The Flower Garden in the Spring 
the general conditions and character of the 
new garden, the place should first be care¬ 
fully measured, and plotted accurately almost 
to the inch. Then make a plan for the 
whole in detail, with the shape of every bed. 
After this has been done, and the gardener 
is convinced that as far as can be foreseen it 
is the most satisfactory arrangement for the 
ground, and will give him the garden of his 
dreams, let the actual work begin and let it 
not be delayed after the frost has left 
the ground. Rocks (if they are in the 
wrong place) should be blasted out and 
stones and stumps removed. The sod 
should be turned up with a plow, and then 
carted off and piled in some out-of-the-way 
place to decompose. It will then be ready 
to be returned to the garden and made use¬ 
ful as a valuable fertilizer in planting trees, 
rhododendrons and shrubs, for which it is 
especially valuable if chopped up and put 
in the bottom of the hole made to receive 
the roots. The ground should then be 
thickly covered with manure, plowed deeply 
and harrowed thoroughly three or four times; 
if the garden is not too large it should be 
spaded over as well. It is then in condition 
for laying out the beds and walks. 
For this work there should be a large 
quantity of garden cord, a long measuring 
tape, many pointed stakes, and a wooden 
mallet. The center of the plot is first 
marked with a stake, and from this point 
the other measurements are taken off ac¬ 
cording to the plan, the outlines of each bed 
being marked by stakes driven in about 
every three feet, with cord stretched along 
between them. Cord must also be stretched 
to mark the paths ; stakes should then be 
driven to mark the places for trees, which 
should be the first thing planted. If it is 
to be a formal garden, pyramidal-shaped 
evergreens are the best for the purpose. 
In preparing the beds, better flowers will 
be produced for a longer time if, for a bed ten 
feet long by four feet wide, some bone-meal, 
leaf-mould (if any can be found) and wood- 
ashes—a pailful of each—be added to a 
wheelbarrow of manure, with a sprinkling 
of lime, and then thoroughly spaded in. If 
the soil be heavy, add also enough sand to 
lighten it. This seems a prescription of 
many ingredients, but it is worth the 
trouble. 
If the garden is in a locality where box 
will grow, although the expense is consider¬ 
able, it will be a great addition to edge the 
beds and paths with box. But great care 
must be taken to set the little box plants 
perfectly straight. The beds may then be 
planted with perennials, annuals, lilies, ac¬ 
cording to your taste ; but remember always 
to preserve harmony of color and to secure 
effect by planting a number of each variety 
together. If the paths are to be of grass, 
the ground, after being carefully leveled, 
need only be raked smoothly, the grass seed 
sown, and the paths rolled. If they are to 
be graveled, they must be dug out a foot or 
more in depth, filled in first with broken 
stone, then a layer of coarse gravel and 
finally the fine gravel, and all well rolled. 
All this having been done, the gardener has 
only to keep all trespassers from the newly 
sown grass, to water his garden in late after¬ 
noon and to possess his soul in peace until, 
when a month has slowly passed, he will 
find the beds covered with the sturdy green 
shoots of the new plants, the box-edging 
putting forth tender leaves, the grass a velvet 
carpet, and he can then bid his friends come to 
see the new garden, and picture to them the 
future beauties which imagination has already 
painted upon his mind. 
, 1 _-J 
104 
