate. Occasionally, along the shrubbery border, 
where the mower cannot get conveniently, the grass hook or sickle will 
prove handy. To fight the pesky weeds with long tap roots a dande¬ 
lion digger may be kept handy. For the large estate great combina¬ 
tions of mower and roller, either horse drawn or motor driven, invite 
investigation. 
Watering Devices that Simplify 
ATERING is often a real problem, and a great variety of appara¬ 
tus for distributing the water is available, ranging from the 
simple brass ring to the mechanically more complicated rotating or os¬ 
cillating apparatus of various kinds that throw showers like rain. 
Manufacturers are paying increased attention to the nozzles of irri¬ 
gation apparatus because it is recognized that the stream of water if 
properly broken up falls uninjuringly on the tenderest spots where a 
high pressure’s direct flow needs constant watching to prevent cutting 
furrows and gulleys. 
A good hose, however, cannot be omitted, and we mean just that— 
a good hose. With the best of care, garden hose has to stand hard 
wear, being dragged about, kicked, and stumbled over by everybody. 
Now the difference in lasting quality between good garden hose (aver¬ 
age price 22 cents per foot) and cheap garden hose (average 12 cents per 
foot) is about three years. 
In the modern house the porch is becoming more and more the 
outdoor room of the family and the garden climbs up to it through 
trellis supporting vines, fern balls, flowers in pots, and plants in tubs! 
One reason why there are not more porch gardens is because the 
average home lacks a watering-can that looks suitable. Yet there is 
a wide choice of truly ornamental ones for the ambitious gardener to 
pick from! 
For Successful Pruning and Shearing 
HERE formal hedges are planted, their effectiveness is largely in 
relation to their trimness, and steady and regular shearing can be 
done easily with special tools, although the ordinary shears are an 
efficient enough tool to one who has had plenty of training and practise 
in their use. Trimming hedges has had a lot of hard work taken out of 
it for the occasional man by these special tools. Two popular appli¬ 
ances operate on the principles of a mowing machine, with double- 
edged double blades doing the work. 
For larger trees, as orchard or shade trees, of course, a different 
type of tool is required and long handled, short blade pruners will cut 
surprisingly readily large branches high up as the worker stands on the 
ground. In saws, too, a great variety of special models are available 
ranging from the California type of bow-shaped saw to the powerful 
straight blade, some with remarkable handles. Do not attempt to cut 
