Garden Suggestions 
ower 
CONDUCTED BY GRACE TABOR 
Author of The Landscape Gardening Book, The Garden L 
Primer, Old-Fashioned Gardening, etc. 
July in the Garden 
E VERYTHING in extremes — that is 
July! Glimmering, intolerable heat 
and choking drought, crashing, smashing 
lightning and deluge, a rank hurry of 
flower growth and an equally rank 
scramble of intruding weeds to overcome 
it — and over all, a spirit of fiery inten¬ 
sity that exhausts and appalls. There is 
indeed something almost terrible in the 
opulence and the oppression of it. 
In line with the principle of emphasis 
continually to be placed upon the domi¬ 
nant characteristic of the month, July 
should, of course, be furnished with the 
richest mediums, however dazed and be¬ 
wildered and overcome we may, as mere 
scraps of humanity, feel. So the plants of 
strongest growth, in the strong primary 
colors, should dominate the garden in 
July; and we must bestir ourselves to see 
that these have help and encouragement 
in their battle with the interloper weeds 
that are so determined at this season. 
Phlox there will be in masses, of course, 
varieties like Consul H. Trost, a clear, pure 
red, Frau Dora Umgeller, deeper and 
richer red than any, Goliath, true to its 
name in size and bright carmine, and B. 
Comte, a purple, being most in evidence. 
Then the double hollyhocks in white, yel¬ 
low and the deepest red, larkspurs in their 
richest blues, such as Formosum, Carmen, 
and Rev. J. J. Stubbs, splendid gaillardias, 
golden coreopsis and the dazzling Lychnis 
chalcedonica, or scarlet lightning, will com¬ 
plete a group whose coloring and form 
is rich enough to hold its own with the 
extremes of July. 
If the garden has none of these things 
for this summer, it is just now the time 
to set about providing them for next; for 
July is the month for making a seed bed 
and starting perennials from seed. Locate 
such a bed anywhere that will be conveni¬ 
ent and not too much in evidence, yet 
not likely to be forgotten on a busy day. 
If it is in partial shade it will need no pro¬ 
tection from the sun, but if it is not — if 
the sun shines full upon it any time be¬ 
tween the hours of 9 A. M. and 4 P. M. — 
a lath screen must be made to stand over 
it and protect the seedlings—for they can¬ 
not endure, even for a little while, the 
heat of the July sun. Such a screen is 
very desirable too as a protection from 
hard driving rains. 
Spade up the bed and break up the soil 
well; then raise its surface from three 
to five inches above the surface of the 
ground around by topping it with a fine, 
mellow, soft soil. If this can be screened, 
so much the better. After the bed is raked 
and smoothed and made perfectly level, 
wet it down thoroughly and all the way 
through; put on the screen if the sun is 
shining; and leave it for twenty-four 
hours. By the end of this time the sur¬ 
face will have dried enough to be ready 
for planting. Put the seeds in, in shallow 
drills, as directed on each packet, in rows 
about three inches apart. Cover them 
with earth to about twice or three times 
their own depth, press this lightly down 
with a float, and water the surface all 
over with a fine sprayer. 
Keep the screen on during the daytime, 
but leave it off nights unles it is raining 
or likely to. And keep the bed as evenly 
moist as possible. When the seedlings are 
up and distinguishable from weeds, thin 
Gaillardias, always favorite summer flowers, 
are to be had in a variety of colors 
them out to two inches apart. They may 
then go on growing here until you are 
ready to put them into their permanent 
quarters — which will be about the time 
they are from three to four inches in 
height. 
A Green Fertilizer 
T.F your garden soil is not satisfactory, 
A try sowing the seed of crimson clover 
in all spaces made vacant by the flowers or 
vegetables that have “gone by.” Let this 
grow until you are ready to turn over the 
soil of the garden in the fall, when it is to 
be turned under, too. It supplies both 
humus and nitrogen very easily and sim¬ 
ply, and is a treatment that may be used 
on a small scale or a very large one. 
Roses and Pruning 
RIM back the hybrid perpetual roses 
as soon as they are through blos¬ 
soming, to g'et a good showing of flowers 
later on. Cut the weak-growing ones 
back severely, the stronger growers mod¬ 
erately ; this, of course, provides more new 
growth — or stimulates it, more properly 
speaking. And this means more flowers. 
Of course, spraying must be kept up 
every week, however well the plants may 
look and may be. It is the constant vig¬ 
ilance in guarding against the possibilities 
of disease getting a hold, that counts. 
Use Bordeaux mixture in combination 
with arsenate of lead as one spray; and, 
independent of this, use a soap wash to 
keep down aphids if they appear. The 
Bordeaux is a preventive fungicide, while 
the arsenate of lead is directed against the 
slugs, rose bugs and anything which may 
have taken up residence with the intent to 
eat the plant itself — but neither will make 
any impression upon an aphid! 
The Weed Danger 
Y careful and persistent work you may 
have got your garden at last clear 
and free of weeds, and be, as you have 
cause to be, very proud of the result. 
Look out, however, that the weeds do not 
out-flank you by coming up and going to 
seed in out of the way and inconspicuous 
places. Keep every corner, the empty 
spaces along the walls, the rich soil around 
heaps of refuse and especially on the 
ground where crops have gone by but 
where the soil has not yet been spaded or 
plowed up, just as free from these in¬ 
truders as you do your garden itself. 
Many of them may be killed by cutting 
them off close to the ground when they 
have attained considerable size; others are 
not so easily disposed of, and when you 
think you have got the best of them by 
cutting off their heads, they will simply 
throw off side-shoots near the ground and 
where they are likely to escape your notice 
and seed there as freely as ever. Be 
especially on your guard against that hot- 
weather pest, purslane, which seems to 
thrive vitally on the very driest soil and in 
the driest weather, absorbing every par¬ 
ticle of moisture there is available. 
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